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DEC asks for $150,000 capital adjustment to cover Waterbury Dam overruns, outlines dam-safety priorities
Summary
The Department of Environmental Conservation told the Institutions Committee it needs a $150,000 capital adjustment to finish Waterbury Dam tunnel and penstock work and to replenish an instrumentation line; DEC described a multi-year dam safety pipeline and said the $150,000 would be split $100,000 for overruns and $50,000 to backfill instrumentation.
Ben Green, section chief of the Department of Environmental Conservation's Dam Safety Program, told the Institutions Committee on Jan. 28 that DEC is requesting a $150,000 capital adjustment to complete the Waterbury Dam tunnel and penstock project and to restore an instrumentation line reduced earlier to cover immediate costs.
"We were originally planning to pull $1,000,000 from fiscal year 23 to fund this and $130,000 from fiscal year 26," Green said in outlining how pacing across fiscal years has moved funds between projects. He said the $150,000 request would return $50,000 to the instrumentation installation budget (bringing it back toward the original $400,000 allocation) and leave about $100,000 to cover unexpected overruns at Waterbury.
The adjustment request is tied to ongoing inspection and cleanup work inside the Waterbury penstocks and tunnel, Green said. DEC reported crews discovered unexpected weld configurations and other interior conditions that required additional preparation, weld testing and confined-space work. The department also cited weather- and drought-related complications that extended the schedule and increased costs.
"Every time we enter the penstock, it's a confined-space entry," Green said. "We found some unexpected conditions in the penstocks. It extended the duration and required additional testing of the welds." He estimated the overall tunnel and penstock project at roughly $1.8 million and said the $150,000 would be sufficient to cover remaining overruns, though DEC is still awaiting final invoices.
The committee pressed for clarity on the accounting: members asked which fiscal years the original appropriations came from and whether the funds were bonds or cash. Green said the $3,115,000 figure in Act 180 of 2022 reflects bond appropriations used across FY22–FY23 and that DEC has been reallocating across years to match project pacing.
The instrumentation line had been reduced to $350,000 when DEC temporarily transferred $50,000 to keep Waterbury work moving. Green said the requested $150,000 would let the department 'put the $50,000 back' into instrumentation and leave $100,000 targeted to the Waterbury overruns.
DEC also described related projects and the program workflow: risk assessment, comprehensive assessment, final design and permitting, then rehabilitation construction. Green said six comprehensive assessments are underway (Crystal Lake, Kent Pond, Lowell Lake, two Knapp Pond sites and Fulton Pond) and that some projects are already under contract with external engineers, including GEI and Parr Engineering.
Committee members asked for follow-up detail on invoices and encumbrances so they could verify remaining balances before any formal appropriation action. No vote or formal committee approval of the $150,000 was recorded in the session.
What happens next: DEC indicated it will provide updated accounting and invoices to the committee; the department said certain federal partnerships (including a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers match for Wrightsville work) are moving forward but that the Waterbury tunnel/penstock work will remain a DEC-managed capital request.
