NARROWSBURG, NY— A familiar face, Jennifer Garigliano, director of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Bureau of Water Supply, was again a presenter at the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) meeting on October 5. In this meeting, she presented on a dewatering exercise that will take place on October 16 as preparation of the Delaware Aqueduct repair project. Garigliano has continued to update the UDC on the project status after announcing on June 28, a second major delay in the $1 billion project to repair the aqueduct’s leaks.  

But what’s another year?

The leaks were first discovered in the 1990s—there’s one beneath the Hudson River near Newburgh and another in the Ulster County Town of Wawarsing. The project is decades in the making—in order to repair the leaks, portions of one tunnel that connect the reservoir system to the rest of New York City’s water system will be shut down. The shutdown, which could last up to eight months, is now scheduled for October 2024.

Despite delays, fixing leaks is crucial. The Delaware Aqueduct provides around 600 million gallons of water a day to NYC—that’s around half of the city’s daily water needs.

Making sure the repair is done right is all the more important. The last time the aqueduct was dewatered was in the late 1950s.

The DEP is conducting dewatering exercises prior to the full shutdown to do just that. The March 2023 two-week exercise, when the water levels were lowered, revealed that the rate that groundwater entered the tunnel through the leaks was much higher than projected. So the project was pushed back and the second dewatering exercise was scheduled.

The projected rate groundwater infiltration was calculated to be approximately 20 million gallons. Actual infiltration was measured at 30 to 35 million gallons—necessitating a robust pumping system originally not planned. 

The second dewatering exercise, beginning October 16, will last for about three weeks—one week longer than the first. The extra week will ensure water can be held at multiple elevations to produce more accurate infiltration rates to determine adequate pumping needs for the actual system shutdown in October 2024.

Checking off some long-time to-dos

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation representative Ryan Coulter announced that a fishing access site at the Long Eddy Parcel is expected to be developed this fall. Coulter said access improvement has been years in the making and angling groups will be notified when work begins. The site will be gravel and more user-friendly for drift boaters, with seven parking spots available, plus four to five other spots, with an entrance and exit for easier drift boat flow.

In other business, the UDC moved to send a letter of support for a grant application to remove the Lake Jeff dam in Jeffersonville on the condition that there are no objections from the Town of Callicoon. The 1927 dam was damaged in 2006 and the property owners have been seeking a solution and raising money and awareness since. Though the dam is outside of the river corridor, it feeds into Callicoon Creek, a tributary to the Upper Delaware River.