Budget cuts threaten Delaware River flood monitoring
Residents downriver fear New York City plan will cripple warning system.
By Brian Callaway | Of The Morning Call
March 23, 2009

Bob Blasko rows his boat up Maplewood Road in Riegelsville on June 26, 2006, after the Delaware River flooded. The river also flooded in 2004 and 2005. Budget troubles may succeed in scuttling part of the monitoring system that helps warn of potential dangers along the Delaware River -- a river that has flooded to devastating effect in recent years.

The plan to ax stream gauges, announced last week by New York City officials in response to economic woes there, has residents downriver seething.

''They're hypocrites,'' said Gail Pedrick, whose home in New Hope was swamped three times over a span of 21 months starting in 2004. ''They say they're trying to help stop the flooding, and yet they are eliminating gauges that help anticipate the flooding.''

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection helps pay for a system of about 100 stream gauges throughout that state. The gauges perform various functions, from helping operate the city's water supply to releasing water from reservoirs. Some also help forecast floods for the National Weather Service.The city DEP, in a release, stated that funding is being cut for 30 gauges -- most this year, a handful next -- because of a ''need to reduce expenditures during this difficult economic time.'' The release did not specify how much money would be saved, and representatives for the department did not return calls for comment.

Officials with other agencies are now scrambling to figure out how the move will affect the region's flood warning system.

Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's office in Mount Holly, N.J., which oversees forecasts for the Lehigh Valley region, said he doesn't know how long it will take to assess what the changes would mean.

''It's not a simple thing to answer,'' he said.

Clarke Rupert, a spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission, said officials from various groups are planning a meeting to discuss the issue and decide whether money can be found to keep some of the gauges open.

He added that he knows of no plans to close gauges in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Pedrick, one of several residents and activists who have raised alarms about the potential for further flooding along the river, said the fact that gauges in this region will remain open doesn't make her feel better about what's slated to happen in New York.

''It doesn't matter,'' she said. ''All these gauges are important to us. Anybody who lives below the gauges, it's important to us. ... North of us, they're the ones that measure the water flow. It's crucial.''

The Delaware River flooded in 2004, 2005 and 2006, causing at least one death and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage.

Many residents in Pennsylvania and New Jersey already blame New York officials for contributing to the floods by keeping their reservoirs so full. Other officials have disputed the role those reservoirs played in flooding.

Still, Pedrick said, the latest proposal about monitoring gauges only bolsters the perception that New Yorkers don't care about what happens downriver.

''It's just another thing that they're doing to us, so it's no surprise.''

brian.callaway@mcall.com