New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 21 - Miscellaneous
Chapter XVIII - Delaware River Basin Commission
Subchapter E - Water Code
Part 890 - Conservation, Development And Utilization Of Delaware River Basin Water Resources
Allocation of Water Resources
Section 890.10 - Drought emergency actions
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a) Criteria defining conditions. For purposes of water management pursuant to section 3.3 and article 10 of the compact, the determination of drought warning and drought conditions shall be based upon the combined storage in the Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs, in accordance with Figure 1, entitled "Operation Curves for Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs". The division of the drought-warming zone into upper and lower halves shall be defined as a physically equal division, or 20 billions of gallons in each zone.
(b) Drought emergency declaration. It is the policy of the commission that a drought emergency will be declared for purposes of imposing mandatory in-basin conservation measures and other appropriate actions whenever combined storage in the New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs falls into the drought zone as defined in Figure 1 (section 890.9 of this Part) for five consecutive days. Termination of a drought emergency will be considered by the commission whenever combined storage in the New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs reaches a level 40 billion gallons above the drought warning line as defined in Figure 1 and remains above that line for 30 consecutive days. The drought emergency will be terminated by the commission whenever the combined storage in the New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs reaches 40 billion gallons above the drought warning line defined in Figure 1 and remains above that line for 60 consecutive days, unless the commission unanimously agrees to extend the emergency.
(c) Effect of policy. This policy is not intended to extend, impair, or conflict with the commission's authority under the compact to declare or terminate a drought emergency or water-shortage emergency in the basin, or subregion thereof, in other instances as conditions may require.
