FROM THE EXPRESS-TIMES - 7/18/07

Smaller steps to fix floods
No catch-all solution to stop river flooding, study concludes.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
By DAVID M. GOLDMAN
The Express-Times

No mitigation effort will ever eliminate flooding along the Delaware River, according to a task force report issued last week to the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware.

But a massive physical and bureaucratic effort costing millions of dollars will reduce property damage and possibly avoid loss of life in the next flood, the report concludes.

The report offers "a blueprint for action both for the immediate future and in the long term," said Clarke Rupert, a spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission. "There are no easy solutions here, and there are a number of different approaches to be considered."

No one answer but many small solutions

The Delaware River Basin Interstate Flood Mitigation Task Force report offers 45 suggestions. Included are immediate steps such as identifying land to buy, buildings to waterproof and homes to raise. That process should cost between $500,000 and $1 million, according to the report.

The 31-member task force also suggested coordinating actions at the 15 reservoirs along the main stem of the Delaware. Water releases from any or all of the reservoirs would be considered in light of river levels, coming rainfall and other factors, Rupert said.

"The process of developing a reservoir plan is already being studied in a project with staff from the United States Geological Survey, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Weather Service," Rupert pointed out. That $500,000 study began in 2006.

Reservoirs' impact not investigated

Former task force member Bill Vogt said he was disappointed but not surprised by the report's conclusions.
"They had their minds made up that weren't going to get into structural recommendations right from the start," said Vogt, a Lower Mount Bethel Township resident. "They weren't going to seriously consider controlling the spill from the reservoirs in New York to reduce the amount of flooding. That's why I left the task force."
Vogt is also a member of the Delaware Riverside Conservancy, a group of residents who are suing New York City claiming spillage from three city-owned reservoirs contributed to flooding in 2006.

Bob Shandor Jr., a conservancy member and Harmony Township resident, said he hadn't read the task force report but was cautiously optimistic that its "multi-prong approach" might help.

"Look, that's the way you attack a problem if you want to win," said Shandor who raised his Hutchinson River Road home on stilts after last year's flood. "We need to keep the pressure on the legislatures in all four states."

The flood mitigation task force was formed in response to an official request in September 2006 by the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York.

Assistant Local Editor David M. Goldman can be reached at 610-258-7171
or by e-mail at dgoldman@express-times.com.