Tag Archives: nycdep

A Night for Snow Pillows

Posted on by

0

Water Wonk Wednesdays

A weekly column on water news, tips, and innovations.

picture8

Snow Pillow monitoring station. Photo by NYCDEP 

snowpillowsnotel

SNOTEL with snow pillows. Image by USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service

The term “snow pillow” evokes a peaceful, muffling moonlit whiteness spreading a lull across the countryside. For New Yorkers, however, it’s a critical piece of hardware.

Much of the billion gallons of water used daily by nine million residents of NYC and surrounding counties arrives as snow. The white caps of the old, rounded Catskill Mountains nestling the Neversink Reservoir are a reserve bank that melts to meet our needs in warmer months. Snow melt can also swell rivers, so anticipating flood risks is very important to towns an farms. With so many lives affected by snow, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, in partnership with City University of New York and National Weather Service, is constantly looking for better ways to measure it.

At the end of the last decade NYCDEP began using “snow pillows,” essentially scales that weigh snow in remote locations and transmit data wirelessly in near real-time. The technology (first developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska) is often integrated into remote sensor stations in rougher terrains out west. The NYCDEP deployed its first snow pillow at the Schoharie Reservoir in 2008, and later near reservoirs in Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink. HarborLAB operates a canoeing and kayaking program at the Neversink for NYC youth groups and public school students to learn about their drinking water sources.

picture7

Inner workings of the NYCDEP’s latest generation snow pillow. Photo by NYCDEP. 

The NYCDEP still uses aerial surveys and good old fashioned field work to measure snowpack, but the agency plans to more than double its constellation of snow pillows to 35 stations in coming years. Another sensor used is the Gmon, which helps researchers estimate snowpack by measuring the absorption of naturally occurring radiation. Future snow data collection might increasingly rely on satellites.

picture3

For more about NYCDEP’s work to measure snowpack, please view this PowerPoint presentation by James H. Porter, PhD, Chief of Water Systems Operations at NYCDEP:

snowpack_monitoring_past_present_future-1

 

Catskills Boating with ReservoirLAB!

Posted on by

0

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The view from the ReservoirLAB launch Chandler’s Cove on the Neversink Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains.

HarborLAB warmly invites NYC public schools and community organizations to paddle with us for FREE on our Neversink Reservoir kayak and canoe fleet to learn about the natural and engineering wonders that make our city’s water wealth possible!

Here are our initial program dates:

June 10 and 11
July 8 and 9
August 5 and 6
Sept 10 and 11
Sept 17 and 18
Oct 8 and 10
 A
We’ll add dates as volunteer staffing and public demand both grow.
 A

To participate please email edu@harborlab.org with the subject line “Neversink Reservoir.” To volunteer for this program, please email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line “Neversink Reservoir.”

All adult participants must have free access permits from the NYCDEP. Apply here:  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/recreation/access.shtml

No permit is required of children under the age of 16 if accompanied by a valid permit holder over the age of 18, as will always be the case with our programs. Anyone 16 years old or older must apply for a permit.

Bus transportation grants are available from the Watershed Agricultural Council for groups incorporating forestry education into their visits to the Neversink Reservoir. ReservoirLAB will take participants on forest walks and using NYCDEP materials we’ll teach how forests protect and clean our drinking water. Classroom visits by NYCDEP professional educators also cover this topic. Apply for grants here:  http://www.nycwatershed.org/forestry/education-training/urbanrural-school-based-education-initiative/bus-tours/ 

We’re grateful to HarborLAB Camping Co-Manager Ray Tan for exploring alternative affordable busing options.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

HarborLAB educator Kamala Redd and camping co-manager Ray Tan exult in the knowledge that ReservoirLAB will soon launch!

 

The ReservoirLAB program is provided by HarborLAB volunteers and was made possible by a Catskill Watershed Corporation grant and its kind donation of boat racks; the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, which taught our volunteers to be “watershed docents” and provides reservoir access (NYCDEP also provided funds to the CWC for the grant); and ExxonMobil’s community outreach program for the Greenpoint Remediation Project, which financed a dozen volunteers’ Red Cross certification in CPR, AED, and First Aid (all for juveniles and adults) and basic water rescue for all of our programs from the Newtown Creek to the Neversink Reservoir. HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson is kindly allowing HarborLAB to use her mobile home as a camping base (for volunteers serving multiple days) and equipment storage site near the Neversink River and reservoir. Frost Valley YMCA has stored our five canoes and ten tandem kayaks, and our paddles and live vests, while we completed training and permits.

Below is a gallery of photos from a recent site coordination meeting of HarborLAB volunteers with NYCDEP and CWC officials at the Neversink Reservoir. Note nearby campgrounds, posters about invasive species and other environmental matters, a hiking path, Chandler’s Cove, and the boat racks donated to us by the CWC.

ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.

Watershed Training Report

Posted on by

0

IMG_3628

E9810004-4F8B-419B-84A9-C04E6C862F11

Thomas Dieter, a leader of the HarborLAB communications crew and Director of CUNY Start at LaGuardia Community College, was our note taker for a recent NYC Department of Environmental Protection training session to qualify HarborLAB volunteers are Watershed Docents. This was our second session for the required instruction.

Report by Thomas Dieter. Photos by Ray Tan, Erik Baard, and Patricia Menje Erickson.

March 29, 2016

LaGuardia Community College

AGENDA: ReservoirLAB Orientation with NYCDEP

5:30 PM: Introductions

Attendees: 2 NYCDEP representatives; HarborLAB volunteers; New guests, including an educator from NYCH2O. There were 15 people trained and one late volunteer who is committed to supporting the certified docents. 

(Though these sessions, along with Red Cross certifications (AED, CPR, First Aid, Basic Water Rescue for assisting both adults and juveniles), are required for our Neversink Reservoir leaders, we welcome volunteers to join us in bringing these wonderful learning experiences to NYC public school students and youth groups. Skilled paddlers are valued, but so are people to help with life vest fittings, waivers, and kid corralling!)

HarborLAB Executive Director Erik Baard started the meeting by welcoming all attendees and facilitating brief introductions.

5:45 PM: HarborLAB Overview

What is HarborLAB?

HarborLAB focuses on environmental learning through service—the “LAB” stands for “learning,” “adventure,” “boating.” HarborLAB has been around since 2012 on paper and 2013 on the water, and the fleet is purely motor-free.

What is ReservoirLAB? (Mission/vision, resources, fleet, funding, schedule, who is served.)

ReservoirLAB is an initiative to introduce students to learn about their drinking water, from the source to the sewer. It will aim to give students a FREE and comprehensive experience of the NYC water system, through a mixture of class-time, service-learning and boating trips.

A Catskill Watershed Corporation grant purchased the ReservoirLAB fleet of ten tandem kayaks and five canoes (plus life vests and paddles), and the current schedule is modest, involving monthly Friday and Saturday trips to serve schools and youth groups. As the volunteer base grows, the idea is to expand service offerings.

What is a Watershed Docent? What certifications are required?

A watershed docent is an educational guide for students and youth group  partners who want to learn about their potable watershed. Such docents engage participants in discussions and explorations of the regions and systems that make fresh water possible where they live—for us, that’s the Catskills Watershed, the Delaware Watershed, and the Croton Watershed.

Watershed docents are trained by qualified developers. The DEP Director of Education and Deputy Director of Education led the docent training at LaGuardia Community College on 3/29/2016. (See notes below.)

Program descriptions: Class paddles. Proposed: Partner Paddles, Community Paddles.

Currently ReservoirLAB offers class paddles at the Neversink Reservoir to NYC public school students. As ReservoirLAB scales up, partner paddles and community paddles could start as well, depending on the NYCDEP, its Catskills partners, and the needs of licensed commercial outfitters.

The Open Space Institute (OSI), which now serves as HarborLAB’s fiscal sponsors, purchases and protects land in the Catskills Watershed. HarborLAB will work with OSI to extend its regional outreach.

4/27/16 will mark our next volunteer orientation trip to Neversink.

Logistics: Transportation for us and schools/partners, lodging, storage.

Permits are necessary for entry to Neversink Reservoir. The permit is free, but must be obtained in advance to ensure access.

Logistics, storage and lodging to be investigated.

Watershed Agricultural Council grants cover some class visits to the reservoir provided that the classes combined paddling with forestry studies, and learn how forests protect watersheds.

ReservoirLAB is exploring separate travel grants to help defray some transportation costs. Currently, NYC residents will manage carpooling.

Catskills resources to augment trip value.

6:00 PM: NYC Department of Environmental Protection.

Presenters:

Kim Estes-Fradis, Director of Education. Robin Sanchez, Dep. Dir. of Education.

Materials provided:

A “Neversink: Recreational Boating” program; information cards entitled “NYC Water Supply,” “NYC Water Works,” and “NYC Water Distribution”; copies of New York City 2015 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report; and copies of The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks.

Activities

The group learned simple, inexpensive activities that we could bring to classrooms, teacher training, libraries, and youth groups to teach watershed hydrodynamics. Topics covered by the activity include how topography, hard vs natural surfaces, and temperature affect water flow. We also demonstrated how toxins can spread in surface water bodies and groundwater.

The NYC drinking water system’s infrastructure, relationship to nature, and history

A watershed is an area of land that feeds into the waterways of a particular area. Forests act as natural filters of our drinking waters.  Soil, root structures, and snow pack slowly release water into rivers and natural and human-made reservoirs. Three watersheds feed NYC: The Catskills Watershed, the Delaware Watershed and the Croton Watershed, and together they cover over 2,000 square miles, 75% of which is forested.

The Department of Environmental Protection follows the ethos of protecting water at the source. A significant portion of watershed lands are owned or protected by the DEP; the land and water are regularly tested, and the Catskills Watershed and Delaware Watershed do not need to filter their water.

NYC’s roughly 8.5 million residents use more than 1 billion gallons of water each day, and the city continues to grow. Centuries ago, the first residents originally drew their water locally, but it became an issue of water quantity and quality. Waterborne diseases like typhoid fever and cholera made water dangerous to drink, and limited access to fresh water harmed the city’s responsiveness to great fires and other natural disasters.

Leaders looked up to Westchester County, and in the 1800s Croton Watershed started feeding the city through aqueducts. The late 1800s saw the creation of the New Croton aqueduct which is still in use today, in part because in 1890 NYC became 5 boroughs. This aqueduct delivers 290 million gallons of water each day, all of it treated by filtration and disinfection.

Today, all three watersheds, the Croton, the Delaware and the Catskills, collect fresh water in 19 reservoirs and three protected lakes and hold roughly 580 billion gallons of water in storage.

The Neversink Reservoir is the smallest reservoir in the Catskills Watershed (92 sq. mi.); it has the highest elevation and reaches a depth of 175 feet. It was constructed in 1941 by damming the Neversink River and in 1954 was the second to begin operating in the watershed. To create the reservoir, two hamlets, Neversink and Bittersweet, were condemned and flooded.

To get to NYC, water from the Neversink goes through the 85 mile-long Delaware Aqueduct, the world’s longest tunnel. At certain places, the tunnel can run more than 500 feet below ground. Today, the tunnel has a substantial leak near the Hudson River, losing more than 18 million gallons per day. When City Water Tunnel 3 is completed, the city will be able to do repairs to Tunnels 1 and 2 which will have served NYC continuously since 1917 and 1936, respectively.

Where does the water go? It travels from its respective watershed and aqueduct into the Kensico Reservoir where the water then goes on to be disinfected and treated at the Catskill/Delaware UV Disinfection Facility. The water then funnels through the city’s primary service lines to more than 6,800 miles of underground water mains. The gift of gravity creates enough force for the water to travel from its watershed to six floors up most NYC buildings.

Once the water has been used, it returns to a network of tunnels, this time in the form of 7,400 miles of sewers. NYC houses 14 wastewater treatment plants where used water is processed, cleaned and return to our waterways. The Newtown Creek treatment facility is the largest in NYC, and it cleans the solid waste, or sludge.

According to the New York City 2015 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report, the local water quality is the cleanest in 100 years, since 1909 when measurements began.

Expectations (deliverables) for the program.

Docents need to know about the three watersheds that serve NYC, as well as the unique systems that transport and treat the water, and be able to communicate this information in an engaging and educational way to volunteers and participants.

Docents should engage participants in open discussions about the importance of fresh water and the implications for its use, misuse and overuse in the context of a place as rich, diverse and large as NYC. Topics of discussion can include why it is important to conserve water, the methods by which wastewater is treated and released, the average daily use of water in NYC (~75 gallons/person), and the changes we have made over time, including with the infrastructure, science and human behavior.

Some facts:

71% of the Earth is surface water.

Less than 1% of it is clean, fresh and drinkable. 2% is icepack.

NYC has the largest surface water reservoir system.

The 2.5 mile bypass that is being constructed for the Delaware Aqueduct leak (there are actually 2 leaks) will shut down the aqueduct in 2022 for about 12 months.

               

                Resources

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/environmental_education/newtown_wwtp.shtml

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/environmental_education/index.shtml

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/teacher_resource_guide.pdf

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/environmental_education/workbook.shtml

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/environmental_education/edactivities.shtml

6:50 PM: Concluding remarks and Q & A.

March 29: Reservoir Training!

Posted on by

0

neversink cove

Neversink Education Training at LaGuardia Community College

A

Learn about our city’s beautiful drinking water system, a wonder of nature and engineering! Share that new knowledge with NYC youth and kids!

LaGuardia Community College, Room C463.

A
Please share this to build our volunteer base for this program!
 A
Come get trained to be a Watershed Docent, a volunteer who’ll help introduce NYC school kids and other youth to our drinking water supply. This is NOT paddling skills training and you needn’t be an expert paddler; this is a night to learn about our drinking water system and the Neversink Reservoir itself. This program will activate HarborLAB’s second boat fleet on the Neversink Reservoir in the Catskills. This program is made possible by the NYC Department of Envionmental Protection, the Catskill Watershed Corporation, and HarborLAB volunteers.
A
Please email harborlab@gmail.com with the subject line “Neversink Training” to participate. Additionally, please join and share here: https://www.facebook.com/events/968029069940341/
 A
Volunteer candidates will be screened by our volunteer co-managers and ED.
 A
(If you received Red Cross certification funded by HarborLAB’s sponsors you have a special responsibility to this program. Please make every effort to ensure its success.)
 A
neversink-reservoir