Emergency communications and policy in question

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY, NY — It comes as no surprise to anyone involved, but no one is in charge of coordinating emergency management efforts.

At the center of this revelation is Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci, whose town sits at the confluence of water that would be released from the Rio Dam system into the Mongaup River and from the Lake Wallenpaupack Dam into the Lackawaxen River.

Early on April 3, during record flooding in the Delaware River, LiGreci learned of a Lake Wallenpaupack Dam release into the Lackawaxen River and concerns that the additional slug of water could cause even greater downstream flooding. LiGreci said his first thought was, “I wonder if they’re releasing water from Rio,” the last downstream dam in the Mongaup River hydroelectric system in Lumberland. He was concerned what a combined release from both rivers might do.

He called and located the Mirant Corporation plant engineer for Rio and learned that they were not aware that Wallenpaupack was releasing and that they had no plans to release water at Rio.

He learned later that Pike County emergency officials only learned of the Wallenpaupack release after it had begun.

LiGreci was relieved about Rio, but left with the question: Wasn’t someone in charge of authorizing releases from these dams during flood situations? “I still don’t know the answer to that,” he said on May 16.

The answer, according to the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is that no public agency is in charge of coordinating or overseeing releases from private dams during flooding situations.

DOI employee Deputy Delaware River Master Gary Paulachok controls releases from upstream New York City reservoirs to maintain a U.S. Supreme Court-ordered minimum water level in the Delaware. Paulachok said that recent drought operations planning will allow him to call on Wallenpaupack in low-water situations, but neither the 1954 Supreme Court decision nor subsequent agreements provide and flood situation management. “The Supreme Court decision didn’t cover that,” he said.

Paulachok said the DRBC can order releases from the Mongaup during severe drought conditions, but there is no standing drought or flood control agreement with Mirant on the Mongaup River.

DRBC spokesman Clark Ruppert confirmed that the agency has no oversight of flood operation of privately owned dams.

LiGreci said there were also communications issues during last week’s incident at the Swinging Bridge Dam. The state police gave timely notification about the problem at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. He declared a state of emergency in the town and the county declared an emergency in Lumberland and Forestburgh. With a Mirant official’s Thursday afternoon assurance that the dam presented no imminent threat, county Emergency Management Commissioner Richard Martinkovic said the county would step down its emergency status, but LiGreci left Lumberland’s declaration in place until 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

At the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Binghamton, hydrologist John Chiaramonte received Mirant’s notification of a problem with the dam early Thursday. At that point, Chiaramonte said that the engineers, state and county emergency officials did not feel any alert from the weather service was required, he said.

But on Friday morning, Mirant called again, this time with some concern about changes in the situation, suggesting a bulletin might be judicious, Chiaramonte said. Chiaramonte said he conferred with Sullivan and state authorities and issued a 7:00 a.m. flash flood watch for Sullivan and Pike counties, based entirely on concerns about the dam. The NWS statement prompted a new emergency declaration in Orange County.

But Martinkovic said that there were no new concerns about the dam on Friday morning and Sullivan County had understood that NWS planned the flood statement based on a storm moving up the coast. Martinkovic said NWS was asked to amend its statement and reissued its statement at 11:00 a.m., after deleting references to problems with the dam.

With or without the dam reference, the watch remained in effect until 4:00 on Saturday and prompted the National Park Service to close the Delaware River to boaters from Pond Eddy to the Delaware Water Gap.

Back in Glen Spey, LiGreci said he was not notified about anything that was happening on Friday as his emergency declaration was expiring. “My town would have been the first to affected by flooding, but we were not told,” he said.

“We are responsible for seeing to the health and safety of our residents, but if I don’t have the information, I can’t do that. We spent a year making up an emergency plan for our town. We did our job.”

Responding to LiGreci’s concerns, Martinkovic said he would be happy to sit down with him and look for resolutions.

LiGreci, who also chairs the Sullivan County Association of Supervisors, said he would bring the issues before the association’s next meeting. “I don’t feel comfortable with the situation as is,” he said.