River gages may go offline

City DEP budget woes to blame

By FRITZ MAYER

NEW YORK STATE — Because of budget constraints, some 50 water gages in the state are slated to be shut down, some in as little as three months, others by September 2010.

In the Upper Delaware River area, those to be closed on September 30 are the Barryville gage, which has been in operation for 42 years, and the Pond Eddy gage, which has been in operation for 36 years.

Scheduled closures for September 2010 include one on the Beaverkill at Cooks Falls, which has been in operation for 96 years, the Callicoon gage on the Delaware River, operating for 34 years, and the gage at Port Jervis, which has been in place for 105 years.

About 50 gages, out of a network of about 300 in the state, are scheduled for closure. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and 44 other federal, state and local agencies fund the data collecting network.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) helps fund many of the gages in this region, and it is the decision of the DEP to cut back. The USGS will continue to look for new partners to keep the gages going. Gary Firda, a groundwater specialist with USGS, said his organization is timing the closures so that ones that provide more important data operate for a longer period while new funding partners are sought.

He said the most important gages are the ones that provide flooding forecast information to the National Weather Service. He also said the ones that are more valuable, in his view, are those that have been around longest, such as the one at Port Jervis, which can help provide data over a long period of time.

A notice on the USGS website reads as follows: “Data collection at the following stream gages may be discontinued due to funding reductions from partner agencies. Although historic data will remain accessible, no new data will be collected unless one or more new funding partners are found. Users who can contribute funding for the non-Federal share of costs to continue operation of these stream gages should contact Rafael Rodriguez, Director of the USGS New York Water Science Center at 518/285-5658, rrodrigu@usgs.gov.”

The news that some gages are up for closure has brought protests from politicians. State senator John Bonacic has asked to meet with DEP officials and other officials to come up with a plan to keep the gages operating. In a statement, he said, “Measuring and managing stream flow is important to recreational interests and, most importantly, it is important in preventing disasters.”

Go to waterdata.usgs.gov/ny/nwis/rt for a complete list of the affected gages.