Board of Supervisors of Ontario County v. Water Power & Control Commission

227 A.D. 345, 238 N.Y.S. 55, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6435
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedNovember 20, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 227 A.D. 345 (Board of Supervisors of Ontario County v. Water Power & Control Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Supervisors of Ontario County v. Water Power & Control Commission, 227 A.D. 345, 238 N.Y.S. 55, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6435 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Hill, J.

The city of Rochester has petitioned the Water Power and Control Commission of the State to approve its project for an additional water supply and the acquiring of land therefor. The city plans to take Honeoye lake and creek, together, with uplands in Ontario county which will receive the drainage from one hundred and eighty-seven square miles. A dam eight hundred feet long and sixty feet high is to be built across Honeoye creek valley forming a reservoir having a water surface of twelve and a half square miles. This will entirely submerge Honeoye lake. Also, it is planned to utilize Mud or Ganargua creek, a tributary of the Oswego river, its watershed being east of that of Honeoye lake. A diverting dam and tunnel will be built by which the water will be conveyed to the proposed Honeoye reservoir. The Mud creek drainage area is about thirty-two square miles. The [347]*347combined project will furnish substantially 70,000,000 gallons of water per day. The source of the present city owned water supply of Rochester is Hemlock and Canadice lakes, located partly in Livingston and partly in Ontario counties. The water from Hemlock lake is conducted twenty-seven miles through a pipe line to Cobb’s Hill reservoir in the city of Rochester. The water from the Honeoye reservoir will be conveyed eighteen miles by pipe line to the same reservoir.

The tract of land to be taken is more than fifteen miles long and three miles wide, being nearly half of three townships, and 2,700 acres from another. The villages of Honeoye and Richmond Mills will be submerged. The habitations of nearly 1,700 people will be affected. This does not include summer homes and camps. Nine miles of highway will be submerged, and an equal amount made nearly useless. Some of the towns will be cut in half by the reservoir. Private and municipal business, as well as the school, church and social life of those dwelling in the vicinity of the project will be interfered with. It is estimated that there will be an expenditure of nearly $23,000,000.

In 1925 the population of Rochester was 316,000 and the assessed valuation of taxable property $522,453,327. In 1926 more than 28.000. 000 gallons of water were used daily. For thirty years there has been an average flow of 32,000,000 gallons daily from the present source, but the safe yield in drouth periods does not exceed 26.000. 000 gallons. The level of Hemlock lake has been raised recently, making available a safe yield of 30,000,000 gallons. The present source will furnish a reasonable margin of safety until 1930 only, if the normal increase of population continues. The health and safety, not only of the residents of that city, but of travelers temporarily there, require an additional source of water.

The Water Power and Control Commission, after many hearings, taking of much evidence and the receipt of many exhibits, from which the foregoing facts and many others appear, gave a conditional approval of the project. The Commission suggested or required that the city seek to have enacted an amendment to the Conservation Law which would permit and require payment of indirect damages. The Commission, after reciting the disarrangement of business and social life, said that “ such interference with and changes in the properties and method of living of these people will result in damages to them of many kinds, which will not be limited to the ordinary direct damages for which the general laws of the State now provide a method of determination and require compensation,” and recommended a statute similar to that which now applies to the city of New York in its water supply projects. [348]*348The Commission adjourned for a sufficient period to permit the legislation to be enacted. The amendment is now chapter 862 of the Laws of 1928 (adding to Conservation Law, §§ 526-529). Further hearings on damages only were held and the Commission gave its final approval. The entire proceeding is now before this court on a certiorari order.

The Water Power and Control Commission of the Conservation Department is authorized by law to approve or reject applications for additional water supply. It is to determine “ whether the plans proposed are justified by public necessity, whether they provide for the proper and safe construction of all work connected therewith, whether they provide for the proper protection of the supply and the watershed from contamination or provide for the proper filtration of such additional supply, and whether such plans are just and equitable to the other municipalities and civil divisions of the State affected thereby and to the inhabitants thereof, particular consideration being given to their present and future necessities for sources of water supply, and whether such plans make fair and equitable provisions for the determination and payment of any and all legal damages to persons and property, both direct and indirect, which will result from the execution of said plans or the acquiring of said lands.” (Conservation Law, § 523.)

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Bluebook (online)
227 A.D. 345, 238 N.Y.S. 55, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-supervisors-of-ontario-county-v-water-power-control-commission-nyappdiv-1929.