April 19, 2008
Water Wars Between NYC and Pennsylvania
NYC has agreed to lower the water levels in some of its reservoirs that supply the city with its drinking water. The move came after pressure from Ed Rendell, the Gov. of Pennsylvania, who argued for reduced reservoir capacity to spare citizens of his state from the regular spring flooding along the Delaware River that results from New York keeping its reservoirs filled to the brim. When spring storms exceed the already-full reservoirs' ability to retain water, the Delaware River floods and Pennsylvanians suffer.
Under the new agreement, NYC said that it will reduce the levels of the Neversink, Pepacton and Cannonsville reservoirs to 97% of capacity after April 1st, in anticipation of spring rains. Pennsylvanians sounded barely satisfied with the compromise and characterized it as an insignificant gesture. Flooding of the Delaware River has claimed the lives of nine people and cost $70 million in property damage between 2004 and 2006. People who live along the river would prefer that the man made lakes upstream in New York State be maintained at 80% of capacity to prevent bridges and their homes from being washed away.
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Um. I'm willing to believe that the reservoirs contribute to the flooding, but it's not like reducing them will stop it. Rivers flood, it's kind of their thing. You could get rid of the reservoirs entirely and it would still flood every few years.
they should stop building places next to flood zones. plus PA is our new NJ lol.
Eventually, NJ will be the new Staten Island.
because SI is the new bensonhurst.
This river has flooded in the spring since it started running to the sea, way before there were reservoirs or humans around. Builders knew the river flooded when they build homes on its flood plains. Now they want to risk the water supply of 8.3 million people in order to help a few hundred people who should have known better than to build at the edge of a river that periodically floods?
That's not to mention the havoc that would be wrought on the Delaware River ecosystem from stopping flooding that has happened forever.
They can go screw themselves.
...people who should have known better...
Hear hear, edgar!
same with the people who live in Wayne NJ, or
sea gate, brooklyn.
NY's move seems fine and in fact, seems like common sense. There's no point in keeping the reservoirs completely full when more rain is coming. And nobody will notice the difference between 100% full and 97% full. Dropping it to 80% would be too much, though.
On the other hand, this "screw Pennsylvania" attitude doesn't help. Let's just see what the Corps of Engineers says, although given their performance in New Orleans in the years before Katrina, I wouldn't give them carte blanche.
I have lived on the Delaware River for 35 years. Here are the facts, for those who are interested:
The NYC Dept of Environmental Protection controls the water levels of the river below their dams. When they want the river to rise, it rises. Fall, it falls. This is common knowledge for Delaware Country, NY residents who live on the river AND know the inside story coming from DEP employees.
For the past 3 major floods, full/overflowing reservoirs contributed to the severity of downstream flooding and added as much as 5 feet to the flood crests on the East Branch and West Branch. Lowered reservoirs, in the long run, will save us!
If NYC residents only knew the whole story about how their water supply is managed, they'd be worried. And with good reason.
See: DrowningontheDelaware.com
That's totally untrue. Decisions about the city's delaware river reservoirs are made by the Delaware River Basin Commission. The city can't just do whatever it wants. And the members of the DRBC don't force the city to reduce the reservoir levels because they know that keeping the reservoirs full is important to all the people who rely on the river from New York all the way down through NJ, PA and Delaware. In other words, they're smarter than the people who bought land in a flood zone.