Taskforce will address flooding and PPL releases

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA - “Man-made disasters like this are unacceptable.”

With these words, Tom Zeterberg, a Hawley resident and member of the Pike County Planning Commission, formalized the developing thinking of the Pike County Commissioners at their meeting on July 26.

A taskforce organized by the Pike County Commissioners, in conjunction with Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL), owners of Lake Wallenpaupack and the dam that controls the releases from the lake, will bring together the principal stakeholders and citizens who are concerned with the devastation caused by the recent flooding.

“There is one common denominator operating here,” said commissioner Rich Caridi. “The devastation during the storm only came after the water was released.”

A solutionževen an interim onežis needed to assure the people that this won’t happen again, Zeterberg said.

“PPL always has an excuse,” said Mike Peifer, county treasurer and candidate for the state assembly. “It has happened too many times in the past and has to be changed. We need a plan to help solve the problem. Corporate profits can’t be the only motivation. A taskforce is the way to get them to change their position.”

PPL has been roundly criticized over water releases it made at the height of the storm on Wednesday, June 28. The releases, residents assert, destroyed homes along the Wallenpaupack Creek and the Lackawaxen River.

Residents and local officials have urged the company to release water when the forecasts show that a heavy storm is coming. This was the case with forecasts of storms on June 24, 25 and 26, Zeterberg said.

PPL representatives said it is not prudent to release water early, and they have to have enough water to balance the need to create electricity, provide boating and other recreational activities that affect the local economy, and mitigate a possible drought.

“Weather forecasts in days leading up to actual rainfall events are still highly uncertain,” said Gary Petrewski, PPL senior engineer. “During the June event, rain totals far exceeded the forecasts. [We] would have to release substantial volumes of water days earlier to have a meaningful effect on peak spills. [It] could seriously affect other project purposes and create economic harm if weather patterns change course.”

The company’s website stated that the two counties of Pike and Wayne asked them not to make the releases early.

“This county did not ask to hold releases and, indeed, hasn’t the authority or the power to ask such a thing,” Caridi said.

The taskforce

Serving on the taskforce with Pike and PPL would be representatives of the Wayne County Commissioners, the Lackawaxen, Palmyra and Shohola townships and the Hawley Borough. Other stakeholders include the planners from both counties, the Wallenpaupack Watershed District, the Lackawaxen River Conservancy, the Lake Wallenpaupack Marine Trade Association, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Lackawaxen-Honesdale Shippers Association, which owns the railroad bed along the Lackawaxen River, and PPL, Caridi said.

The shippers are involved because a railroad bridge that was washed out in April 2005 has not been replaced. The shippers have a steel fabrication company that will use the railroad, and another prospect that will need rail service, said Robert Cocchi, member of the shippers board of directors, present at the commissioners meeting.

“The railroad bridge on the line between Hawley and the Erie tracks along the Delaware is vital to our operation,” he said. “We absolutely need that bridge if we want new business. We can’t afford to have any future storms destroy any more bridges.”

Zeterberg, who is a retired engineer, warned that the taskforce would need the assistance of technical and legal advisers to do the job right.

“We are confident that the company has the will to solve these problems in conjunction with the community,” Caridi said.

At a community meeting held July 19, PPL asked people concerned with the issue to serve on a committee that it would form. The committee they had in mind was the same as the taskforce the county is forming.

Paul Canevari, PPL spokesman, emphasized the joint nature of the taskforce. “It is our understanding that there will be one group, made up of the Pike County Commissioners and PPL and many others who are concerned with the flooding and the releases,” Canevari said.

Zeterberg warned that the county should take the lead in the taskforce’s work. “It is clearly the county’s responsibility to get to the bottom of this problem, and PPL will do all it can to orchestrate the discussion in their favor. This is a desperate act by desperate people,” he said.

A taskforce meeting date has not been scheduled.