To fight floods, clear the floodplains
By Maya K. van Rossum The Delaware River is often recognized as the last major free-flowing river east of the Mississippi. But this does not mean the Delaware is totally unscathed by dams. Three dams that sit on the Delaware's major headwater tributaries allow New York City to
By Maya K. van Rossum
The Delaware River is often recognized as the last major free-flowing river east of the Mississippi. But this does not mean the Delaware is totally unscathed by dams. Three dams that sit on the Delaware's major headwater tributaries allow New York City to draw up to 800 million gallons per day of Delaware River water to support their communities in the Hudson watershed. Flows from the reservoirs also ensure drinking-water supplies for downstream communities, including Philadelphia.
The massive size of these obstructions and their storage capacity have a dominating effect on the health and flows of the entire river, affecting all communities in this watershed. As a result, how to manage these reservoirs has long been subject to vigorous debate.
Our communities are now facing dramatic changes in how Delaware River flows from the New York dams will be regulated and divvied up among the four watershed states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.
In order to implement a deal already cut between the watershed states and New York City, the Delaware River Basin Commission is taking public comment on a new reservoir-management plan, the so-called Flexible Flow Management Plan. The problem is that this plan is contingent upon a fundamentally flawed assumption: that the upper Delaware needs to be further dammed to achieve the goals of drinking water, fishery and ecosystem protection.
But higher dams and more storage are not what is needed or wanted on our river. First, the agreed-upon plan is going to be implemented for four years without bigger dams or additional storage - so clearly bigger dams are not needed for the plan to work. In addition, the plan calls for releases to provide flood protection, releases that could jeopardize the drinking-water and fishery-protection goals of the reservoirs, and that cannot provide reliable and complete flood protection.
Presenting the New York dams as a successful method for reducing flooding or flood damages provides a false sense of security for river communities. While altering flow releases to prevent dam spills that contribute to flooding in communities immediately downstream of the dams makes sense, suggesting that the New York dams could provide flood protection to communities farther down along the Delaware is misleading and unfair.
Promising undeliverable flood protection to downstream communities actually encourages flood-prone homes to remain on flood-prone lands, and encourages new development in these same dangerous places. Promising undeliverable flood protection also means that our communities and region will not have the time, resources or the inclination to seek out and fund truly effective flood-protection measures.
The best flood protection - the only true flood protection - we can provide is to prevent new development in the floodplain, to remove existing development where it has occurred (except for those instances where there are unique cultural, historic or other community values it is agreed should be preserved), and to restore the floodplain so it can function to reduce flood damages and provide a healthy riparian habitat. This supports the goals of a healthy fishery, clean drinking water, and vibrant ecotourism as well.