Stream Program

The Schuyler County Stream Program was developed through the cooperative efforts of the Schuyler County Legislature, the Schuyler County Soil and Water Conservation District and various local municipalities within the County. The program was initiated in response to severe storms and flooding in the mid-nineties that created a crisis for many of the county’s landowners. The purpose of the stream program is to provide cost share funds and technical assistance for stream restoration and streambank protection projects with the ultimate goal of protecting water quality and reducing future losses of public and private property from streambank erosion and flooding.

A committee consisting of 3 voting members and several advisory members administers the Stream Program. The voting members are: one representative from the Schuyler County Legislature; one representative of the eight Town Supervisors within the county; and one representative from the Schuyler County Soil and Water Conservation District. Advisory members are representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Superintendents of the County and Town Highway Departments and Superintendents of Pubic Works from each village.

A fund for countywide projects has been established by the County Legislature and is administered by the Soil and Water Conservation District. Contributions from the Towns are in the form of cash or in-kind contributions. Landowners participating in the program must pay their share of the cost of the project prior to the project start. Generally the share is one half the cost of the project unless the Town participates in which case the share is one third of the project cost.

The stream committee reviews submitted project applications and ranks them according to a priority system. Projects occurring in first order streams are referred to as Priority 1 projects and are funded first. First order streams are defined as those streams that appear as a blue line on a USGS topographic map. Projects occurring within identifiable streams that do not appear on a USGS topographic map are considered Priority 2 and projects occurring within drainage ways not generally recognized as streams are identified as Priority 3. Projects are further ranked within each priority group based on what is being protected by the project.