Solving the Upper Delaware temperature crisis

By PETER KOLESAR

The Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) used to manage the water releases from the New York City reservoirs on the Upper Delaware River must be changed immediately to release more water into the river. The current ecological crisis on the upper Delaware proves the inadequacy of the FFMP.

On June 6, regional air temperatures shot up into the 90s. With the minimum “conservation” releases in effect under FFMP, only 260 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water was being released from the Cannonsville reservoir into the Delaware’s West Branch. With such low cold-water releases, water temperatures shot up into the high 70s and beyond. By June 11, water temperatures at Lordville reached 81.7 degrees— lethal to the trout—yet the New York City reservoirs stood at 95 percent capacity.

This situation is no surprise and could have been avoided. A coalition of Trout Unlimited, Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, The Nature Conservancy Eastern New York Chapter and The Delaware River Foundation, in partnership with Columbia University, developed the framework that underlies the FFMP. But the coalition called for substantially larger releases from the dams, precisely in order to avoid the type of crisis we currently face. When the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) implemented the FFMP, it replaced the coalition’s proposed releases with its own inadequate program. The coalition’s mathematical models predicted what has come to pass: dangerously high water temperatures.

A solution is available. The higher releases originally suggested by the coalition under its CP2 proposal have been demonstrated to provide substantial benefit to the river with no risk to the city’s water supply. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and New York City, which jointly control the Delaware, need only implement the CP2 releases immediately. Instead of the paltry 260 cfs now authorized from Cannonsville, the CP2 release would be 350 cfs. Though this would not entirely solve the crisis, it would greatly mitigate the situation by extending the reach of cold water further down the West Branch. Increasing the Cannonsville release to the coalition’s CP3 proposal of 450 cfs would protect the Delaware still further downstream.

Resistance to increased water releases comes principally from New York City’s strategy of hoarding water behind its dams. Statistical analysis of the Delaware carried out at Columbia has shown that the city’s policy is unjustified. The modest increases suggested above would not increase drought risks. The New York City dams currently stand at over 93 percent capacity. Increasing releases to CP2 or CP3 levels would have reduced the water storage in the reservoirs by one percent or less—a drop in the bucket.

Higher releases provide another benefit: increased reservoir voids. Higher summertime releases produce a September buffer in the reservoirs against the potential of hurricane-caused flooding. The river communities which have experienced three “100-year” floods in the past five years deserve increased protection.

The bottom line is that the coalition’s policies would have no negative impact on the city, yet would yield substantial benefits to the environment and to the river communities. There is no reason for delay. The evidence supporting such a change has been well documented and made available to the DRBC.

(Peter Kolesar, a resident of Eldred, NY, is founding member of the Delaware Releases Conservation Coalition and is professor emeritus at Columbia University.)