Water Supply Coordinating Council
January 23, 2013
Minutes
ADMINISTRATIVE – Stewart Lovell
Stewart Lovell, chairing on behalf of Kathy Stiller,called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m.Kathywas unable to attend due to a training session. Introductions were made. The attendance list is below.
Minutes
TheSeptember 26, 2012 minuteswere corrected to reflect the presence of Zack Coppa of the DGS at the September 26, 2012 meeting, and also to clarify a passage regarding a key finding of the drilling project in the Blackbird area. The clarification is: “…properly constructed wells have the potential to yield up to 1000 gpm”. Various typographic errorswere corrected. Stewart gave clarification to Charles Jenner on several acronyms in the minutes. It was suggested and agreed to for unfamiliar terms to use the convention of spell out the first instance with (acronym), then the acronym thereafter. The minutes were subsequently approved.
Final minutes will be posted online at
WATER CONDITIONS REPORT – DGS – Scott Andres
Scott presented a summary of hydrologic conditions accompanied with a handout of conditions for Kent and Sussex along with the Drought Advisory Guidelines. Overall conditions were in the normal range across all counties. Stewart expressed some concern with the recovery being slow and Roy Simonson agreed saying that even with the White Clay Creek in the normal range it was still below the 25th percentile and without a better recovery there could be potential problems this summer. Stewart had a question about the recharge of Db24-18 with the last reported level of -14.99, just at the top of Drought Warning level. Scott said that it appears to have bottomed out and now it is recovering. Stewart added that excess precipitation is needed for the remainder of winter and through spring to reach complete recovery.
DGS’ full analysisis found on
FORECAST SYNOPSIS – Dan Leathers, State Climatologist
Dan reported that for Delaware as a whole 2012 was the warmest on record since 1895. The average temperature was 58.8ºF, or a full 4ºF above the long-term mean, following 2011 which was the 2nd warmest on record. He reported that 2012 was also the 6th driest year and was 10 inches below normal for the whole state.
Up until September the monthly distribution of precipitation was below normal in all counties, then slightly above normal in September. The big precipitation event from Sandy yielded upwards of nine inches across large areas of the state, with some parts in Sussex in excess of ten inches. If not for Sandy’s rainfall, 2012 would have gone down as the driest on record.
The El Niño Southern Oscillation had been predicted by the National Weather Service to be in a weak El Niño state but that didn’t materialize, and instead it was near neutral. In the near-term through March neutral conditions were expected but with a large range of predictions, and for the spring period it would most likely be normal. In the longer term the current predictions average out to a continued neutral state through the coming summer.
The precipitation forecast for the February-April period was equal chances of above-, near-, or below-normal and for the same period temperatures were forecasted to have a small chance of being slightly above normal. In conclusion Dan said it is not possible to give a more confident forecast either way for temperature and precipitation so it relies primarily on persistence of recent conditions.
WATER UTILITY REPORTS
Artesian–Joe DiNunzio: Joe reported everything is normal, 26 MG remained in ASR, and the target storage by summer is 130 MG.
Newark–Roy Simonson: Roy stated supply and demand was normal. Dorothy Miller noted a project involving a crossing of White Clay Creek to which Roy replied it was for redundancy, and that a second one was planned on the Wild & Scenic portion but it was not of concern. Stewart inquired about the status of dam removal, and Roy said the one near Delaware Park was slated for removal in 2015.
New Castle- Not Present.
United Water Delaware– Susan Skomorucha: Susan said currently demand was off by 1 MGD, and 32 MGD remained in ASR with recharge to begin in March with a target of 75 MGD.
Wilmington–Not present
Sussex Shores – Not Present
Tidewater - Sheila Shannon: Sheila only reported that demands were normal.
KENT-SUSSEX WATER SUPPLY PLAN – WRA: Jerry Kauffman
Jerry noted the weather last summer had provided “real test” of the system, and it worked fine. On the Supply Plan, he reported that the water allocation data and the water use data had been delivered, and the water availability analysis and demand projections out to 2030 were completed now. Accordingly, the first draft of the report was almost ready to go out to the WSCC with a target final delivery date of late May or early June.From DGS, one standout projection was that the population of Kent and Sussex is expected to increase by another 100,000 by 2030 and that, other than July, demand had been below normal in the study area. In the irrigation sector Kent has seen a decline in farmland and no increase in irrigated acreage, while in Sussex farmland had also declined, but irrigation had increased. In the public sector demand was expected to increase from 19 MGD to 21 MGD in Kent. Sussex was expected to increase to 59MGD from the current 40 MGD.
Jerry wants to add a component to the demand projection to account for climate change effects. Stewart stated he was not in favor of that approach because it was veering into speculation instead of sticking with the approach used in all previous reports, which had been well validated.
He continued that no previous reports were subjected to factoring in climate effects even though awareness of it had existed the whole time all other reports had been produced. Stewart also posited that a fractional increase of temperature, as the scenariosdepict, during a heat wave when demands are supposed to be highest, would be meaningless. Furthermore, over the past several years demands during heat waves have actually been below seasonal normals. Joe DiNunzio also said change scenarios lacked precision and that in Artesian’s system demands were actually driven by rainfall patterns not temperature.
Lorraine Fleming stated that some possible climate change impacts and their effects on future water demand should be included in forthcoming report. George Haggerty opened that if one variable was to be added then every variable should be accounted for too. Andrew Homsey suggested ranges. Stewart reiterated this particular factor remainsas speculation and factoring in multiple variables would greatly cloud the projections compared to all previous projections which were very clear.
Jerry offered that he will work with DGS on a revision of the draft in the coming week, and asked for a 30-day comment period or around the end of February. The goal is to the report to the Governor and General assembly by May/June.
GROUNDWATER MONITORING NETWORK – DGS – Zack Coppa
Zack explained DGS was coordinating with New Castle County on access to the Water Farm sites #1 and #2, and ditto for Smyrna at their site. Since last meeting, another 970 feet of monitor well had been installed at the Blackbird and Cedar Swamp sites. So far only two leads had been found for doing sampling of domestic wells. The Doves Nest and Spring Mill gages had been re-activated. Core samples would be shipped to the University of Illinois for x-ray diffraction for clay content and mineralogy. Zack said the Piney Point, Mt. Laurel, and Magothy are found to be poor aquifers in northeast Kent County, and arsenic is present in the latter two. On question from Stewart, Zack said of the two remaining well sites the Wiggins Mill Park was preferredif funding meant choosing.
Self Sufficiency Filings - DNREC
Stewart stated the City of Wilmington has submitted its filing and his review concluded the City was self-sufficient. He questioned if it was necessary to defer a vote due to the City being absent, and the consensus was to vote nonetheless. He asked for motion to approve, Joe DiNunziooffered, and Jerry and Sheila Shannon seconded, and all approved.
OTHER BUSINESS
Charles Jenner brought up that we are operating under the 2005 Drought Plan and he feels it needs to be revisited and possibly revised. Joe noted that the Water Conditions Index appeared to be faulty. Jerry Kauffman volunteered to set up a meeting at WRA to re-evaluate the Drought Plan and again stated his desire to develop a similar plan for Kent and Sussex with DGS as the lead.
NEXT MEETING – CHAIR
May 22, 2013,10:00 a.m. to Noon at the Kent County Building.
ADJOURN
Meeting adjourned at 12:00p.m.
These minutesare not intended to be a detailed record. They are for the use of the Water Supply Coordinating Council members in supplementing their personal notes and recall of Council discussions and presentations and to provide information to Council members unable to attend. Minutes recorded and submitted by S. Lovell.
Attendees: Listed alphabetically by last name.
First Name / Last NameScott / Andres
LeFeisha / Cannon
Joseph / DiNunzio
Lorraine / Fleming
Hal / Godwin
Mary Ellen / Gray
George / Haggerty
Paul / Hyland
Charles / Jenner
Gerald / Kauffman
Stewart / Lovell
Dorothy / Miller
Martha / Narvaez
Jessica / Nichol
Jessica / Ritter-Sanchez
Nancy / Parker
Edward / Rapciewicz
John / Rudd
Joanne / Rufft
Sheila / Shannon
Victor / Singer
Susan / Skomorucha
Steve / Smailer
Brian / Turner
Amy / Woodward
Zack / Coppa