Adaptive Release Policy

How it works – The Adaptive Release Policy is simply that "Adaptive." The Policy follows a simple premise; More water is released from reservoirs into the downstream rivers when there is more water in the reservoirs. Reservoir releases are adaptive and based on reservoir levels, seasons of the year, snow pack levels, and the best scientific research available to determine the needs of fishes and other aquatic organisms. Extensive hydrologic modeling enables scientists to ensure that releases do not impact the ability of New York City and the states downstream of the dams to withdraw water for their water supply needs.

The Adaptive Release Policy generates no more water supply risk than the current system.

What rivers benefit from an Adaptive Release Policy?

Delaware River Maps. Click individual map to enlarge

Benefits of an Adaptive Release Policy –Extensive modeling using the best available tools (Hydrologic Models developed by the Delaware River Basin Commission [DRBC] and the Ecological Habitat Model developed by the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS] has been done to demonstrate that the Adaptive Release Policy achieves the following:

• Creates more stable river flows – the policy protects habitat by reducing erratic releases and providing more consistent releases from all three reservoirs.
• In Wet Years – reservoirs release more water and provide more habitat in the rivers, and allow these rivers to rise and fall more naturally as rainwater flows into streams.
• In Dry Years – reservoirs conserve water by reducing reservoir releases proportionally, but the policy protects the rivers by releasing more than in previous years.
• All Years – the adaptive nature of this plan creates NO practical risk to water supply as demonstrated by repeated hydrologic modeling and analysis
• Easier to Manage – the adaptive release policy is a straight-forward, easy to manage system that does not rely on complicated temperature or flow targets – virtually eliminating human error. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) has experimented in recent years with maintaining water flow targets and water temperature targets at flow gages downstream from the 3 reservoirs. Unfortunately, this previous system was designed to fail – it allowed NYS DEC to meet these targets only half of the time.

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