RICHFIELD — The three towns affected by the flooding of Canadarago Lake may not be stuck in the mud for long.

In February, town of Richfield supervisor Nick Palevsky received a letter from Ken Kosinski, an environmental engineer from the DEC, stating that a hydrology and hydraulic (H&H) study needs to be conducted prior to the beginning of work on the project.

John Mulligan, an engineer from Malcolm Pirnie hired to assess the flooding of Canadarago Lake, advised Palevsky that the study requested in this letter will cost the towns at least $20,000.

Now Kosinski said "the verbage" for his letter came largely from the Bureau of Flood Protection, and it doesn't mean that an H&H is necessary at this stage of the process.

"What we're trying to do is get the towns to formalize the design of their plan," Kosinski said. "This is a document that needs to be prepared by their engineer. It was unclear to me what level of information the engineer had."

Palevsky isn't as foggy about it.

"I think at this point Mulligan can easily satisfy the DEC," he said. "What we need is to get the three towns on board to speak with one voice."

Mulligan and Jason Mulford of the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District agree that several steps need to be taken to remedy the problem, Mulford said, but have "butted heads" about the importance of removing obstacles south of the dam.

"A couple of things need to be done," Mulford said. "The sandbar at the mouth of Herkimer Creek needs to be dredged and the Panther Mountain Dam needs to be reconstructed."

When Mulford started working on this project three years ago, there were five obstacles in the stream. Now, he said, there are over sixty, including fallen trees, beaver dams and a small gravel bar.

"Only about a third of these obstacles can be removed," Mulford said. "The rest are surrounded by forest or wetlands. The slopes and permits would be a problem, and a year or two from now there can be just as many obstacles taking their place. The nature of that area is that it evolves. That was the message I brought to the last committee meeting I attended in December. But the biggest problem is that when I stand up and say something, people say 'he only has three years experience versus this engineer with twenty years.' My position is that there's no reason to go south of the dam. It just doesn't seem like it would be cost efficient."

The three towns — Otsego, Richfield and Exeter — may not realize, Mulford said, how much time and money would go into removing the obstacles. The real culprit, he said, is that the area in question is composed largely of wetlands and floodplains.

"The surrounding areas act like a sponge," Mulford said. "When you have spring runoff, it's going to flood and the wetlands act as a sponge.

The assistance of the DEC was initially sought, Palevsky said, because the differing stances of Mulford and Mulligan left people wondering if a second engineer's opinion might be needed.

"At the meeting at which it was agreed to ask DEC for an opinion, Mr. Kosinski stated that he was not qualified to question the opinion of John Mulligan, and that a DEC engineer who was so qualified would be brought in. It is not clear from this letter if this was done," Palevsky said. "Certainly the qualified engineer, if he/she was consulted, is not named."

The DEC, Palevsky said, will match the funds raised by the three towns dollar for dollar. This includes a $40,000 grant announced during the summer by Senator James Seward. Consequently, the DEC must approve of plans.

The letter, which will be discussed at the Richfield town board meeting on March 18 at 7:30 p.m., was also sent to Exeter supervisor Jim Truex and town of Otsego supervisor Bill Gates.