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       #Post#: 7--------------------------------------------------
       Erie Canal Embankment Inspections
   DIR By: Doug K
       Date: June 16, 2018, 2:34 pm
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       I'm not an Erie Canal Trail (ECT) Embankment Inspector, but I
       can sympathize with how hard their job is. After almost a
       quarter century of looking,  we've finally found the leak on our
       own property, all thanks to The Vegetation/Remediation Project
       started in late 2017 with Phase 1 removal of large vegetation.
       It allowed us to finally see this leak..looking upwards from the
       Toe of Slope.
       The primary purpose of Canal Walkers (those paid by NYCC) has
       been to identify potential issues along the ETC, mark them &
       report location back to the Maintenance Crew for further
       investigation or repair. They look for standing water, animal
       burrows & other signs of potential safety issues. We've watched
       them pass our own property for years, marking where the
       woodchucks live among all the trees & brush. Most times they
       could only look about 4' down from the ECT, the rest is too
       shadowed for a proper inspection.
       The video & photos I've included are of a marked, registered
       Erie Canal leak at Mile marker 278.10. The stake at the top is
       seen in one photo, and a pond flows northward in the distance.
       That pond was a project of mine several years back to manage the
       water issues on our own property...so wet we sank in the ground
       5 months of the year. I was told back in the 1990s it was NOT a
       canal issue, that was changed in 2017 when NY Power Authority
       took over the Canal Corporation to a marked, active leak.
       This is called a managed leak, it's caused by piping, several
       very old trees rotted on the bank and now the roots are weeping
       water from the canal through the Embankment and out into the
       drainage ditch along the bottom of the slope. It is driven by
       water table & the canal filling cycle. Most times its wet, but
       this past Spring I saw the leak running and captured the video
       for the NYCC.
       For those who think the message of Unsafe Embankments & 100 year
       old Dam that sorely needs repair IMMEDIATELY is untrue or some
       scare tactic used by the Canal Corporation to push their project
       through all I can say is the threat is real. We also have two
       other smaller piping issues which are still subterranean but
       showing signs of more flow... we have wet areas and no rain to
       account for them, a sure sign of a leak.
       Video Link to the Leak
  HTML https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fEFc6eFAHsNc8abVDQAmEHfZtWdApkEk/view?usp=drivesdk
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