DRBC Slow To Issue Drought Emergency
Drought Conditions Are Worse Than They Appear
Shaky Start For New DRBC Executive Director Kristen Bowman Kavanagh
The Delaware River is the source of water supply for millions of people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Competition for scarce water is fierce among the 4 states, particularly under drought conditions.
I took the above screen shot of Delaware River flows last week (11/13) as part of my criticism of the NJ DEP’s slow response to the drought.
The flows in the river are so low that they threaten the City of Philadelphia’s water supply. And they’ve been that low for weeks.
Low flows in the river cause the salt water line to migrate up river, and threaten Philadelphia’s water supply intake on the river.
The Delaware River Basin Commission manages the flows in the river. They do this primarily by mandating releases from the several reservoirs in the watershed, mostly that serve NYC demand. During drought, when river flows are low, which threaten Philadelphia’s supply, more water must be released from the reservoir to maintain adequate flows. However, those reservoirs are needed to supply NYC demands, so DRBC must balance river flows with competing NYC demands.
Finally, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held a virtual public hearing on Tuesday to consider issuing a drought emergency.
The NJ Spotlight coverage of that hearing got it wrong, see:
Here’s how they reported the direct conflicts and competing demands for NYC reservoir storage and maintaining adequate river flows to prevent migration of the salt line:
When the basin enters drought operations, it triggers conservation actions such as smaller out-of-basin water diversions by New York City and New Jersey, water conservation orders or reduced river flow targets, which allow upstream reservoirs to release less water.
These actions help the commission prepare to repel the salt front from drinking water intakes if needed by releasing more fresh water from upstream reservoirs.
Say what?
The first paragraph talks about reduced river flows and releasing LESS water from reservoirs. Both management actions would reduce river flow and allow the salt line to migrate up river and threaten Philadelphia’s intake.
The next paragraph, in direct contradiction, claims that there would be more water released from reservoirs to protect the salt front from impacting intakes.
In addition to this huge contradiction, the Spotlight story fails to report actual river flows, or whether or not they trigger the DRBC drought management plan requirements.
Under the DRBC Drought Operating Plan and according to Delaware River Basin Commission rules, when the flow at Trenton goes below 3,000 CFS for 5 consecutive days,
Lower Basin DroughtJust as there is minimum flow objective of 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) at Montague, N.J., the DRBC Water Code sets a minimum flow objective of 3,000 cfs at Trenton, N.J. (head of tide).
Finally, the story downplays a significant factor: NYC has not been taking its full allocation from the reservoirs, due to ongoing repairs to an aqueduct:
DRBC officials expect the New York City reservoirs to be under increased demand soon, as the city resumes its diversions from the reservoirs for drinking water. The city announced Monday it is pausing an aqueduct repair project that had stopped those diversions amid concerns about the drought.
“We might enter drought operations, and that’s because we expect a significant draw on the combined storage in the New York City reservoirs,” Shallcross said.
This means that the current storage in the NY reservoirs is artificially higher than it really should be, because NYC has not been taking all the water it is entitled to take. This sends a misleading message to DRBC planners in terms of the severity of the drought
This means that the actual drought conditions are far worse.
This is a very shaky start for recently installed new DRBC Executive Director Kristen Bowman Kavanagh.