Many people have been stunned by all the work going on with the NY Canal Corporation Embankment Integrity Program... some even still insist this is just a way for New York State to get money.. selling the trees they cut...  on fact they named themselves after that process.

All of this Erie Canal embankment work has been a long time coming from what the ECNA has uncovered recently. As far back as the year 2014, the NY State Comptroller has been sounding the alarm bell on the Erie Canal... here's some interesting information recently uncovered:

Here's the website of the NY State Comptroller:

The actual report that this NYS watchdog Office did about the state of the Erie Canal in 2014:

https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093015/14s45.htm

https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093015/14s45.pdf

We have put the highlights from that initial 2014-S-45 here:





As you can see the 2014 S-45 report states clearly that the NY Canal Corporation, under the NYS Thruway Authority, has NOT followed "best practices" for it's inspection & maintenance of the Erie Canal System. This is what led to the eventual change of ownership to the New York Power Authority. Once notified about the issues the Thruway Authority was supposed to start inspecting the Erie Canal system correctly and fixing the safety issues. The NY Thruway authority had an initial response to these findings but seem to highlight the COST part of the report

https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/90day/14s45r.pdf

Sadly they could NOT accomplish their routine inspections due to the overgrown mess they had created. They didn't have the budget or resources to even make any progress a whole year after the Comptrollers's report came out. Eventually the Canal Corporation was given to the Power Authority and that is where we are today.

Here's a follow up report from the same department issued in January 2017. This is 2016-F-20 and it's outlining what had happened from the 2014-15 release of the initial Erie Canal Issues Report to that time, noting that the new ownership transfer was in process.

https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093017/16f20.htm

What is interesting to note is the response documents from the NEW owners.. New York Power Authority... they immediately understood the issues and created an action plan that they outlined to the State Comptroller.

https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/90day/16f20r.pdf

Here's what that response looked like:





Hopefully you enjoyed a walk down memory lane for this Embankment Program.. it was meant to be more of that ECNA mortar filling in the spaces of the program, how it got to EERP and now to the new Embankment Integrity Program.

A letter by Mr Justin Driscoll to Mr John Buyce   ---

https://ecna.createaforum.com/general-discussion/erie-canal-embankment-issues-are-not-a-new-problem-uncovered-2014-nys-report/msg382/#msg382

--- outlines a plan to remove trees and shrubs from the embankments, and also to employee Dam Safety Employees. These positions have been proved difficult to fill because there is a limited supply of qualified individuals, and private sector salaries are generally higher.

In this very specialized field, I would have thought there were plenty of experts, as we seem to get so much advice from Ms Agte & Maier and her supporters. Obviously, the NYPA didn't think their knowledge was up to par, otherwise they'd have hired them.

I jest of course!

Sad!  Very sad!