UPDATE: Erie Canal closed for 25 miles

ALBION, N.Y. (AP) - A scenic 25-mile stretch of the Erie Canal in western New York is temporarily off limits to boaters following a partial collapse of the embankment in the Orleans County village of Albion, authorities said Wednesday.

Contractors, meanwhile, hauled in 200 tons of crushed stone to fill a 60-foot-wide sinkhole that developed Monday night on a road and trail running alongside the weakened rock-and-clay embankment.

>> See a photo gallery of crews at work, dumping rock into the sinkhole in their efforts to stop the flow of water from the canal.

Officials had yet to determine Wednesday whether the sinkhole caused the breach in the embankment or if the breach caused the sinkhole.

The New York State Canal Corp., which oversees the waterway, originally planned to drain a 10-mile stretch from Albion east to Holley to assess and repair the damage. On Wednesday, the shutdown was extended 15 miles west to Middleport in Niagara County. The Canal Corp. declined to speculate on how long the shutdown might last.

Farmers were urged to siphon water for their fields to bring the 12-foot water level down more quickly. Canal water is regularly used for irrigation.

"Our first priority is to stabilize the embankment so that life and property in the surrounding area are fully protected," Canal Corp. Director Brian Stratton said. "At the moment the situation is under control and we will be making plans for repairs as soon as the water levels are drawn down enough for a full engineering assessment to be made."

The shutdown at the western end of the Erie Canal comes during the busy boating season along the 338-mile channel, which stretches the length of upstate New York, from Buffalo to Albany. The man-made waterway, completed in 1825, originally was built as a shipping route for raw materials between the Hudson River and Lake Erie but attracts mostly recreational boaters today.

The Canal Corp. instructed residents along the affected stretch to pull their boats from the water. Boaters who were on the canal at the time of the closure were driven back to launch points after finding they were unable to navigate back through the closed section, corporation spokesman R.W. Groneman said.

Larger sightseeing vessels operated by Mid-Lakes Navigation were to be removed from the canal by crane and trucked back to their home base in Macedon, near Rochester, Groneman said. A worker at the charter business said no one was available to comment Wednesday.