Mamaroneck Flood Mitigation Project To Move Forward: Schumer

MAMARONECK, NY — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he has received personal assurance that a key flood mitigation project in Westchester will now move forward.

The Senate Majority Leader said he has made a personal call to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Shalanda Young to urge the agency to greenlight the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake River Flood Risk Management Project. The project has been stalled for the past two years by the Trump administration based on faulty analysis, according to Schumer, despite strong support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“The past administration bottled up this vital flood mitigation project in OMB jail based on faulty logic and I called the Acting director Young to bust that logjam,”Schumer said in a statement announcing the progress on the project. “I am pleased to report that OMB agreed to move forward with the project, which brings us a step closer to getting shovels in the ground.”

In the days following the historic flooding in Mamaroneck, New York's highest elected officials at the federal, state and local levels converged on Mamaroneck to demand that a flood management project along the Sheldrake and Mamaroneck rivers be fast-tracked.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to deepen and widen the rivers, as well as constructing retaining walls and diversion culverts, remains at issue. The plans which also call for the replacement of two bridges that restrict water flow were abruptly shelved last year by Trump administration officials shortly before leaving office.

Calling the move a "mendacious act by a president who didn't care," Schumer was joined by Governor Kathy Hochul, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, County Executive George Latimer and Mayor Tom Murphy to call for the project to once again move forward.

“Since the last raindrop fell I have been advocating for our community to finally get the Army Corps of Engineers plan funded for Mamaroneck," Village of Mamaroneck Mayor Tom Murphy said. "We were very close in 2018 to the plan coming to fruition, then the previous administration pulled the rug out from under us. I thank Senator Schumer for making this personal call to the top official at OMB so we can cut right through the red tape of the past and finally move forward in putting the project back on track with the current administration in Washington.”

Recovery in the Village of Mamaroneck continues in the wake of Ida's destruction. (Jeff Edwards | Patch)

Schumer said his visit to Mamaroneck to survey the damage in the wake of Post-Tropical Storm Ida was eye-opening. He recounted disadvantaged residents living in the project zone who said 14 feet of water flooded their neighborhoods, forcing them to evacuate their homes and seek shelter in the dead of night.

There were over 150 water rescues, 535 flooded homes, 1,000 people displaced and 310 abandoned cars. The Village of Mamaroneck has reported over $18 million in damages and over $75 million in residential and commercial damage.

Five Westchester residents lost their lives in the flooding, including one in Mamaroneck bringing the total number of people who have died in Mamaroneck as a result of the recurring flooding to three in the past 25 years. This is a loss of lives Schumer hopes could be prevented in the future.

"It should be a top priority of the current administration to greenlight the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake River Flood Risk Management Project," Schumer said, in part. "People are dying as a result of severe flooding in New York and the federal government should and must do everything in its power to mitigate flood risk and save lives."