Heffley to Host Committee Hearing to Discuss Francis E. Walter Dam Reevaluation Study

[afishinado]

vcregular wrote:
Instead of NYC being required to increase flows during a low water period to meet the requirements of flow on the Delaware, the FEW water would be used to supplement the Cannonsville / Pepacton releases.

Correct Afish... but is the montague target going away?

Here is a summary of the Montague agreement >

https://www.nj.gov/drbc/programs/flow/river_master.html

I assume that flow would have to be maintained, but the FEW would be in a position to help the NYC reservoirs supplement the flow needed to keep the salt line above the water intakes below in NJ & Philadelphia.

Answer this, if the use of the FEW project is purely about PA recreation and flood control as you stated, why did NYC allocate a million dollars for the study to be done?

 

[LehighRegular]

afish

There are a couple reasons NYC is interested.

1) increasing demand on reservoirs in the watershed for saltline control. They fear that the NYC reservoirs won't be able to handle the demands in the future.
2) Provide more options for needs in #1.


Those are the big two. IMO - This would lessen the demand on the upper D reservoirs and would hopefully open up more water for conservation releases for the fishery. But that would all have to be negotiated, but if FEW comes on line, if I were FUDR, PFBC, etc. I would be having that conversation.

Timmy

The option to raise the dam is off the table (for now). They are looking at alternatives to increase the lake pool elevation and new control tower only. My guess is based on the previous Study that was performed and modeled coldwater releases from FEW based on different lake elevations, the elevations around 1390-1400 ft will be thoroughly investigated.

 

[chromefinder]

Thanks Afish...i totally agree

NYC wants the FE Walter water so they can release less into the Delaware System.

You can dress that up anyway you want like the representative did in the hearing.

 

[LehighRegular]

Chrome

There are federally mandated targets at Montague as Afish indicated. Plus there is the FFMP. Not sure how NYC can go about releasing less water into the Upper D.

Heffley didn't dress up anything, he was very calculated and just stacked the deck to inquire about the potential negatives of this Study outcome. He did very little to hear about or investigate the positives, which there are a lot and probably outweigh the negatives discussed. Most of the negatives that were discussed were speculation and already addressed in the Study scoping. But no one cares to do a little research or reading to become educated on the topic. Certain political officials and private representatives would rather spew rhetoric, mis-information and create an unsubstantiated up roar for nothing more than attention.

 

[pratt]

timmyt2 wrote:
Pratt, just by reading the thread you can see you aren't the only one who is skeptical!!

Glenside, eh? I was born and raised, how old are you?

not born & raised in Glenside (or Philly), but have been in philly since '94 and Glenside since 2000....

 

[timmyt2]

Nice, my parents still live there

 

[chromefinder]

Lehighregular

Excuse me but i wasn't talking about Heffley.

I was referring to Jennifer Garigliano, Chief of Staff, NYC DEP and her scripted Hearing testimony.

Please tell me why NYC would donate $1M to this study and expect NOTHING in return.

 

[LehighRegular]

They are getting something in return. It will relieve pressure from the Upper D reservoirs to be used during droughts. As you know, currently the Upper D reservoirs, mostly cannonsville, is used to address this need. This will help NYC save future water in those reservoirs and not deplete precious drinking water. So when more water is needed than what the Upper D reservoirs can release, DRBC will call upon FEW. Like as they do now with Blue Marsh and Beltzville. This is just another tool in their tool box. This helps NYC still meet the mandates to use the reservoirs to meet saltline control and also what they were built for in the first place, to supply drinking water to NYC residents. I would think that has some financial interest to NYC. That is why they are doing this. I can understand the skepticism. But this is a great opportunity for both the Upper D and Lehigh, if people can get past previous issues.

FYI - All the hearing testimony was scripted. Not just hers.

 

[chromefinder]

LehighRegular,
You might consider it a great opportunity for your agenda related to FE Walter Lehigh potential coldwater enhancement but nothing that enables less water to be released into the Upper Delaware system is a "great opportunity" in my book.

Please explain to me how less water flowing down the Upper Delaware River is good for that ecosystem.

 

[LehighRegular]

Chrome,

You don't know that will happen! Pure speculation. And I highly doubt it will or can happen because of the flow mandates at Montague. RIGHT? They(DRBC) would have to get that changed among the decree parties and I don't think that will be an easy task or even happen.

I fish the Upper D quite often and I don't want to see any less water for the system. But I see this as an opportunity for more water there as well. In fact the PFBC and a number of other conservation orgs have gone on record saying that any changes at FEW can not affect the Upper D system, which I believe has been incorporated as a limitation of the Study.

NYC knows how much is needed for drinking water and they pretty much have an idea for how much water is needed in any given year for meeting the flow targets at Montague. They also know how much water is historically needed for salt line control.

SO if NYC can save water from FEW to help with salt line control, they may be able to allocate more for the fishery. But I would suspect that may take some effort by conservation orgs and agencies to get that done. But it may not be that far-fetched.

 

[chromefinder]

LehighRegular,

You don't know it won't happen, also pure speculation.

I do certainly hope it works out and that if this NYC funded FE Walter Reevaluation study outcome does result in additional water storage in FE Walter reservoir for Lower Delaware river basin drought mitigation that the Upper Delaware River System flows remain completely unaffected and are not reduced in any way.

If you want to read about Montague flow objectives in time of drought see pages 8 through 10 here

https://www.state.nj.us/drbc/library/documents/watercode.pdf

 

[LehighRegular]

Lesser degree of speculation