Daily Gazette
Sacandaga days away from spilling over
Critics: Lake being used too aggressively for storage
BY JOE MAHER
Hudson River Black River Regulating District officials are advising
the public that the Great Sacandaga Lake is going to crest over the
spillway at the Conklingville Dam in the coming days.
The man-made flood-control reservoir was only inches from overflowing
the spillway as of Friday afternoon.
The lake is considered full at
768 feet above sea level and the spillway elevation is 771 feet above
sea level, giving regulators some extra emergency storage capacity.
The
lake's surface elevation as of 1:30 p.m. Friday was 770.71 feet above
sea level.
The district's chief engineer, Robert Foltan, said that
heavy rain that fell over the Great Sacandaga Lake watershed Thursday
is expected to increase the elevation of the lake approximately
1.4 feet by Wednesday.
Critics of the district have said the "aggressive
use of storage" policy contained in the Conklingville Dam's
federal relicensing agreement, called the "offer of settlement," has
resulted in high water levels, shoreline erosion problems and property
damage.
But Foltan said the district is simply following the rules
of the settlement agreement.
"Since the heavy rains of July the
Hudson River Black River Regulating District has maximized the releases
of water from the Great Sacandaga Lake in accordance with the offer
of settlement," Foltan said Friday.
Critics such as Peter VanAvery
of the Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee, though, have said
that a flood-control reservoir without any excess storage capacity
is useless as a flood-control tool.
The district, he contends, could
release more water than it has, and is aggressively storing it
to maximize hydro-electric power generation at the expense of the
Hudson River Valley communities it is supposed to protect from
flooding.
Reach
Gazette reporter Joe Maher at 725-8412 or jmaher@dailygazette.net.
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