Canandaigua Lake Watershed Erosion Control Project

The Ontario County SWCD recently worked with a farm on an Erosion & Sediment Control Project aimed at managing erosive surface water flows on agricultural lands in the Canandaigua Lake watershed with funding from the FLX Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) program. A 1,700 ft. grassed waterway and 1/8th acre water and sediment control basin (WASCOB) with underground outlet were installed to control surface water and prevent soil loss. Before these projects, the fields had a loss of ~85 tons of soil per year through gully erosion. The grassed waterway now conveys the concentrated water flows across the field in a non-erosive manner with an estimated soil savings of ~50 tons of soil per year. The WASCOB collects surface flow and diverts it underground before erosive concentrated flows form. The WASCOB reduces sediment loss by another ~14 tons of soil per year across the project site.