Since our last report, the Buckingham Conservancy Steering Committee has been very busy gathering information, meeting with City officials, and formulating plans for the Conservancy’s governance and mission statement. While this may not seem to be a whole lot, the process has been slowed a bit by the fact that not one but several City departments and agencies are responsible for the various aspects of Buckingham Pond’s management, health, and daily life.

Since our last report, the Buckingham Conservancy Steering Committee has been very busy gathering information, meeting with City officials, and formulating plans for the Conservancy’s governance and mission statement. While this may not seem to be a whole lot, the process has been slowed a bit by the fact that not one but several City departments and agencies are responsible for the various aspects of Buckingham Pond’s management, health, and daily life. A draft mission statement and by-laws have been prepared and will be reviewed and hopefully finalized at the committee’s next meeting at the end of July. Once these are final we plan to bring them to the general membership for approval and formal election of officers this Fall once people are back from their summer vacations. Most recently Paula Martinez, a member of the steering committee, planted flowers supplied by the City Gardener in the containers along the path. Thanks Paula!

Meeting with DGS On June 8th, members of the steering committee met with Dan DiLillo, Asst. Commissioner of DGS and Tom Kelley, DGS. The meeting agenda involved specific topics surrounding the history and background of Buckingham Pond. Managing Algae Control/Copper sulfate/Sonar Application, testing and ensuring water quality, installing and maintaining fountains, installing and maintaining fences, stocking fish, maintaining the siltation basin, enhancing and protecting wildlife, adding new trees and other plantings, addressing erosion of the path, pond banks, parking lot, modifying traffic patterns, adding sidewalks, modifying traffic signage, maintaining and enhancing the playground, maintaining the pond and park in the winter – especially for skating, emptying trash cans, enforcing pooper scooper laws, and removing graffiti/addressing vandalism. If that sounds like a lot it is. Unfortunately, as a reinforcement of an earlier statement made in this update, not all of these items could be addressed by either Dan or Tom. However, these gentlemen were totally committed and extremely helpful in answering many of our concerns. They have already acted on items within their departments. For example, you may have noticed an attempt to reduce erosion at the parking lot by installing a new drain, and improvements to the path at the foot of Euclid coming down from New Scotland.

Meeting with the Water Department The most recent Steering Committee meeting was held July 13, 2009. John Kosa, Assistant Water Commissioner, Dan Hershberg, Consulting Engineer and Justin Schievelbein, responsible for Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer Systems were in attendance to answer questions about the Water Department’s role in maintaining the pond. The committee was treated to a very informative presentation by Dan Hershberg, Consulting Engineer for the City of Albany. Many previous and ongoing questions were addressed by Dan, John, and Justin at this meeting. The presentation can be accessed at http://www.buckinghampondconservancy.org/documents/HershbergPresentation7-13-09.pdf and includes interesting historical maps and photos of the pond. (It's a large file so it will take a minute to open or download.) In summary, Dan Hershberg reported that Buckingham Lake provides storage for storm water management. Buckingham Lake is a naturally shallow man-made water body, and the Lake was last dredged in 1977-78. In order to reduce sewer backups in several neighborhoods in Albany, the Water Department created the “Stilling Pond” west of the main pond in 1993/1994. Water from the “Stilling Pond” is pumped out of the basin to a drain along I85 and eventually into the Krumkill. The main pond itself no longer drains out through the city’s sewer system as the sewer connection on the East end now only allows water out of the pond in extreme flood situations. The water collected in the “Stilling Pond” at the West side of the pond (street runoff and storm sewer water) can and does flow into the Pond when the I85 route is over capacity. This adds to the “algae bloom” and other consequences resulting from poor water quality in the Pond.

Next Steps In addition to the critical organizational work (mission statement, bylaws, officers etc.), the Steering Committee plans to focus efforts on the water quality and ecology of Buckingham Pond. This issue is impacted by many of the actions taken as a result of the Storm Management Plan, specifically the Berkshire Boulevard Separation project conducted 1993-1995. The steering committee has asked the Water Dept. representatives to assist us in gathering or implementing a testing system to measure the water quality at the pond periodically. We are also seeking expert advice on the subject of water quality and how to manage it in light of the details surrounding the sewer separation project. If you are, or know, an expert on pond ecology who might be helpful to this effort, please have them get in touch with us as [email protected] At the same time, we now know that there are no less than six city and State departments that we will need to stay in close contact with in order to achieve the many goals of the original meeting held in January.

We will attempt to keep everyone updated through the website when there is something to report. One of the roles of the BPC will certainly be to share information and ideas between neighbors and city Departments. So please feel free to make suggestions either on the website www.buckinghampondconservancy.org or email [email protected]. The Steering Committee will be meeting again at the end of July in order to stay focused on all of these issues. [Remarks prepared by Harry Ermides & Anne Savage]