Today Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS) has signed an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to allow New York City to drain off water from the Ashokan Reservoir through our Ashokan Field Campus via a dormant wastewater channel. DEP had been seeking to activate the channel, which runs through the property owned by CAS for the first time since 1992 in order to provide another controlled release method to remove water from the Ashokan Reservoir. Water levels in the reservoir are high this year in part because of the need to remove water from the Schoharie Reservoir, where work is being done to stabilize the Gilboa Dam.

Water levels may reach as high as 600 million gallons per day. For safety reasons, we've been forced to close the campus for the Spring Semester. Fortunately, we've been able to find a suitable replacement in CitiVision: a Christian Camp located in Ulster Park, which will allow us to host many of the groups scheduled for the Spring Semester.

The agreement calls for DEP to use the campus under license from CAS through mid-June. Consideration will be given at a later date to whether the channel would continue to operate beyond June, and whether structures likely to be affected by the water will be restored. The agreement was signed on February 9 and calls for the DEP to pay CAS for lost revenues.

The DEP estimates that construction on the campus could begin immediately. Some existing buildings and structures will have to be protected, and items will have to be removed from certain buildings in order to eliminate the chance that potentially hazardous materials could be washed from the buildings and into the lower Esopus. A fence will also be installed to protect people from entering potential flood areas.

We believe that it's necessary to work with the City as quickly as possible to facilitate the removal of water from the Ashokan Reservoir. It was clear that canceling the spring semester at Ashokan Field Campus, while unfortunate, was necessary. We will continue to make every effort to aid the City and protect the residents of the lower Esopus.

Negotiations with Circle of Life, the children's diabetes camp that made an offer for Ashokan Field Campus, have been delayed as a result of this emergency action. We will resume negotiations now that the details of our arrangement with DEP have been finalized.

Should you have further questions about the license agreement with DEP or pending sale of Ashokan, please contact me directly.

Steven Deutsch
Campus Auxiliary Services