Rensselaer Lake
| Rensselaer Lake | |
|---|---|
| Location | Albany, New York |
| Coordinates | 42°41′50″N 73°49′57″W / 42.6973°N 73.8325°WCoordinates: 42°41′50″N 73°49′57″W / 42.6973°N 73.8325°W |
| Type | artificial |
| Primary outflows | Patroon Creek |
| Managing agency | City of Albany |
| Built | 1851 |
| Surface area | 35.3 acres (14.3 ha) |
| Average depth | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Max. depth | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Water volume | 160,000,000 US gallons (610,000 m3) |
| Shore length1 | 2.6 miles (4.2 km) |
| Surface elevation | 269 ft (82 m) |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Rensselaer Lake is an artificial lake in Albany, New York, United States named for Major-General Stephen Van Rensselaer, last patroon of Rensselaerswyck. The lake was Albany's first municipally-owned source of water. It is part of a 57-acre (23 ha) park and the state's Albany Pine Bush Preserve. The lake and park have been under the purview of the Albany Water Authority since 2003.
Rensselaer Lake is at the headwaters of the Patroon Creek in the western section of the city of Albany. Once the location of several feeder streams that formed the creek, the land was purchased by the city in 1850 and dammed in 1851 as the city's first municipal source of water. The dam was located roughly six miles (9.7 km) from Albany City Hall, lending the lake its original name of the Six Mile Waterworks. Prior to this, the city was served by a private company, the Albany Waterworks Company. The lake fed water to the Bleecker Reservoir where it was used by portions of the city west of Pearl Street to the area around Lark Street. The lake was used as a water supply until 1926, and became a city park under Mayor Erastus Corning II in 1956.
In the late 1990s the Six Mile Waterworks was restored after decades of disrepair. The city partnered with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, area schools, businesses, youth organizations and individual sponsors to build new docks, a boardwalk, and a nature trail. An open-air interpretive center is planned.
In 2003, the Albany Water Authority paid the city of Albany $7 million for a 50-year lease of the Six Mile Waterworks and Rensselaer Lake for use as an emergency backup water supply. This included the entire 206-acre (83 ha) city park and helped balance the city's budgets for 2002, 2003, and 2004. This sale was criticized as being a fiscal trick, shifting some of the tax burden from residents' property tax bills to their water bills. City property taxes increased that year 7.4 percent, and the water authority also tacked on a 9.5 percent rate increase.
...
Wikipedia