PASCACK VALLEY—A local nonprofit “flood solution” organization is gathering online signatures and pressing state officials to support legislation that requires water utilities to operate the state’s 700-plus reservoirs with regional flood control in mind as well as overall water supply.
The group, New Jersey Flood Solution Advocates, has a petition at change.org/demandfloodcontrol that asks visitors to ask “our governor and Legislature to enact Senate Bill 790 and Assembly Bill 4200, and to order maintenance of a 91-foot maximum water level in Woodcliff Lake Reservoir.”
State Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-River Vale), along with state Sen. Joseph Lagana (D-Paramus) introduced the legislation to regulate reservoirs in the Senate in January.
Republican Assemblyman Robert Auth, (R-39) who introduced bill A-4200, along with Republican Assemblywoman DeAnne DeFuccio (R-39) and Christopher Tully (D-38), told Pascack Press that he recently reached out to Gov. Phil Murphy on the issue.
The legislation notes it requires DEP and owners of certain reservoirs to implement certain flood control measures; authorizes Office of Emergency Management to order lowering of reservoir levels in response to severe weather events.
“If they pass this legislation, that will diminish the amount of flooding” from reservoirs statewide, said Frances Yates, of Westwood, a member of New Jersey Flood Solution Advocates, and one organizer behind the online petition supporting legislation to require flood mitigation from reservoir owners, mostly public and privately owned utilities.
She said the first step to put a “temporary fix” on local flooding has to be the required drawdown of reservoirs before storms to lessen local flooding. She said the issue appears to be a statewide problem that needs addressing now.
She said once the proposed legislation was passed to require water utilities to regulate reservoirs for flood control, that will provide some relief to regularly flooded areas, even from so-called “no-name storms” that had caused local flooding, damage, and recurrent impacts.
She said following legislation passage, she recommends other strategies to control flooding: the state needs to provide more funds for buyouts of properties in flood-prone areas; minimize new development and impervious surfaces; and require water utilities that transfer water between reservoirs to install the underground infrastructure to do so.
Yates said this would reduce the volume of water entering local streams during high-intensity or severe weather events, and likely reduce flooding. No plans or proposals for such an underground system have materialized.
The petition notes, “For decades, residents and businesses in flood-prone areas in and around Westwood and Hillsdale have repeatedly suffered serious damages from an ever-increasing number of severe rain storms. Some are known as named storms such as Floyd, Sandy, Irene and Ida.”
It adds, “There have also been many more unnamed storms which nonetheless threaten and flood as many as 800 properties in Westwood and Hillsdale alone, each time causing multiple thousand of dollars in damages to each property, not to mention the municipal costs of emergency responses borne by all taxpayers.”
And it says, “Water supply has been an issue in this area at most twice in the last 25 years for short periods of time requiring at most minor water use restrictions on lawn watering. The Woodcliff Lake Reservoir was virtually empty for two years while the dam was renovated with no adverse effect on the water supply.”
It concludes, “At the same time there were multiple major storms which did not result in flooding which might have occurred had the reservoir been at full capacity. This reservoir represents no more than 0.3% of the total water supply in the Veolia reservoir system. Reducing the level would reduce supply by only a small percentage of that while affording residents and businesses downstream some peace of mind every time there is a heavy rain.”
The nonprofit is not the only group strongly pressing for legislative action. The Pascack Valley Mayors Association, which includes mayors of 10 towns in the Pascack Valley, have signed a letter to Murphy and a state nonprofit advocacy group, the State League of Municipalities, seeking support for the flood control legislation targeting reservoir owners.
“Requiring the providers to manage their asset responsibly by requiring feasible flood mitigation protocols that can reduce (not eliminate) the growing number of flood threats is consistent with, and will not impair, the vendors’ principal mission,” the mayor said.
They said, “In addition to mitigating flood damage, reducing the frequency of swift water flows from dam releases during storms will diminish their adverse ecological impacts, thereby enhancing a public good.”
The mayors cite the rising impacts of climate change, silt and sediment accumulation in local brooks and streams, and overdevelopment in Pascack Valley as causes of increased flooding from even minor rain storms. They urge legislation passage, noting “this is a statewide issue, experienced by our constituents.”
The legislation, which has yet to be posted in either house, requires DEP to identify problem reservoirs and then requires an “action plan” from utilities to manage their reservoirs for flood control. It also indemnifies utilities that have an NJDEP-approved action plan.
The legislation requires NJDEP to conduct studies statewide.
The bill would direct the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) “to identify those reservoirs in the state with a documented record of flooding, as determined by the DEP. For each identified reservoir, the DEP would be directed to study and assess the downstream river or stream capacity and water storage capacity of the reservoir, and the water usage needs of the residents and businesses served by the reservoir.”
The bill also requires the DEP “to adopt rules and regulations necessary for implementation of the bill, including rules and regulations that establish a maximum level for each reservoir based on the results of the studies” and says DEP would be required to set the maximum level for each reservoir “at a level that best protects the areas surrounding the reservoir against flooding while ensuring an adequate water supply.”
Veolia: Flood control impacts water quantity, quality
While Pascack Valley mayors, residents and legislators are pressing for legislative action to control reservoir releases and mitigate downstream flooding, Veolia Water Company, which owns a network of reservoirs including Woodcliff Lake and Oradell reservoirs — and serves hundreds of thousands of customers in Bergen County — maintains this cannot work, and notes the state DEP backs its position.
Debra Vial, a Veolia spokesperson, told Pascack Press on Sept. 14, “Before the rains 10 or so days ago, we were below 60% capacity in our reservoirs and at the peak, we were pumping 155 million gallons a day from our Haworth Treatment Plant. We are now at 70% in the Oradell Reservoir.”
She said “Dams are operated under the strict oversight of the DEP and state regulators do not allow for the release of water ahead of storms Regulators have good reason for this: The last time a release was ordered, the storm produced very little rainfall. That was followed by a severe drought, leaving depleted reservoirs struggling to meet the needs of millions of residents and businesses.”
And she said, “This is why the DEP has informed the mayors that the agency will not support a plan to require releases from the reservoirs in North Jersey. As Caryn Shinske, a DEP spokeswoman, said earlier this summer: ‘Use of these reservoirs as a surrogate flood risk measure could adversely impact safe drinking water and potentially diminish their ability to meet water supply demands for 800,000 customers throughout Bergen County’.”
Vial said, “The company’s reservoir system and its dams are built to protect the water supply, an essential resource, for residents and businesses. The reservoirs mitigate some flooding issues in the region by holding water.”
She added, “However, there are areas in traditional floodplains — flood plains that existed long before the reservoirs — where development should have been discouraged. That’s why the state has made buying homes in floodplains a priority through their Blue Acres program.”
She said, “We understand that some areas have been impacted by development and we are working closely with municipalities to discuss giving them real time data on storms and reservoir levels. We have also offered to help them coordinate the clearing blockages in their stream beds just as we continue to clear our portion of the waterways.”
We have reached out the DEP.