Flood gauges may be cut

BY MICHAEL J. RUDOLF

Gauges that monitor river and creek levels across the region may soon be a thing of the past.

Although the need for accurate flood level information remains, Bob Hainly, assistant director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Pennsylvania Water Science Center, said federal budget cuts may force his agency to stop operating many of the gauges.

“Every government agency has less funding than they used to have,” Hainly said.

Among the gauges to be shut down in Wyoming County are the one on the Susquehanna River near Meshoppen, and the one on the Tunkhannock Creek in Tunkhannock Township, near Deer Park Lumber.

Just north of Susquehanna County in the southern tier of New York, plans are also in motion to shut down flood gauges in Windsor, Bainbridge, Binghamton and Vestal.

There is no set date for a shutdown, Hainly said, although he expects it would be in late spring or early summer.

According to the USGS website at waterdata.usgs.gov/ny/nwis/rt, the river gauge at Vestal has been providing data for 75 years, while the Bainbridge and Windsor gauges have been in continuous operation for more than 20 years.

Altogether, 44 gauges on the USGS network in Pennsylvania and 29 gauges on the USGS network in New York are targeted to be shut down or scaled back. The USGS currently operates about 300 gauges on Keystone State waterways, serving several watershed agencies, Hainly said.

Hainly explained that the gauges have traditionally been funded by a special Congressional budget allocation to the USGS. The money was distributed to the USGS, which operates the gauges, by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, which coordinates the regional flood warning system.

“None of those Congressionally-directed funds are available,” Hainly said. He explained that the federal government is currently operating on a continuing resolution basis, which means that special earmarks by Congress are no longer coming through.

Paul O. Swartz, executive director of the SRBC, said without the gauges, the public could be at risk.

“Regrettably, despite the system’s irrefutable benefits, it is now in danger. In a time of tight budgets and with the country determined to get its fiscal house in order, everyone understands the need to curb spending. But eliminating funding for this proven System risks loss of life and property and leaves Susquehanna basin residents, communities and businesses vulnerable. Is that a prudent financial decision?” Swartz asked.

The data gathered by the gauges is used by the National Weather Service as a means to predict flood levels. Without them, such forecasts will be much more difficult to make.

“They really won’t have the information they need,” Hainly said.

Dave Nicosia, warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS in Binghamton, said flood forecasting will be much less accurate without the gauges.

“Any gauge that is down will lead to less accuracy,” he said.

Nicosia explained that the NWS will continue to issue flood warnings using whatever information it can obtain from other sources, but without much precision.

“We’d still be able to put warnings up,” he said. However, they would be general information, such as a river is expected to flood in a certain area, rather than predictions on how many feet the water level will reach when it crests.

“It is not a question of whether flooding will again occur in the Susquehanna River Basin, but rather when it will occur and how severe it will be,” Swartz said.

The NWS does have a back-up plan, Nicosia said. However, the information it will get won’t come instantaneously as it does from automatic gauges.

“If we lose the gauges, we’re going to have to rely on spotters to check the river,” he said. That means firefighters, emergency personnel or other volunteers reading markings on a bridge or other object in the river and phoning in the information.

“We would do the best we could with what we got,” Nicosia said.

Hainly said it costs the USGS about $17,000 a year to operate each gauge.

The agency is currently looking for other funding sources to make up for the lost federal allocation, he said. That includes seeking direct contributions from the public.

Hainly said anyone who uses the gauge data who wishes to contribute should contact him at 717-730-6971 or by e-mail at rahainly@usgs.gov