Citizens’ group wanted void as hedge against floods
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
People who have campaigned for a specific idea they say would lessen future potential flooding of the Delaware River have seen their hopes dashed for another year.
The Delaware River Conservancy has been campaigning for three New York State reservoir that empty into the Delaware to stay less than 100-percent full in order to accept some rain and surface flow in the event of a severe storm.
The activists say that, if the reservoirs can remain full and a hurricane or series of storms deluge the area, water released into the river could potentially raise the river level downstream.
Despite a vigorous campaign by her group, Gail Pedrick, president of the Delaware River Conservancy, said the plan to manage water levels — called the flexible flow management plan, or FFMP — had been renewed for another year, until May 31, 2015, by Delaware River Master.
The management plan for the Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink reservoirs, which are part of the New York City water supply system, was negotiated among the five parties to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decree. The Delaware River Basin Commission staff supports the negotiation process, but the FFMP is not the subject of DRBC, said Clarke Rupert, spokesman for the DRBC.
In addition to worrying about floods, the FFMP balances the needs of New York City’s water supply, keeping enough water in the river in low conditions for fish and wildlife to thrive, and to repel the upstream movement of salt water into the Delaware estuary.
The Master’s press release says, "NYC will continue to create a higher potential to achieve a 10 percent storage void in its Delaware Basin reservoirs from Sept. 1 to March 15, as well as an average 5 percent void from July 1 to Sept. 1and from March 15 to May 1. This program may help reduce peak spill rates during periods of high inflow and heavy snow melt.
Ms. Pedrick’s letter is printed in today’s Beacon on page 6A.
Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio, whose city has not taken official position on lower reservoir levels, said he was nonetheless "disappointed the basin commission wasn’t more responsive to the concerns of people who live along the river."
The mayor said he was on a state study group created after the 2006 flood, said Lambertville’s bigger problem was the Delaware rising too much to prevent Swan and Ely creeks from flowing into the main stem. The smaller creeks overflowed, flooding some city areas.
Lambertville has acted for itself by buying a portable pump and installing flood gates on Ely Creek, he said, and the city is pursuing state and federal grants to do the same on Swan Creek.
Mr. DelVecchio said he had talked to people who lived and worked along the Delaware who felt the lowering of the reservoirs could have some impact to lessen flooding. Their claims were "worth examining," the mayor said.
Upstream at Byram, for instance, the damage to homes came from the rising water level along the river.
She said the plan allows for 100 percent-plus full and spilling reservoirs from May 1 to July 1 and for only minimum releases from March 15 to Sept. 1, even if the New York City Delaware reservoirs are full and spilling and heavy rains are approaching.
She called the plan "a ticking time bomb for those who live below 100-percent-full reservoirs."
"All three New York City reservoirs releasing into the Delaware River were 100 percent and full and spilling when the rain events of 2004, ’05 and ’06 occurred and we had three major floods in 21 months. The previous record flood was 1955," she writes. "October 2005 was third-highest rainfall since 1941, and the Delaware did not flood and reservoirs were below 80 percent."
Her group has asked governing bodies to pass resolutions in support of lower reservoir levels, and gotten more than 10,000 people to sign petitions to that effect.
They organized letter writing and bought full-page newspaper ads giving their view of facts and dangers of full reservoirs.
Nevertheless, their pleas went unneeded.
"We all were ignored, let down and put in danger today by our governors and the mayor of NYC," she wrote.
She said the press release said, "The decree parties (four basin states and New York City) will use the next year to further evaluate this interim reservoir management plan and use the experience to help guide ongoing negotiations to develop future multi-year agreements."
"This is the fourth year that they have said the same thing," she said. "The decree parties have not been able to agree on flood mitigation issues, so they renew the same dangerous FFMP plan. The ticking time bomb goes off when a heavy rain event occurs and the reservoirs are all 100 percent-plus full. Since 2006 we have been very lucky."

