N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 21 § 890.11
During "drought" conditions as defined in Figure 1 (section 890.9 of this Part), the Francis E. Walter, Prompton, Beltzville, Blue Marsh, Nockamixon, Lake Wallenpaupack and Mongaup hydroelectric reservoirs, will be utilized to complement the drought management operations of the New York City reservoirs. The priority of lower basin reservoir use to meet Trenton flow objectives is set forth in Table 1 of this section.
TABLE 1
PRIORITY OF USE FOR EXISTING
LOWER BASIN RESERVOIRS DURING DROUGHT
| Operation to Meet | Remaining | cfs-days | |
Priority | Trenton Objective | Storage (%) bg | Used |
| 1 | Prompton*/** | ||
| 2 | F.E. Walter** | ||
| 3 | Beltzville to Elev. 615 | 73.7/9.89 | 5,475 |
| 3 | Blue Marsh to Elev. 283*** | 68.9/5.13 | 3,595 |
| 4 | Nockamixon to Elev. 385 | 68.7/9.00 | 6,364 |
| 5 | Beltzville to Elev. 590 | 38.0/5.10 | 7,411 |
| 6 | Blue Marsh to Elev. 273 | 36.8/2.74 | 3,700 |
| 7 | Beltzville to Elev. 537 | 3.4/0.45 | 7,198 |
| 7 | Blue Marsh to Elev. 261**** | 13.0/0.97 | 2,735 |
| 8 | Nockamixon to Elev. 325.5 | 1.0/0.13 | 13,745 |
* Subject to reconstruction of temporary control gate (Depending on final negotiations with the Corps of Engineers).
** Would first require filling of temporary storage, so would not likely be available during the first year of a drought (use subject to final negotiations with the Corps of Engineers).
*** Blue Marsh Reservoir augments flow of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River downstream of the Trenton gage at Philadelphia; however, for estuarine salinity control, flow augmentation in the Schuylkill River has roughly the same effect as an equal augmentation in the Delaware River at Trenton.
**** Sufficient storage would be retained to supply the needs of the Western Berks Water Authority.
Lake Wallenpaupack and the Mongaup reservoirs would be called upon to provide releases to assist in meeting the Montague flow objective in the summer and fall periods whenever reservoir releases would have to be directed by the River Master. These releases would be independent of lower basin release requirements needed to maintain flows at Trenton. After issuance of a Conservation Order by the commission, the power companies, as agreed upon, shall make power generation releases from storage only in accordance with commission direction. For Lake Wallenpaupack, the schedule is set forth in Table 2 of this section. While the Lake Wallenpaupack schedule is designed to meet drought management requirements, the lake levels have been established to preserve the recreation value of the lake during the summer months.
TABLE 2
LAKE WALLENPAUPACK ELEVATION SCHEDULE
DURING DROUGHT CONDITIONS
| Month (1st Day) | Elevation (ft.) | Daily Average* Discharge (cfs/24 hr.)** |
| June | 1187.0 | 308 |
| July | 1185.0 | 297 |
| August | 1182.0 | 232 |
| September | 1179.0 | 247 |
| October | 1176.0 | 254 |
| November | 1173.0 | 282 |
| December | 1170.0 | 25 |
| January | 1171.1 | 25 |
| February | 1172.2 | 25 |
| March | 1176.6 | 25 |
| April | 1180.0 | 25 |
| May | 1184.9 | 25 |
| June | 1187.0 | 308 |
* Based on 1960's drought of record inflows.
** Daily release volume may be provided during "on peak" power periods.
For the Mongaup reservoirs, a drought operation rule curve will be followed. The rule curve will be based on maximum available storage of 15.38 billion gallons for the total system and will provide for refilling the system during the worst hydrologic year of record and for maintaining a minimum release. Daily average discharge for the period June-November inclusive generally will be on the order of 100-150 cfs/24-hours and for the period December-May inclusive generally will be on the order of 20-30 cfs/24-hours. Temporary storage in Prompton reservoir would be used to help meet the Trenton objective; however, depending on upper and lower basin conditions, Prompton releases could also be used for a Montague objective if there was a critical need to conserve storage in the New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs and the combined storage in the Beltzville and Blue Marsh reservoirs was above 70% of capacity.
Francis E. Walter reservoir will be called upon to meet the Trenton flow objective only after any storage in Prompton is depleted. It is understood, however, that until this dam is modified to retain water supply storage, its function is flood control. It will not likely be available for flow maintenance during the first year of a drought if such drought is declared subsequent to June 1, or the end of the heavy spring runoff period. Water could be stored temporarily in flood control storage upon issuance of requests for storage and releases after issuance of a conservation order by the commission. In the event of a threatening major storm, temporarily stored water may have to be released in order to restore the necessary flood protection capacity of the dam. Water may also have to be released in order to draw down to the winter drought pool level at elevation 1,370 (see Table 3 of this section). If releases to meet winter drought pool requirements or to prepare for a storm occur when releases are not required for the Trenton flow objective, then the Montague requirement would be adjusted in order to save equivalent water in the New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs. In so doing, the storage saved in the New York City reservoirs would be available for use later should the drought persist, or be available, if conditions improve, to return to a normal condition at an earlier date, at which time restrictions could be lifted.
TABLE 3
TEMPORARY EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY STORAGE AT F.E. WALTER RESERVOIR (PURSUANT TO DROUGHT DECLARATION)
| F.E. Walter Reservoir | Usable storage 11.30 bg between elevations 1300 | ||||
| (DA 288 sq. mi.) | to 1392. Inactive storage below elevation | ||||
1300-0.58 bg (1793 ac-ft) | |||||
Storage | |||||
| Elevation (ft./s.l.d.) | Surface Area (acres) | (acre-ft.) | (bg) | (inches runoff) | |
| Drought/ | |||||
| Summer Pool* | 1392 | 824 | 36,458 | 11.88 | 2.37 |
| Drought/ | |||||
| Winter Pool** | 1370 | 587 | 20,831 | 6.79 | 1.36 |
| Normal Pool | 1300 | 80 | 1,793 | 0.58 | 0.12 |
| 1245 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
* Drought summer pool = 11.30 billion gallons of temporary water supply storage (32% of flood control storage).
** Drought winter pool = 6.21 billion gallons of temporary water supply storage (18% of flood control storage).
While it is clearly understood that the water supply storage at Beltzville and Blue Marsh reservoirs is to be used for water supply and to control salinity intrusion into the Delaware estuary during low flow periods, it is also recognized that extensive recreational development is established on these lakes, which should be protected to the extend possible. Accordingly, the operation plans for both of these reservoirs, as well as Nockamixon, in drought emergencies have recognized these multiple uses, with water supply having precedence.
After Francis E. Walter, then Beltzville, Blue Marsh, and Nockamixon reservoirs are used in that order down to the elevations indicated in Table 1 of this section for priorities 3 and 4, at which elevations recreation will become affected. Recreation will then be eliminated at Beltzville and Blue Marsh while retaining fish life, as those two reservoirs are drawn down to the elevations indicated as priorities 5 and 6. Finally, all remaining usable storage would be utilized as indicated by priorities 7 and 8.
When only conservation releases are being made from the lower basin reservoirs, they will be modified according to Table 4 of this section, beginning with "drought warning" conditions, as defined by Figure 1 in section 890.9 of this Part. Drought conservation releases will terminate and return to normal at the same time as augmented conservation releases are restored at the New York City Delaware reservoirs.
TABLE 4
CONSERVATION RELEASES
| Reservoir | Normal Conservation Release (cfs) | Drought Warning and Drought Conservation Releases (cfs) |
| F.E. Walter | 50 | 43 |
| Prompton | inflow-outflow | 6 |
| Beltzville | 35 | 15 |
| Blue Marsh | 41 (50*) | 21 (30*) |
| Nockamixon | 11 | 7 |
* With Western Berks Water Authority release included. As the future needs of the Authority increase, the release will correspondingly increase.
Operation of the lower Basin reservoirs for drought management will continue unt\l termination of the drought emergency declaration by the Commission.
Footnotes
* Subject to reconstruction of temporary control gate (Depending on final negotiations with the Corps of Engineers).
** Would first require filling of temporary storage, so would not likely be available during the first year of a drought (use subject to final negotiations with the Corps of Engineers).
*** Blue Marsh Reservoir augments flow of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River downstream of the Trenton gage at Philadelphia; however, for estuarine salinity control, flow augmentation in the Schuylkill River has roughly the same effect as an equal augmentation in the Delaware River at Trenton.
**** Sufficient storage would be retained to supply the needs of the Western Berks Water Authority.
N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 21 § 890.11