Scudder's Pond Restoration Project for Village of Sea Cliff and Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York

摘要

The main pond was created in 1905 by damming the stream course that ran through wetlands into Hempstead Harbor. The pond system changed little during the first half of this century. Its degradation began in the early 1950s with the clearing of a large estate on the north side of the watershed. Heavy rains over steep slopes transported much sediment into the upper and lower ponds. About this time the concrete dam of the upper pond was destroyed, allowing the free flow of silt into Scudder's Pond and construction of new homes along Littleworth Lane produced even more sediment. The apparent reason for the condition of the aquatic system is the excessive sediment load carried by storm water runoff. Land use in the watershed (i.e., excavation, construction, paving) has exposed sediment to weathering and no forms of mitigation were in effect. In 1980 the pond was dredged changing the pond's depth from 2 feet to 4 1/2 feet and its surface area from 1.5 acres to 1.8 acres. Two methods of treating storm water runoff were considered but the cost-benefit ratio of both were very low and neither were implemented.