Canals May Call for Dip into Reservoirs: Extended Dry Spell Has Agency Working to Minimize Water Use

By Cathy Woodruff, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Sep. 20–Unless a generous dose of rainfall comes soon to central New York, the Canal Corp. may need to drain some of its 20 reservoirs in Herkimer, Onieda and Madison counties in an effort to keep boats afloat on the Erie Canal, Director Carmella Mantello said Wednesday.

Hinckley Reservoir in the southern Adirondacks, a major feeder for the canal, is at its lowest point since it was created in 1915, Mantello said. Aerial photographs of the man-made lake show wide bands of sand that normally would be far below the surface.

Because Hinckley is so depleted, the Canal Corp. this week began taking steps to reduce water consumption as boats move through locks along the stretch of Erie Canal from Lock 7 in Niskayuna to Lock 20 in Marcy, Oneida County.

“We are doing everything possible to conserve water,” Mantello said.

Under the current system, groups of eastbound boats move through locks on the hour, and westbound boats move through on the half-hour. It means delays for some boaters during a busy season.

Mantello called the process “boat pooling,” allowing several vessels to share the ride up or down as the lock fills or empties between river levels. Some 1.5 million gallons of water are used to conduct one locking, she said.

It is the first time the Canal Corp. has taken such measures to conserve water since 1980.

And unless there is enough rain to replenish the headwaters that feed the canal in the southern Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau, said canal system hydrologist Howard Goebel, the corporation will have to tap into a network of smaller reservoirs that feed the Delta Reservoir north of Rome.

The Canal Corp. owns both Hinckley and Delta, along with 18 smaller reservoirs in Herkimer, Madison and Oneida counties. They include such popular and picturesque spots as Cazenovia Lake to the south and a series of small lakes to the north along the Black River, Alder Creek and Woodhull Creek west of Boonville.

Because of their importance to boaters and those who live along their shores, Mantello said, draining the reservoirs would be a last resort — but she said it may be necessary in the effort to keep the canal open until its Nov. 15 scheduled closing.

Rainfall in the western Adirondacks has been 8 to 10 inches below normal this summer, said Stephen N. DiRienzo, senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Albany.

The outlook remains dry for at least the next week, he said, though an unforeseen rainy spell or remnants from a tropical storm remain possible and could go a long way toward making up for the drought so far.

“Normally, there are some big thunderstorms that cross over in the summer, but that didn’t happen this year,” DiRienzo said. “We could use some rain, but not too much. What we’d really like is just enough to put the reservoirs back to their normal levels.”

Goebel said levels in the Delta Reservoir remain fairly stable. But if more water is needed to feed the Erie Canal’s western Mohawk River section, he said, it will be necessary to carefully release water from other sources, such as the Alder Creek, Twin Ponds and Forestport reservoirs, to replenish Delta.

It’s a tricky task because, he said, if not released in a methodically timed way, the water could be diverted northwest along the Black River instead of into the Forestport feeder canal.

“We need to judiciously do this, so we don’t lose the water,” Goebel said.

Mantello said it’s not yet clear when the decision will be made whether to drain the reservoirs, but it could come by the end of September.

“If there’s no substantial rainfall in the Tug Hill Plateau and the Southern Adirondacks, we will be looking at these other measures,” she said. Woodruff can be reached at 454-5093 or by e-mail at cwoodruff@timesunion.com.

—–

To see more of the Albany Times Union, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesunion.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.