SAN MANUEL – The San Roque Dam, Asia’s second highest hydro-electric dam located here, is not the culprit for the recent floods that destroyed crops and properties in central Pangasinan and even as far south as Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.

Officials of the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) that operates the San Roque Dam, presented a satellite photo that they hope could absolve dam management from any criminal or civil responsibility for the floods that may have happened in areas far from the lower stream of the Agno river.

The map showed that the lower stream of the Agno river, where the dam discharges its excess water only during abnormal times, is too far away to contribute to the floods in Dagupan City, Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija; Moncada and Paniqui, Tarlac: and even Bulacan, said Valdez.

Tom Valdez, SRPC spokesman, said officials of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Bulacan should not blame San Roque because the Pantabangan and Angat dams are nearer them than San Roque.

Valdez explained that other than the little volume of water being released by the dam from its three turbines during its power generation, no additional water comes out anymore, especially from the dam’s reservoir.

His statement was corroborated by Alex Palada, head of the flood forecasting and warning system of the National Power Corporation based at SRPC, whose office decides when the spillway gates are to open in every typhoon.

Valdez affirmed that “at no instance this year” did San Roque open any of its six radial spillway gates as the volume of water in its reservoir never reached the normal spilling level of 280 meters even if it was absorbing the released water from the smaller Binga and Ambuklao dams upstream.

There were probably only two or three times since San Roque began its operation in 2003 that it opened a little its spillway gates because the rains in the mountains were measured well above normal level.

Even if SRPC is now generating power to its full capacity of 400 megawatts, and operating 24 hours a day, the volume of water that it throws out in operating its three turbines is only 260 cubic meters per second, Valdez said.

Part of this water is being channeled to the irrigation weir of the National Irrigation Administration to sustain 12,000 hectares of croplands in San Manuel, Binalonan, Urdaneta, Manaoag and part of Villasis town being serviced by the Agno River Irrigation System.

He said if there is a re-regulating pond downstream of Agno River, the volume of water thrown out during power generation could be stored for irrigation use in 70,000 hectares of farm lands in Pangasinan as well as northern parts of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.

This would enable farmers in these areas to plant three rice cropping a year instead of only one or two times, boosting by three-fold the incomes of farmers.

The re-regulating pond, which is estimated to cost one billion pesos, is among the priority projects identified to be built under the medium-term program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the North Luzon Agri-Business Quadrangle.

Saying that the San Roque dam is intended for power generation, irrigation, flood control and improving the quality of water, Valdez appealed to the people of Pangasinan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to stop suspecting San Roque as responsible for the floods.

At San Roque’s reservoir, the highest water level recorded was 276 during typhoon “Florita” but even then, no water was released whatsoever, according to him.

Explaining the floods in Dagupan and its neighbors, Calasiao and Sta. Barbara, Valdez said that these places are passed by a different river channel, the Sinocalan-Pantal watershed, which originates from the Tagamusing river in Binalonan that has its fountain head (original source) at Mr. Ampucao, Benguet.

Valdez however, said that in the lower portion of the Agno river, down below the dam, are secondary rivers that connect to Agno like Ambayoan river, Viray-Dipalo river, Banila river, Tarlac river and Camiling river.

But even then, he said, the combined water of these rivers could still be absorbed by the Agno river without the water spilling over to central Pangasinan, he claimed. (PNA)