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Bedminster,
N.J. - Trout Unlimited’s (TU) New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania Councils are
requesting that the federal government intercede to better manage the flows in
the Delaware River system.
In
order to ensure that a fair and equitable apportionment of the limited resources
provided by the Upper Delaware system’s reservoirs is safely afforded to all
Parties, Trout Unlimited has formed a three state council workgroup whose
mission has been to review the cause & effect impacts to the upper Delaware
Watershed. This workgroup’s primary focus has been to review the
Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) Flexible Flow Management Program (which
was established in 2007 as a means to regulate flows which dictate the amount of
water within the Delaware Watershed) and insure the “program” is indeed
providing the water needed for a well balanced watershed.
“The FFMP
as a model for water distribution is inadequate and has failed on several
occasions over the past two plus years of its existence,” said Richard Thomas.
Richard Thomas, the tri-state council chair for TU’s Delaware Conservation
Workgroup “We have seen water levels drop and, as a result, expose critical
aquatic wildlife and warm water conditions through areas of river which once ran
cold, all while reservoir capacity levels are above normal,” Thomas said.
The three
TU councils have developed a position paper called, “Root Causes” that spells
out the reasons for this request for federal intervention. One reason is
“over-drafting” taking more water than is needed, and “withholding,” retaining
more water than is needed. Also, the paper addresses practices by New York City
as the primary cause of release/flow issues from its dams that have been
impacting the Delaware River for more than 40 years.
At issue is the “safe-yield,” that is, the measure of how
much water can be continuously withdrawn as an out-of-basin diversion, from the
system without causing a detrimental effect of the Upper Delaware system. It
also looks at New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection and its
inaccurate calculation of its water usage when determining the amount of water
to release downstream from its three reservoirs. It is the belief
by the TU Councils that New York City has been overdrafting the system and
inflating water usage estimates in order to hoard water. The paper
explains that this is adversely impacting the ecological health of the balance
of the Delaware River and puts this national treasure at
risk.
“Without intervention, these TU councils are concerned
that the management of the Upper Delaware system will not change and thus the
ecological conditions of the balance of the river will continue to deteriorate,”
said Ron Urban, New York’s TU Council Chair.
