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Monday, February 27, 2017

NYC Department of Environmental Protection Encourages College Students to Apply for Watershed Internships

Fifteen Watershed Internships Available for Engineering and Sciences

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday encouraged college students to apply for one of 15 summer internships at offices throughout the watershed. These paid internships are in fields related to science and engineering. Those accepted into the summer internship program will have the chance to work alongside DEP scientists, engineers, planners and other professionals who operate, maintain and protect the largest municipal water supply in the United States.

“Our summer internships in the watershed offer unique opportunities to work alongside experts who oversee a marvel of modern engineering—the New York City water supply system,” DEP Acting Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “DEP hopes the internship program inspires young people to pursue a career that focuses on protecting public health and the environment. I encourage college students from the watershed and surrounding regions to apply for these excellent learning opportunities.”

The intern positions available include summer work associated with upstate water quality laboratories, water quality field operations, engineering, community water connections, water system modeling, natural resources, and science and research. The internships are located at DEP’s offices in Delaware, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. In addition to the watershed opportunities, DEP also offers summer internships at its offices in New York City.

Information about these internships, including online applications, can be found on the DEP website.
Prospective interns are encouraged to carefully read the qualifications for each job to determine whether they meet the enrollment, GPA, coursework and other requirements. Candidates must submit applications by April 7.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.5 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. 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 has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $166 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 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 $20.7 billion in investments planned over the next 10 years that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Delaware River Basin Commission Lifts Drought Watch

 Commission Urges Water Efficiency and Compliance With State-Issued Drought Watches and Warnings


The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) today announced the termination of its drought management special permit in effect since Nov. 23, 2016, when the basin was placed in a drought watch.

“Due to recent precipitation and snow melt, combined storage in three large upper basin reservoirs has achieved and sustained a sufficient level for five consecutive days to result in automatic termination of the basinwide drought watch,” said DRBC Executive Director Steve Tambini.

“Although upper basin reservoir storage has rebounded in recent weeks automatically ending the drought watch operations, other indicators such as groundwater levels, stream flows, precipitation, soil moisture, and local reservoir storage have not all recovered,” said Tambini.  “As a result, various state-issued drought watches and warnings based on those indicators remain in effect across most of the basin.”

“DRBC continues to urge all water users to maximize water efficiency wherever possible and to fully cooperate with requests by the basin states to curb water use where drought watches and warnings have been issued based on local conditions,” added Tambini.  “The importance of a coordinated response by all water users cannot be overstated.”

The DRBC’s primary drought management objective, which complements the basin states’ drought response efforts, is to provide for conservation of regional reservoir storage for purposes of water supply and flow augmentation in the Delaware River and salinity control in the Delaware Estuary (i.e., the tidal river and bay). 

The upper basin reservoirs which determine DRBC drought stages are located in the Catskill Mountains at the headwaters of the Delaware River in New York State.  These three New York City reservoirs provide about half of the city’s water supply and support a minimum flow target in the Delaware River at Montague, N.J. established by the U.S. Supreme Court Decree of 1954.  Storage, releases, diversions, and flow targets in the DRBC drought management plan are determined in advance and must have the unanimous concurrence of the parties to the decree, which include the four basin states and New York City.

Combined storage in the three upper basin reservoirs had been as low as 39.3% of capacity in late November 2016.  The reservoirs are currently at about 58% of capacity, which is approximately 70 billion gallons below normal for this time of the year.

By transitioning out of the drought watch stage, out-of-basin diversions to New York City and portions of New Jersey established by the decree will return to normal levels.  In addition, the Delaware River flow objective at Montague and a second flow objective at Trenton, N.J. will also return to the normal targets of 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) and 3,000 cfs, respectively.

The purpose of the Trenton flow objective is to control the movement of the “salt line” or “salt front” in the tidal Delaware River.  Adequate freshwater flowing downstream is needed to repel the upstream migration of “salty” or “brackish” water from the Delaware Bay to keep it away from drinking water intakes serving residents in Philadelphia and New Jersey, as well as industrial intakes along the river.

As of Jan. 16, thanks to increased downstream flows, the salt front was located at river mile 73, which is four miles upstream of the normal January location.  The salt front reached river mile 90 in late November-early December, which was well above the normal location but still 20 miles downstream of water supply intakes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“Cooperation from the states, from New York City, and from water users and managers has been effective during the basinwide drought watch period,” said Tambini.  “Although recent trends in storage volume and the location of the salt front have been positive and DRBC is required to move from ‘drought watch’ status back to ‘normal’ status, the volume of water in the reservoirs and other indicators suggest additional cooperation and water efficiency are still needed.”

The DRBC is a federal/interstate government agency responsible for managing the water resources within the 13,539 square-mile Delaware River Basin without regard to political boundaries.  The five commission members are the governors of the basin states (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division, who represents the federal government.

More information, including links to basin state drought pages, updates about water resource conditions, and water savings tips, can be found at www.drbc.net.