SOUTH COUNTY: Bridge agency wants reserve in reservoirs

   The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has joined the push of recent efforts by government bodies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania seeking to provide flood mitigation in communities downriver from New York City reservoirs.
   Joseph J. Resta, the commission’s executive director, sent a letter Feb. 6 to the governors of the four Delaware River Basin states and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio that says the commission feels the current rules are “anachronistic” because they are “designed to monitor and maintain low-level water conditions and are silent on instances whereby the reservoir system releases excess water volumes into an already fully charged river.”
   Chairman David DeGerolamo said the commission’s network of bridges has sustained numerous instances of damage from river flooding over the decades.
   ”We have a vested interest in wanting to protect our facilities from harm so we are expressing solidarity with the litany of counties and municipalities in our river jurisdiction who have passed resolutions on this issue,” he said.
   The commission and other government bodies have passed resolutions calling for flood mitigation through lowered reservoir levels. If the reservoirs are kept 10 percent under capacity, they can absorb some water in a heavy rain or snowfall, instead of having to spill water into an already swollen river.
   ”Hopefully, this could motivate other Pennsylvania counties north of Bucks County to pass resolutions similar to what we have done in Warren County,” said Commissioner Edward Smith, who also serves as director of the Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
   Flood mitigation resolutions have been passed in recent months by Warren and Bucks counties, Harmony Township (New Jersey), New Hope Borough (Pennsylvania) and by Hunterdon, Mercer and Sussex counties.
   The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, formed by Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1934, operates seven toll bridges and 13 toll-supported bridges, two of which are pedestrian-only spans from the Philadelphia-Bucks County line north to the New Jersey-New York border.