FLOOD HELP FROM ALBANY?

Although we are looking at another two days of rain early this week, it's a far cry from the worrisome wet season that was threatening our reservoir basin last month. Luckily the waters along the lower Esopus crested before wiping out another 200 homes.

As you'll read in the press, there was a renewed call for our government to help with the situation. Namely water level control at the Ashokan Reservoir and to determine what could be done to help those in chronic harms way.

Our State Senator, John Bonacic was quoted asking that more authority be exerted over the New York City DEP's policy so that flooding along the creek could be prevented. John is spot on. I agree that the managers of the Ashokan Reservoir could have been pre-emptive in their efforts to curtail what could have been much worse. I did read that the DEP was releasing extra water into the Esopus a few weeks prior, but it wasn't enough. How many of us remember the horrors of years past when homes were washed away with only modest warning?

Bonacic also said: “In December, you know that Mother Nature is coming, you know you are going to have snow. I don’t know if this late you’d have this much snow, I don’t think anyone anticipated that, but you’re going to have the April rains always, and you have to keep the reservoir levels lower to prevent flooding. It’s a danger to people’s homes and a danger to people’s lives.”

When asked, Senatorial candidate Larry Delarose, noted that "Ours is not the only continually flooded area in the Hudson Valley. The fact that so many people built on properties that were just too close to estuaries, makes this a problem throughout the region." He added: "What impresses me is how John [Bonacic] is actively engaged in helping to find solutions to the problem, both with the Esopus watershed and the continued water contamination issue in the Wawarsing area along the leaking NYC Aqueduct. Options are limited, but when officials work with their constituents as he has, optimal outcomes are much closer to reality."

When Delarose speaks of public service, he fully understands what the job of State Senator entails. Look no further than the 42nd District and you'll see how a representative from either party should interact with his constituents. I tend to agree with him. Regardless of how they carry on in Albany, Bonacic has always served his district well.

Other quoted sources in the press seemed to imply that because of the DEP's arrogance, they place peoples lives and property at risk with disregard. I'd like to think they are just inept in their water management practices rather than suspecting the worst.