Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Projects

Serene landscape: river flows through green hills

Wayne County in partnership with the New York State REDI program has committed to working together on addressing resiliency shoreline issues and has been in the process of choosing priority projects across the County since June 2019. The Wayne County Project Profiles provides a full overview of the projects chosen for Wayne County.

Wayne County Soil & Water Conservation District (WCSWCD) is working in collaboration with Wayne County as a general contractor to address shoreline resiliency needs for the Port Bay Barrier Bar System and the Blind Sodus Bay Bluff and Barrier Bar System. Crescent Beach is being facilitated by Wayne County Public Works Superintendent, Kevin Rooney. We have connected links on to the district’s website for easy access to information on three similar projects. Use the navigation on the menu or at the bottom of this page for links to area REDI Projects.

Program Goals & Process

The NYS REDI Commission has laid out milestones to aid every project in success. For more information on the process of this program, click here: Project Implementation Guidance for Local Project Owners

The two projects the District is collaborating on have been reviewed and a 10% Professional Engineering Report (PER) was submitted to the REDI Commission on February 14, 2020 in conjunction with O’Brien & Gere/Ramboll engineering team. The reports were reviewed by the varying State and Federal Partners to address the needs of current shoreline regulation, gaps of information needed and potential opportunities for the project. The initial reports are meant to guide the continued design and research process for these projects which will continue in the coming months/years. Both the Port Bay Improvement Association and the Blind Sodus Bay Improvement Association will be working collaboratively to continue the outreach to the general membership.

Initial Engineering Reports Please Note: These are not complete engineering designs or plans for either of these projects.

Other Resources:
https://www.governor.ny.gov/programs/lake-ontario-resiliency-and-economic-development-initiative-redi
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news

REDI Projects in Wayne County, NY

Port Bay REDI Project

The Port Bay REDI project goes back to the 2014 partnership kick-off between Port Bay Improvement Association and the District. Now realities of 2021 and the Resiliency Economic Development Initiative (REDI) has 27 partners made up of State, Local and Non-profits are working together to find a balanced approach to the barrier bar system under the most current Lake Level Management plan (Lake Action Management Plan) in hopes of building resiliency for both economic and environmental sustainability.

Below are the most recently developed documents to support this project that began in January of 2020 and has worked through all the turmoil of a pandemic. These REDI projects have milestones and a guidance document to guide the actions of the planning process.

The first milestone was the 10% Professional Engineer Report due February 2020 that was recommended by RAMBOLL Engineering, as the State had advanced this project as a priority to expedite the review of the potential scenarios. This report was finalized in April. At the same time, the District was also reviewing the other project assigned at Blind Sodus Bay and realized quickly it was imperative to address the specific project needs.

Bergmann Associates were selected after a thorough procurement process and fortunate enough their professional engineers had previous knowledge with

the East Barrier Bar Report completed in 2018 (Bergmann Report) in partnership with NYSDEC, Great Lakes Program. The report outlined many science-based scenarios that would aid in the redevelopment of the bar through an adaptive management process. However, the Bergmann Report didn’t cover the channel or the western bar which is also included in the REDI project. For this reason, additional study and review of these other areas were needed to come up with an alternatives analysis that would meet the needs of the regulatory review for environmental safety and security.

The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) is a stipulation enacted by the state of New York that all local and state government agencies must uniformly reflect the environmental impacts when considering taking social and/or economic factors into action. Read more about the SEQRA process (Click here).

The District is proud to announce, the consultant team at Bergmann Associates, agency partners at NYS Department of Office of General Services (OGS), NYS Department of State (DOS), NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Dormitory Authority of NYS (DASNY) – the funder, the REDI Commission, Port Bay Improvement Association and the District have completed the final part of the SEQRA Act requirements for environmental equality and are now working through scenario modeling with a goal of completing 90% by the end of 2021.

(All links open in new tabs)

Port Bay REDI Project 65% Materials

Port Bay REDI Project Questions & Answers Document

Comments may be made on this project by emailing Ron Thorn, District Manager, at Ron@wayneNYswcd.org; Subject line: REDI Port Bay Comments. These questions will be answered in 5-7 business days and will then be transferred to a continuing Q & A Document to continue to share good questions with the public on the project.

Blind Sodus Bay REDI Project: Click to View

Click to view Story Board (opens in new window) Blind Sodus Bay REDI Project Story Map direct link

Blind Sodus Bay Eastern Bar REDI Project

The District is proud to announce, the consultant teams, agency partners at NYS Department of Office of General Services (OGS), NYS Department of State (DOS), NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Dormitory Authority of NYS (DASNY) – the funder, the REDI Commission, Blind Sodus Bay Improvement Association and the District have completed the final part of the SEQRA Act requirements for environmental equality and are now working through scenario modeling with a goal of completing 90% by the end of 2021.

Click on the story board left for a full project synopsis.

Documents
FALL 2022 – WINTER 2023 Project Updates.
FALL 2020 – WINTER 2020 Project Updates.
Blind Sodus Bay Eastern Barrier Bar SEQR

Blind Sodus Bay Western Bluff REDI Project: Wayne County Soil & Water Conservation District

Blind Sodus Bay Western Bluff concerns stemmed from the increased storm intensities impacting erosion along the western bluffs and increased wave run up after the change to the lake level management plan. This was just the beginning. Coupled with the increased water levels from 2017-2019 and the intensity of the storm events, the erosion rate increased significantly mainly due to wind and precipitation.

The summer 2016, Lynn Chatfield, Town Supervisor of Wolcott, reached out to the District to see if there were opportunities to address the increased erosion rate over the winter season, while the Town worked on a longer-term plan. The District utilized hydroseeding technology with a hydro blanket to coat over 120 feet of the bluff face, which lasted almost 4 months through the tough winter season with funding from the Finger Lakes Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance (FLLOWPA) to pay for this critical area seeding effort as an aid to water quality.

Blind Sodus Bay REDI project. Click to read the story of the project.

Pre-Blind Sodus Bay Redi project

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The Town, in cooperation with MRB Group, was successful in grant writing to be able to protect the sewer main and 220 feet of the bluff face with a vertical gabion wall. These funds came from both Federal and State sources. The initial project was completed in the 4th quarter of 2019.

At the same time, the increasing storm systems were eroding away the protective barrier bar to the Blind Sodus Bay beginning in 2017 and finally completely washing away in 2019 high water; directly impacting the homes around this waterbody. Several of the homes on the eastern side of Blind Sodus Bay lost significant amounts of land due to the Lake Ontario like waves in the Bay. While individual landowners scrambled to find the protection, the impact of the waves and wind continued; losing trees and additional land due to sluffing.

During that time, the REDI initiative was prioritizing projects. The REDI Commission and local leadership, including the Town and Blind Sodus Bay Improvement Association, prioritized and ranked many shoreline projects that have an economic and environmental impact on the community.

Wayne County agreed to take on the project, November 2019 and contracted with Wayne County Soil & Water Conservation District to manage the project due to the partial private and partial State-owned land affiliated with the project.

In 2020, the first milestone was the 10% Professional Engineer Report that was recommended by RAMBOLL Engineering, Rochester, (the company awarded by New York State Office of General Services (NYSGOS) for a flood resiliency report.) This report advanced the project as a priority to expedite the review of the potential scenarios. This report was finalized in April. The district was also reviewing the other project assigned at Port Bay and realized quickly it was imperative to address the specific project needs.
The district was proud to announce, the consultant teams, agency partners at NYS Department of Office of General Services (OGS), NYS Department of State (DOS), NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Dormitory Authority of NYS (DASNY) – the funder.
The REDI Commission, Blind Sodus Bay Improvement Association and the District have completed the final part of the SEQRA Act requirements for environmental equality and worked through the scenario modeling and completed at the end of 2021.
2021- July the Western Bluff REDI project designed by MRB Group was approved.
In July 2022 the District submitted its Joint Application.pdf to the DEC and USACE and obtained approval in September.
In late September 2022 the contract was bid, and Martin’s Tidesides was awarded the contract for the western bluff and work began shortly after.
The hope is by Memorial Day 2022 the bluff vegetation/erosion control will be seeded.

Documents:

The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) is a stipulation enacted by the state of New York that all local and state government agencies must uniformly reflect the environmental impacts when considering taking social and/or economic factors into action. Read more about the SEQRA process (Click here)