Rye City Statement on Bowman Avenue Dam

Marcus Serrano, Rye City Manager, released the following statement Monday afternoon on the Bowman Avenue Dam in response to the breaking story its operation was subject to Iranian hackers:

"In or about September 2013, the City of Rye was approached by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) with regard to an investigation about apparent unauthorized access to the City’s computer system, specifically relating to the Bowman Avenue Dam.

The City cooperated with that investigation, and in or about January 2014, the DHS provided a report to the City, containing findings, conclusions and recommendations. At this time, to access this report, the City would refer interested parties directly to the DHS.

The Bowman Avenue Dam is a structure dating to the 1940’s which controls water on the Blind Brook, a water course which runs roughly southward thru the City and empties into the Long Island Sound. The Dam is located upstream from the City in the Village of Rye Brook, but is owned by the City.

In or about June 2013, a sluice gate was added to the Dam, in order to help control the flow of water and assist with flood mitigation during storm events. The gate was designed to be opened and closed via computer; however, despite a ribbon cutting ceremony, the gate was never fully operational, and remained non-functioning through the DHS investigation. In any event, based on information provided to us, at no time was the sluice gate ever manipulated by unauthorized users outside of the City.

Subsequent to and after taking certain security measures consistent with the DHS report, the City did implement the sluice gate for the first time during a storm event on or about April 30 to May 1, 2014. Following that storm event, the City has been analyzing resulting data to determine how best to utilize the sluice gate going forward. The City will use funding through the New York
Rising program to retain an engineering firm to assist in that effort."