Wetlands and Flooding
This is a critical path concern that needs to be evaluated by experienced engineers & environmental/legal consultants. We remain optimistic a path forward can be found for such an important historical site. We are simply providing for now all that we know – just preliminary information gathered from the Dutchess Co. parcel access system. The top of the map is North. Route 9 (Albany Post Rd. or Mill Street as it runs through town) is to the left. Crystal Lake is to the top right.
In late August 2011, tropical storm Irene hit the area (It was degraded from a hurricane when it reached NJ/NY. It was still categorized as a once-in-a-hundred-year storm). Like most nearby communities, Rhinebeck was unprepared, and floodwaters went out of control. Click on picture to see video. While the town has since engineered what they think is a solution to mitigate this type of damage again (they rebuilt the dam and installed two flood control valves to pre-drain the lake), we’ll need to make sure the mill is properly engineered. It may actually need to be placed further back on the hill if it can’t be insured (this is a designated floodplain). Video source: a since removed Youtube video, author unknown. A similar video is still up: (201) Irene – Rhinebeck, NY – YouTube Keep in mind that water powered mills throughout history were always susceptible to flooding like this due to their locations. They always needed to be designed with structural integrity in mind. As far as we know, the original mill (with its subsequent modifications) sat on this site for over 149 years.