New York City DEP announced that it will begin ramping up releases today in anticipation of increased rainfall runoff. The DEP notified local officials via email with the following statement:
NYCDEP Bureau of Water Supply will begin releasing water from the Ashokan Reservoir through the Release Channel starting today. The release will be ramped up to a rate not to exceed 600 million gallons per day. Activation of the release channel is made to create more room in the reservoir to capture projected runoff and will help to minimize impacts to the water supply. Such releases have the added benefit of further enhancing the flood protection the reservoir already provides downstream. We will continuously monitor the release rates and adjust as necessary. Additional notifications will be made as required. Thank you for your cooperation.
Under the Interim Release Protocol, the DEP is allowed to make “Operational Releases” to prevent overspill of poor quality water from the West Basin into the East Basin of the Ashokan Reservoir.