Drought Drains the Delaware
Flow-related problems on the West Branch of the Delaware River reached a low point on Nov. 19 when the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC-DEP) drew Cannonsville Reservoir down to less than 5 percent of capacity.
The reservoir hadn’t been that low since it was built in 1965, and flows from it dipped as low as 30 cubic feet per second (cfs). Water released from Cannonsville forms the West Branch of the Delaware River, one of the best wild trout fisheries in the Northeast. Angling groups charged that New York City was diverting high quality drinking water from the Neversink and Pepacton reservoirs while draining Cannonsville to meet minimum flow requirements on the lower Delaware. They say there won’t be enough water to get the trout through the winter or to provide ample flows next summer.
The water was flushed from Cannonsville during the summer and fall months to hit mandated flows of 1,750 cfs downstream at Montague, New Jersey. Water levels in the Pepacton and Neversink reservoirs—also on the Delaware drainage upstream of Montague—dipped as low as 43 and 35 percent of capacity respectively on the same date.
Delaware River guide Anthony Ritter said the NYC-DEP “wasted” water when it released between 700 and 1,300 cfs daily during a late-season drought. He’d like to see more stable water flows of 250 to 350 cfs throughout the season to produce better trout fishing. Ritter is worried that anchor ice will form on the river this winter, killing trout, and that the reservoir will be difficult to fill, causing more problems next summer.
Geoffrey Ryan of the NYC-DEP said his department’s primary responsibility is to provide drinking water for the 9 million residents of New York, and that water in Pepacton and Neversink reservoirs waters were used only sparingly to augment Delaware River minimum flows because of their superior qualities as drinking water. Water from all three reservoirs on the Delaware system is piped into the New York City water supply system. According to the environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper, between 33 and 100 million gallons of water leak from the New York aqueduct every day. The NYC-DEP estimates from 19 to 39 million gallons are lost to leakage every day.
The water crunch is the result of a drought that fueled brush fires, lowered reservoirs, and brought appeals to conserve water across the Northeast. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska, precipitation during a six-week span of October and November was less than a quarter of normal. The Cannonsville Reservoir draws on a larger watershed (450 square miles) than Pepacton and Neversink and may be the quickest to refill when rain does come.
By the end of last November the NYC-DEP had released 110 billion gallons of water from all three reservoirs on the Delaware River to meet the Montague target. In nondought years, much of the water comes from other sources. For instance, in 1999 the department released only 37 billion gallons of water to meet the quota, and Ryan says the 110-billion-gallon tally is the highest on record.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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