Commission to Gather Input on Reservoir Plan
DRBC program addresses flooding, N.Y.C. water supplies.
By Tom Coombe | Of The Morning Call
December 24, 2007

They call it the Flexible Flow Management Program. It's a term that practically shouts ''drab, arcane government language,'' but nevertheless, it's something that touches the lives of millions of people.

The program is the Delaware River Basin Commission's plan for operating the reservoirs in upstate New York that serve New York City. There are several different components to the program, including providing New Yorkers with water, as well as making sure the reservoirs don't contribute to flooding along the Delaware River. The river has flooded three times in the last three years, killing nine people, displacing thousands more and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

The commission wants to finalize the plan next year, but not before getting public input. It will host an information session in Philadelphia on Jan. 8 before holding a public hearing in West Trenton, N.J., on Jan. 16. According to DRBC spokesman Clark Rupert, the commission hopes to make the program official in May.

Rupert said the commission began working on the program in the spring of 2004, several months before the first of the three floods, with the idea that it would study the components and make revisions over the next few years. At the time, it contained nothing about flood mitigation.

''It wasn't part of the discussion,'' Rupert said. ''You have to remember, we were enjoying a very long period of time where we hadn't experienced major stem flooding.''

Flood victims, along with groups such as the Delaware Riverside Conservancy, have criticized the commission for not giving the reservoirs enough blame for the flooding. The reservoirs, in the Catskill Mountains area, empty into streams or rivers that lead to the Delaware. Earlier this year, the conservancy hired Roger Ruggles, a Lafayette College engineering professor and hydrologist, to study the role the reservoirs played in the three floods.

Rupert said the DRBC hasn't seen Ruggles' study and couldn't respond to it.

According to the study, providing extra space -- called a void -- in the reservoirs would have resulted ''in a significant decrease in flood-water elevations during each of the three studied storms.'' For example, if the reservoirs had been at 80 percent capacity during the 2006 storm, the flooding would have been reduced by as much as 6 feet.

Ruggles noted that the damage caused by the reservoirs would have been greater to the north of the Lehigh Valley.

''As you move further downstream, that impact diminishes,'' Ruggles said in an interview earlier this month. ''But I think even in this area here, the impact is significant for people.''

The entire issue, Ruggles said, requires much more extensive study, something the DRBC wants to do. Last week, the commission, along with Army Corps of Engineers, heard that it would receive $285,360 in federal funding. It was part of a larger package that included $1 million for flood mitigation in Lehigh and Northampton counties, and $235,000 for the DRBC to set up an enhanced flood-warning system.

WHAT'S NEXT

Information meetings: 3-5 p.m. and 6:30-9:30 p.m. Jan. 8 at the offices of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, 1650 Arch St., 26th Floor, Philadelphia.

Public hearings: 3-5:30 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. Jan. 16 at the West Trenton Volunteer Fire Company, 40 W. Upper Ferry Road, West Trenton, N.J.

To testify: Register in advance with the commission secretary, 609-883-9500, ext. 224.

Written comments: are being accepted through the close of business on Jan. 18, by e-mail to paula.schmitt@drbc.state.nj.us;

by mail to Commission Secretary, DRBC, P.O. Box 7360, West Trenton, N.J. 08628-0360, or by fax to 609-883-9522. Include name, affiliation and address in comments and ''FFMP'' in the subject line.

FLEXIBLE FLOW MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

The Delaware River Basin Commission's Flexible Flow Management Program is outlined in a 28-page document, available on its Web site.

Here's a brief rundown:

It provides safe and reliable water supplies to 17 million New York City-area customers.

It manages discharges from the reservoirs that hold that water.

It assists in mitigating the impact of flooding.

It maintains cold-water fisheries, and protects the ecological health and endangered species along the river.

To read the report, visit http://water.usgs.gov/orh/nrwww/odrm/ online.

tom.coombe@mcall.com