BETHEL — Congressman Josh Riley, Assembly Member Paula Elaine Kay and local officials gathered with residents Aug. 15 to call for faster repairs at the Toronto Reservoir dam, where the reservoir has remained drawn down since a seepage problem was discovered in 2023.

The group called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Eagle Creek Hydro Power and its parent company, Apollo Global Wealth Management, to move the project forward, citing the loss of recreational use of the reservoir, concerns over its availability for firefighting and the effects of the prolonged drawdown on residents and the surrounding community.

“Telling Bethel to wait until 2030 is unacceptable,” Riley said. “Apollo has the resources. FERC has the authority. I am demanding, in writing, firm dates to repair the dam and refill the reservoir.”

Access to the Toronto Reservoir is mainly private, with much of it located along the gated Chapin Estate property in Bethel, but there is a public access for boating along the reservoir’s north side on Moscoe Road, which has been closed since the 2023 drawdown.

Kay similarly called the length of the process unacceptable and said residents deserved clearer answers about when the reservoir would again be usable.

A press release issued following the event said Eagle Creek and its parent company had “yet to authorize the initial engineering work to be done to determine next steps” and cited 2030 as the company’s estimated completion date.

Eagle Creek Renewable Energy provided the Sullivan County Democrat with a different account of the work completed to date.

Jody Smet, Eagle Creek’s chief compliance officer and senior vice president of regulatory affairs, said the company completed its Root Cause Evaluation in December 2024 and reached the 30 percent design stage in February 2026.

Documents provided by Smet show that engineering milestones had been established well before the Aug. 15 event. An October 2024 schedule anticipated completion of the final Root Cause Evaluation by April 1, 2025, followed by design selection in April 2026 and 30 percent design by July 1, 2026.

By February 2026, that schedule had been accelerated. A Feb. 3 schedule lists the final Root Cause Evaluation as completed Dec. 20, 2024 and design selection on Dec. 2, 2025. The 30 percent design milestone was scheduled for Feb. 17, followed by 60 percent design in August 2026, 90 percent design in November and final design in February 2027.

Smet said the Root Cause Evaluation was completed approximately four months ahead of the schedule then in place and the 30 percent design approximately two months ahead.

The February 2026 schedule anticipated construction beginning around June 2027 and concluding around March 2029. It also scheduled a one-year post-construction review by the Board of Consultants for 2030.

Those later milestones have since been extended. A project schedule from June 2026 anticipates construction beginning around April 2028 and concluding around August 2029.

The reason for that change emerged after the 30 percent design was reviewed by the project’s Board of Consultants in February.

Smet said the board recommended additional subsurface investigations and testing that had not been included in the earlier schedule. A July 1 letter from FERC confirms that the board recommended targeted subsurface exploration along the proposed filter trench and in areas where conglomerate bedrock was estimated to be located, along with pump tests near the proposed excavations.

FERC agreed with those recommendations and noted in the same letter that Eagle Creek had indicated its project milestones could be pushed back. The agency directed the company to submit an updated schedule within 15 days.

Smet said the additional investigations are intended to provide more information about the appropriate engineering solution as well as its scope, constructability, schedule and cost.

“At this stage, it would be premature to suggest that those questions have all been resolved,” Smet said. “The purpose of the ongoing engineering and independent review process is to make sure they are answered based on sound technical information rather than an arbitrary schedule.”

The schedule changes were among the concerns raised by Hal Teitelbaum, president of Homeowners on Toronto, at the Aug. 15 gathering.

“Since 2023, when the situation leading to Toronto’s drawdown was first discovered, deadline after deadline, milestone after milestone related to ‘repair’ of the dam, set by Eagle Creek itself, have been missed,” Teitelbaum said.

The project documents show that the schedule has changed several times, although not all of those changes moved the work later. Several engineering milestones in the February 2026 schedule were earlier than dates projected in October 2024. Later milestones were subsequently extended after the Board of Consultants recommended the additional investigation.

The documents also provide additional context for the 2030 date cited by speakers at the Aug. 15 event. The February schedule does not list 2030 as the construction completion date. At that time, construction was anticipated to end in March 2029, with a one-year post-construction review scheduled for 2030.

Smet said Eagle Creek is not currently committing to a specific date for completion of the project or restoration of the reservoir.

“For an issue of this complexity, particularly involving a nearly 100-year-old earthen dam, schedules will continue to be refined as new information is developed and reviewed by FERC and the Board of Consultants,” she said.