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Press Release From Schoharie County
March 1, 2007
CITY AIMS TO BEGIN SNOWPACK-BASED FLOOD CONTROL PROGRAM AT SCHOHARIE RESERVOIR NEXT WEEK EQUIPMENT BEING BROUGHT TO GILBOA TO DE-ICE SIPHONS
Schoharie County Board of Supervisors Chairman Earl VanWormer and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Emily Lloyd announced today that the DEP is bringing de-icing equipment to the Gilboa Dam with the goal of using siphons at the Dam to begin a flood control program at the Schoharie Reservoir next week.
Chairman VanWormer said, " I would like to thank the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and Commissioner Lloyd for keeping us informed as issues develop with the Gilboa Dam. We, the Board of Supervisors, realize that sometimes things happen that interfere with doing work, but we expect that the NYCDEP will get the situation taken care of in a timely manner, as the safety of our residents is our top priority." Commissioner Lloyd said, "We are taking this step to alleviate some of the concerns of Schoharie residents about the potential for flooding when the existing snow cover melts.
The full-scale reconstruction of the Gilboa Dam will include flood gates and release works with a capacity that exceeds State guidelines. Until that work is complete in 2011, we will attempt to use the siphons in Gilboa to provide some measure of protection for people downstream." The new flood control program would aim to use siphons that were left in place after construction at the Gilboa Dam in order to maintain, when possible within the limitations of the siphons, a void in the reservoir equal to one-half of the melted snowpack in the Schoharie watershed.
Four large siphons, each with a maximum capacity of 125 million gallons per day, were installed at the Gilboa Dam last year at the start of a project to stabilize the dam. Inspections of the siphons this week showed that they are currently unusable because of ice buildup inside their steel pipes. DEP will have equipment at the dam later this week to begin the process of de-icing the siphons, and expects to have them operational by the later part of next week.
DEP manually surveys the snowpack around the Schoharie Reservoir every two weeks - more often when there is significant change to the snowpack - and estimates how much water it contains. Those surveys, combined with data received from the National Weather Service, will be used to determine when to operate the siphons in order to determine the void in the reservoir.
In December, the DEP completed a $24 million project to bring the Gilboa Dam up to State standards for existing dam construction. A full-scale, $300+ million reconstruction project from 2008 to 2011 will bring the dam up to the more stringent State standards for new dam construction. The DEP has committed to including flood gates and large, new release works as part of the full-scale reconstruction project. # # #
Update: Siphons are now running, the graph of the Dam reservoir level will show water dropping, if you use the Minekill USGS link to check the water level there it shows very little difference. This was explained to Supervisor Tony Van Glad as the same amount of water is flowing out of the Power Authorities resevoir as what is coming in and it isn't visible because of ice on top of the reservoir at Minekill.
The next phase of work, to begin as soon as possible spring of 2007, is sediment removal in front of the intake chamber of the 18.6 mile long Shandaken Tunnel. This conducts Schoharie Reservoir water to the Esopus Creek and Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County. The "Tunnel" has not been able to operate at full capacity, approx. 1000 cfs (cubic feet per second) for years because its opening on the Schoharie Reservoir side has been occluded; partially blocked with mud and the release gates have been only partially operable.