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New York City has recently added a web page to their Department of Environmental Protection website that gives the current water releases from their reservoirs. The water release numbers are given in mgd (million gallons per day). Many of us are more familiar with the cfs (cubic feet per second) as it applies, and looks to the rivers of the Delaware River system. The conversion isn't that difficult. 1 mgd = 1.547 cfs. A sharp pencil or a pocket calculator will quickly make the conversion.
Why New York City chooses to give the mgd release rate instead of the cfs rate is anyone's guess considering the water management plan and the US Supreme Court Decree governing the management of the river so often refer to cfs. My guess is mgd looks more impressive and gives the appearance that the city is giving up more water to the four down basin states, and the health of the upper river, than they actually are.
To put it visually, if you had a cube that was 51.1 feet on each side it would hold a million gallons of water. 100 mgd would be 100 of these cubes. Another way to look at it is one millions gallons of water at one foot deep would cover 3.07 acres.
To see the current release rates from NYC reservoirs follow this link: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/release_channel_levels.shtml
