HUNTERDON SAILING CLUB NEWSLETTER.
October 1999
Water, water Everywhere, As Pumps Lie Still
10/11/99
By Matthew Reilly
STAFF WRITER – Star Ledger
Hurricane Floyd devastated much of New Jersey, but the rainfall was good news for the drought-parched reservoir at Round Valley in Hunterdon County, right? Not exactly. In the wake of Floyd and several other soaking rains, including yesterday's, Round Valley Reservoir remains 16 feet below capacity.
While most reservoirs are fed by springs and streams, Round Valley has no natural sources of water to refill its 55 billion-gallon basin. Water must be pumped in from the South Branch of the Raritan River.
So why, when rivers were overflowing their banks with the surfeit of water that Floyd brought, didn't the New Jersey Water Supply Authority turn on the pumps and refill Round Valley?
"We don't usually pump at this time of year," said Edward Buss, who manages the Raritan system for the authority.
"We typically pump in the spring. At this time of year, the flow is not high enough over a long term to continue pumping. And once we turn on the pumps at the pumping station, we incur an electrical demand charge."
Under an arrangement with its power supplier, GPU Energy, the authority incurs an increased rate when it fires up its pumps and has to pay the higher rate for 11 months after the pumps are shut off.
So, Buss said, the authority needs to be sure it will have enough water to refill Round Valley before starting up the pumps.
"In the spring, there is a better likelihood of the water being there to pump," Buss said. "There's a lot of water from the hurricane, but we don't know how long it's going to be there. In spring the levels are higher."
Actually, the authority tentatively plans to start pumping in February or perhaps even January, if conditions allow. The authority has to make sure water levels and weather conditions are right for pumping.
The pumping station is located in a section of Clinton Township called Hamden, tucked against a bend in the South Branch of the Raritan River, from which it draws its water. The river, in turn, is fed by Spruce Run Reservoir a few miles north.
Spruce Run has a capacity of 11 billion gallons and is currently about 3 feet below normal levels.
The pumping station houses 10 enormous pumps, five in one room and five in the other, and each pump generates 2,000 horsepower. Water from the river is diverted into a holding pond the size of a couple of football fields and 8- to 10-feet deep. Giant sluice gates filter out the largest pieces of debris -- logs, branches and such -- and the water passes through smaller filters before entering two 72-inch-diameter pipes.
Outside the building, but still deep under ground, the pipes converge into a single pipe 9 feet in diameter, which travels underground more than three miles due east to Round Valley Reservoir.
The pumps have to be turned on every other year to make sure the machinery is in good working order. The last time they were activated was for just such a test in May 1998, but they haven't been turned on to pump up the water level in Round Valley since 1995, Buss said.
The reservoir is down to about 43 billion gallons after releasing water during the drought this summer. Buss said the plan is to run two of the 10 pumps during the day and four at night. At that rate, it will take about three months to refill Round Valley.
Spruce Run and Round Valley were planned in the 1950s and work began on the dams and pumping station in the 1960s, Buss said. They are designed to provide drinking water in the event of a repeat of the kind of drought that struck New Jersey in the 1960s, which was actually a three-year drought.
The reservoirs, when full, contain enough water to get through a similar three-year drought, Buss said.
SUNFISH FLEET
There will be a Sunfish Fleet meeting on November 6th 1/2 hour before the Awards Dinner. The only purpose of the meeting will be to elect a Fleet Captain for Y2K.
Please contact Bob Inglis with any nominations
by phone at: (908) 479-4253 or (908) 479-6431
or by e-mail at: binglis@ptd.net or make your nomination in person at the meeting.
JET FLEET
Attention Jet 14 Owners
The Jet-14 Fleet at Pines Lake is experiencing a moderate rebirth! Two Pines Lake boats sailed in the Nationals and they claim to now have 6 or 7 boats. Their fleet captain has asked what the Hunterdon fleet would think about giving back to Pines Lake the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend so they could restart the traditional Pines Lake annual regatta.. Hunterdon would need to retire or reschedule the Wren Wregatta, or concentrate on making the Gravy Bowl a bigger, two day event.. Please call me at 908-464-5564 – otherwise we should let Pines Lake proceed with our best wishes and promises to attend!!
Charlie Engler, Jet 14 – District I – VP
1999 PACKANACK REGATTA
DISTRICT I CHAMPSIONSHIP
The expected fickle winds of Packanack did not disappoint us this year, except that some semblance of manageability surfaced due to moderate winds here and there.
The newly formed one-day team of Barry Seip and George Cassa were very much in attendance, as were our old friends Bill Ward and Donna Schneiderman who won Race 2. Jim Liggett and Nick Matarazo of Packanack won Race 1 and a Third place chevron following Howie Ungemach and Greg Thomas of Pines Lake who win Race 4 and Second Place.
Susan Mallows, in her new job as tactician on "Charlies Angel", was instrumental in a win in Race 3 enabling us to take the Championship. 11 boats participated – come with us next year, it’s a fun day.
C. Engler
SUNFISH MASTERS NATIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP
The Championship was held at the Lewes YC in Lewes, Delaware in great fashion on Sat-Sun, Oct. 2 – 3.
The event was run with an experimental handicap system that has been used in Laser master events. It is based on the skippers’ age group.....
Age Group Handicap
40’s +3 points per race
50’s + 2 points per race
60’s +1 point per race
70’s no points
You get one guess as to who was the only one really helped!
Anyway 42 boats went out for the start on Saturday and lay around for an hour waiting for wind. It finally showed up but shifted like you don’t want to happen. In addition an adverse current caused many recalls...both days. Saturday afternoon it blew like ____, I couldn’t handle it. Ended with a 6th, 15th and 27th for 11th place.
Sunday was beautiful. Blue sky, great wind and moderate hiking..a perfect day. I got good starts, stayed in clear air and got a 4th and a 9th.
Courtney blew us all away in the first race, handled the air with a 13th and a 5th and then a 2nd in the last race.
The results.. Rod Koch, Steve Mehl, Don Echervarria and Dave Kaighin took the top spots. Mr. In and Out, Mr. Bridesmaid, Mr. Ray Buchanan won 5th and the final directors chair award.
My 4th place finish was a gimmee. Courtney, Chris Houston and Chris Raubache were over early, were DQ’d and paid the penalty...no calls by the committee...only a horn and a flag. Courtney ended up 8th.
HANDICAP ANALYSIS
It didn’t work in the regatta. I was the only one in the top ten who was materially helped. With no added points I moved up three places. Positions 1 through 4 and 7 held their position with or without the handicap. 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 were scrambled by the handicap. Connie Miller may look at it differently. She lost winning a chair.
In the top ten, there were..... four 40 year olds, three 50 year olds, two 60 year olds and one 70 year old. All in the top ten remained in the top ten with or without the handicap. It does look like the younger guys still have an advantage over the older guys/gals.
ON SHORE
The efforts by the club members were spectacular. Fabulous breakfasts, lunches, Saturday dinner of lobster, crab cakes or filet mignon, door prizes, line dancing, a bar, camping at the club. Who could ask for anything more??!!
HBWT
FORCE 5 MID-ATLANTICS
The event was held as part of a multi-class regatta at the Solomon Island YC in Maryland on September 25 and 26 and was organized by Class President Byron Hicks.
Saturday started poorly with half the 8 boat fleet being towed out to the starting line. We finally got started when the committee noticed what turned out to be only a puff.
Byron was awesome. He owned the right side. Four bullets. The next three places were separated by 2 points...Barbara Spang, hubby Brian and Ray Buchanan. If John Embler had been able to stay ahead of Brian in the last race, I might have had third place.
It was a great place to sail on Sunday morning with wind. Saturday was marred by untold numbers of large and small motorboats and their wakes. The small boat launch area at the club was deficient and the beach launch that many used was far from the racing area.
HBWT
EDITOR’S CORNER:
The picture of Dave and Anne (Whitmore) Hansen with their boats’ sail number clearly visible brings to mind some ancient history.
Starting in 1984, the club yearbook started including boat names in its directory.
Bruce Whitmore’s Jet-14 was listed as SENLAC.
SENLAC?????
For history buffs, Senlac (Hill) was a strategic location in the Battle of Hastings.
Er, what year was that??
You guessed it; 1066! rrr
