Stakeholders’ Advisory Working Group
Environmental Group Meeting #5,
November 29, 2007

The Transit Mode Analysis Environmental SAWG meeting #5 on the topics of Transit Mode Analysis and River Ecology was held on October 29th, 2007 at Holiday Inn, Suffern, NY. View minutes of the meeting here (PDF, 46 KB).

The presentation can be viewed in the following formats:

Bob Lavarie (NYSDOT) stated that this SAWG, the fifth of this group, is – like all the others – intended to foster two-way communications. He then introduced Jim Coyle (ET), who made the first presentation.

The presentation addressed the reason for conducting a transit mode analysis, the alternatives studies and the evaluation criteria used in the transit mode analysis.

The study began with identification of the criteria to be used. The analysis performed in Stage 1 was updated to extend the study period to 2035 from the original end date of 2025. New options identified by the public were also added.

The modal evaluation criteria are intended to focus on the travel behavior of each alternative.

The transportation criteria are grouped into four categories: ridership, congestion, roadway capacity and travel times.

Environmental criteria look at whether the alternatives would be consistent with land use plans, the need to acquire land or relocate existing uses and the potential for transit oriented development.

The measures are not just the number of each of these criteria, but some assessment of the relative significance of each. For instance, some wetlands are less significant than others, some historic structures are more important. So, these criteria are both qualitative and quantitative.

One of the key criteria is the Hudson River habitat, which relates to the construction impacts as well as longer term impacts. The energy impacts in terms of energy savings or lack of savings will also be measured.

The cost criteria include not just capital and operating costs but revenues. A key measure to the FTA is the cost per passenger and passenger mile. Overall travel time benefits are also included in these criteria.  

---

2nd Half of Presentation

Jim Coyle introduced Mark Moese (ET) after the previous slide. This presentation focused on providing an overview of the Hudson River biological sampling program. Mark Moese reviewed each of the  individual sampling programs as well as presented some preliminary results.

The objective of the sampling program is to gather data to describe the existing environment, provide data to analyze impacts and for use in future permit applications.

Meetings were held with various regulatory agencies to discuss the sampling program and develop the protocols that are now being used in the program.

The fish sampling work is guided by three permits, two of which deal with the handling of the endangered shortnose sturgeon.

The benthic community consists of organisms that live on or near the bottom of the river, which are important food organisms for fish.

The benthic sampling is performed bimonthly at 41 sampling stations along three transects and three other specific locations. These locations were selected to evaluate the area near the existing bridge, the area along the new bridge alignment and at locations where other work may be performed.

The benthic organisms are sampled using a Van Veen Grab, pictured here.

The sediment samples are then sieved in the field; what remains on the screen is placed in a sample jar, preserved and then shipped to a laboratory for identification.

This slide shows typical benthic organisms: a worm, amphipod (shrimp-like); May fly larvae; and oysters.

For the first three sampling periods, March, May and July, the average and maximum “numbers” of benthic species has remained the same.

This illustration, however illustrates that the numbers of individual organisms increase due to increases in reproduction over the same three sampling periods.

The sampling program targeted the blue claw crabs. We used baited traps, hand lines and our gill nets were effective in collecting crabs. Crabs are found throughout all water depths, and 80 percent are of legal size.

This pier evaluation was not a structural evaluation but was performed to evaluate the level of marine growth on the piers and to determine if this is valuable habitat.

The pier was video taped and the surface sampled by a diver.

Six pier locations for the video and sampling were selected based on depth; the type of pier structure, and the construction material of the pier. The whole perimeter of each pier was examined to determine the extent of biological growth on each pier.

The species listed here are typical of what one would expect to see, except for the invasive Asian isopod. The oysters were found in deeper areas of the river.

Submerged aquatic vegetation is an important type of habitat for fish in the near shore waters, providing food and protection for young fish.

This was a one-time sampling event along the shoreline and in and around the existing bridge out to the 6-foot contour.

This slide shows the areas sampled. The only SAV found was inside the Tarrytown marina and just south of the Nyack marina. Both locations the size of the SAV bed were less that 20 x 20 feet.

The largest sampling program is the fish survey effort.

The surveys are performed bi-monthly using acoustic methods, gill nets, and traps. The acoustic sampling method allows scientists to examine the pier areas in a level of detail that could not be accomplished with gill nets or traps.

The slide shows a typical vessel used to conduct a bathymetric survey. Bathymetric surveys measure the depths of a body of water.

This slide shows the acoustic survey lines as well as the direction the transducer faced.

The April acoustic results indicate that the fish were congregated in the deeper areas of the river with the largest number in the navigation channel.

This slide shows the field crew performing the gill nest sampling and measuring the fish caught in the net. The nets are 125 ft long by 8 ft high with panels of different mesh sizes. The nets were in the water for different times depending on water temp = 2+ hours to 1 hour.

20 species of fish have been caught in the first four sampling rounds with increasing numbers from April through October.

This slide shows the numbers and species caught which are typical of the river.
Ten shortnose sturgeon were caught, all of which were returned unharmed back into the river.

This slide shows the increasing number of fish species caught in the surveys from the low in April to the high of October. This is primarily due to the increases in migratory fish entering the river to spawn.

The avian surveys have been completed. The work was conducted over four seasons.

The avian and mammal surveys were conducted in the vicinity of the existing bridge and at a reference area north of the bridge.

As mentioned the avian surveys were conducted during all four seasons, resulting in over 22,000 sitings of 92 species, including New York State species of concern and state threatened species.

The mammal surveys were conducted over the same time frame as the avian surveys, including night-time surveys. Nothing unexpected was found. All species were typical of urban environments.

End slide.