DELAWARE BASIN STATES AND NEW YORK CITY ANNOUNCE ONE-YEAR RENEWAL OF CURRENT RESERVOIR OPERATING PLAN AGREEMENT

MILFORD, Pa. (May 31) – New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the City of New York today announced that they have unanimously agreed to a one-year extension of the current Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) intended to meet water supply demands, protect fisheries habitat downstream of the New York City (NYC)-Delaware Basin reservoirs, enhance flood mitigation, and repel the upstream movement of salt water in the Delaware Estuary.

Diversions and releases of water from the three city reservoirs (Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink) are jointly managed by the four states and NYC under the terms of a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree that settled an interstate water dispute between New York State and New York City, and the lower basin states.

The Decree Parties (four basin states and NYC) will use the additional time to further evaluate this interim reservoir management plan and use the experience to help guide ongoing negotiations to develop future multi-year agreements.

The FFMP renewal, which will be in effect through May 31, 2013, will continue to rely on the use of the city’s Operations Support Tool (OST) to manage the water forecast to be available in the three NYC reservoirs located in the headwaters of the Delaware River and guide the selection of releases. The OST is a sophisticated monitoring and modeling system that allows for better predictions of reservoir-specific water storage levels, quality, and inflows than previous tools. The progressively evolving OST has proven to be a very useful tool in managing the FFMP. Its development continues on schedule with the final version due out in the fall of 2013.

Release rates in the renewed one-year agreement are patterned after recommendations provided in a January 2010 joint fisheries paper from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

NYC will continue to create a higher potential to achieve a 10 percent storage void in the reservoirs from September 1 to March 15 as well as an average five percent void from July 1 to September 1 and from March 15 to May 1. It is hoped this program will help mitigate river flooding during periods of high inflows and heavy snow melt. Snow pack during the most recent winter was well below normal.

In addition, reservoir releases will continue to be adjusted to assist in repelling the upstream migration of salty water from the Atlantic Ocean that moves up the tidal Delaware River during low-flow conditions. As salt-laced water moves upriver, the City of Philadelphia and other public water suppliers can be affected, along with industrial surface water users and ecosystems.

The renewed FFMP maintains New Jersey’s increased maximum diversion from the Delaware River Basin via the Delaware & Raritan Canal to a daily running average of 85 million gallons per day when the basin is in a drought emergency.

Additional details, including the FFMP agreement and OST background information, can be viewed on the web site of the Office of the Delaware River Master, which administers the provisions of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree, at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/odrm/.

Pennsylvania Signs One-Year Renewal of Multi-State Water Agreement for Delaware River

Pennsylvania has signed a one-year renewal of an agreement governing the management of water in the Delaware River, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced today.

The renewal of the flexible flow management program, which was also signed by fellow parties Delaware, New Jersey, New York and New York City, is effective Friday, June 1.

Pennsylvania is a party to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decree that established an equitable allocation of water use under federal common law.

“This agreement will ensure that the continual and steady flow of water in the Delaware River protects Philadelphia’s water supply from salt water, which can flow in from the Atlantic Ocean,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “This extension will allow all of the partners to work together this year to find longer-term solutions to the flow issues on the Delaware River.”

The agreement allows for the occasional release of large volumes of cold water from reservoirs in New York to improve fishery habitats and ecology downstream as well as provide a balance in water supply throughout the states during drought conditions. The reservoirs provide drinking water for millions of residents in the four states.

The agreement also calls on New York to store less water in some of the reservoirs during most of the year, creating greater storage capacity during storm events to help reduce flooding downstream.
For more information, visit www.dep.state.pa.us or call 717-783-4693.

Upgraded Forecast System Will Provide Water Supply Operators with More Information

 No matter what they say, it's never win-win when it comes to NYC.  It's NYC wins, everyone else loses.

Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland today announced a new agreement with the National Weather Service in which DEP will provide the Weather Service with up to $1 million to help speed up the development of state-of-the-art forecasts of water flows through streams in the watershed. Streamflow forecasts enable DEP water supply operators to better predict the amount of water that will enter reservoirs and as a result more accurately predict reservoir levels and water quality in the future. The enhanced streamflow forecasts will eventually be a part of DEP’s Operations Support Tool (OST), a cutting-edge, $5.2 million integrated monitoring and modeling system that collects real-time data on stream inflow, water quality, and reservoir storage levels, integrates forecasts of future inflows, and applies system operating rules to predict future conditions in the water supply system. OST helps DEP make more informed decisions about how to operate the system to ensure reliable, high quality supplies by retaining water in advance of dry conditions and to release water in advance of wet conditions. The agreement will allow the National Weather Service to speed the development and implementation of the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service (HEFS), which will provide probabilistic forecasts to help water supply operators understand the range and likelihood of river levels and as a result help them assess risk.

“This is a win-win situation for both DEP and our partners, the National Weather Service,” said Commissioner Strickland. “NWS gets additional funds to pilot its new forecasting system in a discrete region, which will facilitate their eventual nationwide rollout. And DEP gets the cutting-edge forecasts needed for the Operations Support Tool much sooner than if we had to wait for the nationwide rollout.”

“Effective partnerships with state and local government play a big role in our vision for a Weather-Ready Nation, and our agreement with NYCDEP is a great example,” said Jack Hayes Ph.D, director, National Weather Service. “With NYCDEP’s help accelerating our schedule, we can improve our warnings for events that threaten lives and livelihoods and give sophisticated users, like DEP, the forecasts they need to optimize their water resources decisions based on their operating rules and risk tolerance.”

The National Weather Service began experimental development of the ensemble forecasting capability several years ago and the nationwide implementation is scheduled for completion later in 2014. DEP’s Operations Support Tool will be complete by 2013 and requires HEFS forecasts to provide the most use to system managers. NWS will use DEP funds to hire additional staff who will help speed the development of the system at the two offices that cover the New York City water supply region: the Middle-Atlantic River Forecast Center (MARFC) in State College, PA (covers Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink Reservoirs) and the Northeast River Forecast Center in Taunton, MA (covers Schoharie, Ashokan, Rondout, and all East-of-Hudson reservoirs).

The Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service will help water supply operators assess risk. For example, if a storm is forecast, HEFS will produce several different forecasts (an “ensemble”) of peak river levels that provide an objective estimate of the uncertainty in the river forecast. Operators can use this information along with knowledge of current water supply conditions to assess risk and make more informed operational decisions. Current NWS operations provide only a single peak forecast with no estimate of forecast uncertainty.

The Operations Support Tool enables DEP’s water supply operators to more accurately predict water storage levels in the city’s reservoirs so that DEP can better manage the movement of water throughout the reservoir system, and ultimately, to the nine million New Yorkers who rely on the city’s drinking water every day. It substantially increases DEP’s operational responsiveness and the ability to protect water quality and improve the aquatic habit below the reservoirs.

DEP manages the city’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of water each day to more than nine million residents, including eight million in New York City, and residents of Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP employs nearly 6,000 employees, including more than 750 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and others professionals in the upstate watershed. In addition to its $49 million payroll and $132 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.5 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with a planned $13.2 billion in investments over the next 10 years that creates up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year.

A Fishing Guide Walks Into a Bar…

HANCOCK, NY--It sounds like the start of a joke: Guy walks into a bar. But the punch line didn’t seem so funny. 

 

The story began when I got a call on the morning of April 26 from Jim "Coz" Costolnic, a board member of Friends of the Upper Delaware River and the owner of Border Water Outfitters, a fly shop and guide service in Hancock.

 

Coz was a little perturbed.

 

He said, “Hey, Dan, I hear they’re shutting down the Cannonsville flow to zero today. What’s up with that?”

 

Costolnic is among hundreds of people—guides, shopkeepers, motel and resort owners, restaurateurs, waitresses, etc.--who make a living from the Upper Delaware River fishery. Fish and fishermen/women had been abundant in April.

 

And now Coz was hearing that water releases from the Cannonsville Reservoir on the West Branch of the Delaware, were going to be completely stanched for some sort of dam repair.

 

Oh, great. To boot, this was happening on the weekend of FUDR's 5th Annual One Bug fishing fundraiser, which raises much-needed funds to protect the local rivers, streams and communities.

 

I asked Coz about the source of his information.

 

He said, “A guy in a bar was talking to a river guide, over wings and a beer. A very reliable source. The guy works up at the Cannonsville dam.”

 

FUDR seems to get a lot of tips about things like this from guys in bars.

 

I told Coz I would make some calls, and I started with Tom Murphy, a division chief with New York City’s Bureau of Water Supply. I consider Tom an ally, after years of working together to get a better water-release plan in place from Cannonsville and the other New York City-owned reservoirs that feed the Delaware River system.

 

Murphy confirmed that there would be a shutdown.

 

He explained that an 18-inch pipe in the dam release chamber had developed a crack and needed repair. This required the line to be drained and dried so it could be welded. Releases were being suspended so the stilling pool, to which the line discharges, could be emptied to below the pipe’s elevation. This exposed the pipe so the welding could be done.

 

Murphy said the work was scheduled to be done that day to take advantage of favorable natural stream flows as a result of recent heavy rains.

 

I told Murphy that a complete and sudden shutdown of Cannonsville releases didn’t make any sense because it could strand fish in the shallows. Nobody wants to see that.

 

He and I discussed the need for water releases be ramped down gradually to give fish a chance to find refuge in deeper pools. I didn't expect Murphy completely understand all this, but I wondered who from the state Department of Environmental Conservation would have authorized this work, knowing that fish and the ecosystem that depends on these cold-water releases could be left high and dry.

 

Murphy said he had been speaking with Brenan Tarrier of the DEC. I got him on the phone and repeated the concerns of the conservation groups I was speaking for. I asked him who authorized the water shutdown. You won’t be surprised to know that no one wanted to take credit. I wouldn’t want to own up to it, either.

 

Norm McBride, a DEC Region 4 biologist, normally would have been our man, but he was unavailable, using up vacation time before retirement. Due to DEC cutbacks, Norm's position has yet to be filled.

I asked the DEP and DEC to give me a couple of hours before beginning the shutdown so we could find an expert for advice. Pete Bousum, another FUDR board member, jumped in his truck and intercepted Mark Hartle from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, who was floating the main stem of the Delaware River with Lee Hartman, Delaware River committee chairman for Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited. We also contacted Dr. Robert Bachman, a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat commissioner.

 

These conservationists all agreed that the following day, April 27, would be a better time to repair the pipe. The weather forecast called for overcast skies, light precipitation and a high temperature in the 40s.

 

After more conversations with Murphy and others, the DEC agreed the work would begin with a gradual ramping down of releases starting at 4 a.m. April 27.

As a consolation, I asked that the amount of water that could not be released from the Cannonsville Reservoir during the shutdown be released from the Pepacton Reservoir into the East Branch of the Delaware River, which helped the main stem downstream of Hancock. Murphy agreed to do this for us and assured me that the repair crew would work as quickly as possible. Responding to our concerns, the DEC also had a crew and tanker truck on hand to rescue any fish that got stuck in the shallows.

 

In the end, the modified repair plan went off without a hitch—and without any fish drama.

 

Peter Innes, a DEC supervisor, told me, “By all accounts, it was a successful operation.”

 

A few people deserve credit, including Murphy and state DEC staffers Tarrier, Dave Cornwell and Dan Zielinski.

 

So why should we care?

 

I care because I am deeply committed to protecting our precious rivers, as board chairman of FUDR and spokesman for the Delaware Watershed Conservation Coalition.

 

Putting off this necessary repair could have created a more serious problem—and a longer shutdown—somewhere in the future, perhaps at a time with less favorable weather conditions. The city and DEC did the right thing.

 

I am grateful that the government agencies involved responded to our concerns, and we are pleased at the growing sense of cooperation between these agencies and the private-sector conservationists who dedicate our time and money to protect this resource.

 

So the story has a satisfying ending. I just hope that next time we don't have to find out about consequential water-flow plans when a guy walks into a bar.

Dan Plummer

Chairman of the Board

Friends of the Upper Delaware River

catskilldan@mac.com 

607-363-7848  office

607-363-7975  fax

www.fudr.org