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Uncovering an Urban River
NEIWPCC Partnership Helps Restore Habitat in Yonkers
By Susy King, NEIWPCC
If you were to visit the Saw Mill River at its headwaters in Chappaqua, N.Y., you would see a relatively healthy river. But visit the Saw Mill River at its mouth in Yonkers, N.Y., and you see no river at all. What you see instead is a parking lot. For nearly a century, the last half mile of the Saw Mill before it empties into the Hudson River has been buried underground. Soon, however, construction will begin on a project to bring portions of the river into daylight again. And with a little help from NEIWPCC, the river sections will not only be seen, they will also boast healthy and thriving ecosystems.
While it is hard to understand why anyone would want to bury a river in the first place, the area’s history offers some explanation. The Saw Mill River is located in New York’s Westchester County, and it was integral to the development of Yonkers, the state’s fourth largest city. One of the first saw mills outside of Europe was established in Yonkers along the river, turning the city into a major industrial center (and giving the river its name). In the early 20th century, as Yonkers was rapidly expanding, the decision was made to cover the portion of the river that passed through the city’s downtown. With the help of the Army Corps of Engineers, the subterranean route was completed in 1922, and the Saw Mill’s final stretch has been out of sight ever since.
In the next two years, however, the City of Yonkers will open up the river in two locations, constituting one of the most significant so-called “daylighting” projects in the country. While an impressive undertaking, the project has been lacking in plans for habitat restoration. To truly restore the river and go beyond simply an urban renewal endeavor, it is critical that a comprehensive habitat restoration plan drive the final engineering and planning efforts for the riverbanks.
To develop such a plan, you need funding. And that was missing—until this year. How it came to pass requires an understanding of one of NEIWPCC’s more recent affiliations: since 2003, we have maintained a partnership with the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (NY-NJ HEP) through which we manage the program’s Habitat Restoration Planning Grants. These grants do not support actual habitat restoration, but rather the development of a restoration plan that must be completed prior to restoration work. Grants are awarded through a competitive process and selected by a review team made up of representatives of state and federal agencies with expertise in habitat restoration in the NY-NJ HEP region.
In 2008, the grant recipient was Groundwork Yonkers, which is a chapter of the Groundwork USA network of not-for-profit businesses that work with communities to improve their environment, economy, and quality of life through local action. Groundworks Yonkers received $75,000 for integrating habitat restoration into the Saw Mill daylighting project, and the money came in the nick of time. Final engineering and hydrology designs for the daylighting project are being developed right now, with construction likely to begin in late 2009 or early 2010. While the City of Yonkers and other partners in the daylighting project are fully committed to incorporating habitat restoration, they need a plan. Thanks to the grant, they will get one. The Saw Mill River Coalition, a Groundwork Yonkers program, is leading the development of the habitat restoration plans, and they should be completed before construction begins.
What exactly will the plans call for? That remains to be seen, but in the grant application, the developers committed to designing projects to promote habitat connections and fish passage between the two areas of the river that are going to be opened up. There will be projects for incorporating environmental education into the new public park that will be created by the daylighting project, and for communicating news about this nationally significant river restoration effort through many outlets. Ways to effect and influence the habitat restoration work in the upriver section of the daylighting project, which is being carried out by private developers, will also be identified.
Once the habitat restoration plan is complete, the recommendations will be included as construction begins on the daylighting project. This will ensure that the project results in not only an attractive urban landscape, but also a functional habitat for many species of flora and fauna. The last leg of the Saw Mill River, hidden from view for so long, will be on display again—and should be quite a sight to see.
Susy King (sking@neiwpcc.org) is a NEIWPCC environmental analyst and the coordinator of our partnership with the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program.