Delaware River basin managers eye conservation actions amid drought

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.

Rain and snow are forecast for the eastern United States later this week, but it’s not yet clear what impact this potential precipitation will have on water supplies and the severity of the drought.

“We had a rainfall forecast — it was for a lot less rain — and we didn’t see any of that in the river,” Shallcross said. “So it will be interesting to see how much rain that we get from this predicted storm event.”

The DRBC is “preparing for either outcome,” said spokesperson Kate Schmidt.

If drought conditions worsen, the Delaware River Basin Commission could declare a “water supply emergency” to implement a coordinated response as early as Thursday — or at its regularly scheduled business meeting in early December, officials have said.

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.

The DRBC can launch drought operations before reservoir levels reach the drought thresholds, but the commission is not considering doing so at this time, Schmidt said.

Only a handful of people testified during Tuesday’s virtual public hearing. Several expressed concern about paving and water use associated with development in the upper basin, as well as climate change — which scientists say can intensify droughts by increasing temperatures. 

Karen Feridun, founder of the anti-fracking group Berks Gas Truth, lives near Neversink Mountain, where dry conditions complicated efforts to suppress a brush fire in recent days. She told DRBC officials that reading about the impact of the drought on local waterways has been “heartbreaking.”

“I feel like what’s happening now is what we’ve been telling you was going to happen if someone didn’t blink and start acting on climate change,” Feridun said.