Brent Gotsch
Title: Technical Advisor, Reservoir Releases
Contact: (845) 334-7893; bgotsch@dep.nyc.gov
NWSA Involvement: Member
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Bio:
Brent Gotsch is the Technical Advisor for Reservoir Releases and Policy Development with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Bureau of Water Supply. In this capacity, he helps ensure that DEP meets its legal and technical requirements for releases downstream of its Delaware and Catskill System reservoirs.
In NYC’s Delaware Reservoir System, the City is bound by a 1954 Supreme Court Decree that allows the City to divert up to 800 MGD for water supply from the Delaware River Basin but requires a flow target to be met at the USGS stream gage in Montague, NJ as well as other parameters. He also serves as one of NYC’s representatives to a working group for the parties to the 1954 Decree that includes representatives from the states of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania as well as the Office of the Delaware River Master and the Delaware River Basin Commission. He does similar work in NYC’s Catskill Reservoir System. He is one of the City’s representatives on an interagency group that meets quarterly to discuss issues related to releases from the Ashokan Reservoir and its impacts on downstream communities such as turbidity and flooding concerns.
Brent is a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) and a member of both the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and the New York State Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association (NYSFSMA) where he currently serves as Vice-Chair.
Brent holds a B.A. in History and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree, both from Binghamton University, State University of New York. He lives in Grahamsville, NY on his family’s Christmas Tree farm.
Organizational
Overview:
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Organization Type: Municipal Water and Wastewater Utility.
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Water Supply: Surface Water (19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes).
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Population Served: Approximately 9.5 million (8.5 million in New York City and 1 million upstate equaling roughly one-half of New York State’s total population).
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Water Users: Primarily NYC residential and commercial users but also wholesale to entitled upstate communities.
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Total Storage Volume: 580 billion gallons (approximately 1,779,955 acre feet).
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Key Issues/Challenges: Maintaining/updating aging infrastructure, river flow management in the Catskill and Delaware Systems, coordination with multiple state and federal-level agencies and stakeholder groups, salinity/sea level rise, climate change, and population growth.