Help Wanted: Executive Director

Friends of the Upper Delaware River, a nonprofit conservation group based in Hancock, N.Y., is looking for an Executive Director to lead the organization in its efforts to protect, preserve and enhance the ecosystem and cold-water fishery of the Upper Delaware River System. Click here for full job description and how to apply

Clean Up on the West Branch of the Delaware River Scheduled

The Friends of the Upper Delaware River along with their partners, the Stanley Cooper Sr. Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Pike Wayne Chapter of Trout Unlimited have scheduled a river clean up on the West Branch of the Delaware for August 11, 2012 at 11:00 AM.

The focus of the cleanup is the the Monument Pool which begins the border between Pennsylvania and New York.  Over the past couple of years the Pennsylvania bank has become a dumping ground for various household items and just plain garbage.  These organizations have joined forces to get the mess cleaned up.

The meeting place will be at the River Run restaurant parking lot.  The River Run is part of West Branch Angler at 150 Faulkner Road in Hancock, NY 13783.  The more help the better, so if you can be there please email info@fudr.org and let them know.

Bald Eagles Stop July 4th Celebration... sort of

The small town of Narrowsburg, NY on the bank of the Upper delaware River has had its annual July 4th fireworks display stopped in a way by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.  And for good reason...

Last year the fireworks caused some young of the year eagles to leave their nest, so the US Fish & Wildlife Service stepped in this year and warned that there could be thousands of dollars in fines if any eagles are hurt.  The local fire department who sponsors the display felt it best to cancel the event not to risk any fines or hurt any eagles.

Narrowsburg bills itself as the "Bald Eagle Capitol of NY" and hosts an annual event called EagleFest to celebrate the bald eagle population of the Upper Delaware River.

Upper Delaware Council Hires New Executive Director

The Upper Delaware Council, Inc. (UDC) promoted Laurie Ramie of Hortonville, NY as executive director of the non-profit conservation organization, effective June 9, 2012.

The UDC board unanimously approved a resolution hiring Ramie at its June 7 monthly meeting, citing her attributes and 15 years of experience with the UDC as its public relations/fundraising specialist since April 21, 1997.

Ramie had been serving in an acting executive director capacity since Dec. 5, 2011 in anticipation of the Jan. 1, 2012 retirement of William E. Douglass, whose tenure lasted for 22 years.

The executive director is responsible for providing leadership in overseeing all program-related UDC activities aimed at ensuring proper and effective implementation of the River Management Plan for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River.

The position requires having skills in intergovernmental coordination; organizational administration; verbal and written communications; strategic planning; staff supervision; public outreach; and an extensive knowledge of resource management issues.

The executive director provides chief staff support for the Council, whose current voting members are 13 towns and townships that border along the Upper Delaware River, the State of New York, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Delaware River Basin Commission is a non-voting member.

Incorporated in 1988, the UDC operates under a Cooperative Agreement with its federal partner agency, the National Park Service, to fulfill legislative responsibilities outlined in the River Management Plan.

Three full-time staff members carry out the directives of a board comprised of appointed municipal and agency representatives and alternates.

Ramie grew up in Ogdensburg, NY and earned a Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in English (Writing Concentration) from SUNY Plattsburgh in 1988. After college, she worked in community journalism for a decade in St. Lawrence County and Sullivan County, NY.

Prior to joining the UDC, Ramie was employed by Catskill-Delaware Publications from 1992-1997, lastly as editor of the Sullivan County Democrat newspaper.

For more information on the UDC, its schedule of public meetings, and activities, please visit www.upperdelawarecouncil.org, call (845) 252-3022, or contact the business office at P.O. Box 192, 211
Bridge St., Narrowsburg, NY 12764.

DELAWARE BASIN STATES AND NEW YORK CITY ANNOUNCE ONE-YEAR RENEWAL OF CURRENT RESERVOIR OPERATING PLAN AGREEMENT

MILFORD, Pa. (May 31) – New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the City of New York today announced that they have unanimously agreed to a one-year extension of the current Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) intended to meet water supply demands, protect fisheries habitat downstream of the New York City (NYC)-Delaware Basin reservoirs, enhance flood mitigation, and repel the upstream movement of salt water in the Delaware Estuary.

Diversions and releases of water from the three city reservoirs (Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink) are jointly managed by the four states and NYC under the terms of a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree that settled an interstate water dispute between New York State and New York City, and the lower basin states.

The Decree Parties (four basin states and NYC) will use the additional time to further evaluate this interim reservoir management plan and use the experience to help guide ongoing negotiations to develop future multi-year agreements.

The FFMP renewal, which will be in effect through May 31, 2013, will continue to rely on the use of the city’s Operations Support Tool (OST) to manage the water forecast to be available in the three NYC reservoirs located in the headwaters of the Delaware River and guide the selection of releases. The OST is a sophisticated monitoring and modeling system that allows for better predictions of reservoir-specific water storage levels, quality, and inflows than previous tools. The progressively evolving OST has proven to be a very useful tool in managing the FFMP. Its development continues on schedule with the final version due out in the fall of 2013.

Release rates in the renewed one-year agreement are patterned after recommendations provided in a January 2010 joint fisheries paper from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

NYC will continue to create a higher potential to achieve a 10 percent storage void in the reservoirs from September 1 to March 15 as well as an average five percent void from July 1 to September 1 and from March 15 to May 1. It is hoped this program will help mitigate river flooding during periods of high inflows and heavy snow melt. Snow pack during the most recent winter was well below normal.

In addition, reservoir releases will continue to be adjusted to assist in repelling the upstream migration of salty water from the Atlantic Ocean that moves up the tidal Delaware River during low-flow conditions. As salt-laced water moves upriver, the City of Philadelphia and other public water suppliers can be affected, along with industrial surface water users and ecosystems.

The renewed FFMP maintains New Jersey’s increased maximum diversion from the Delaware River Basin via the Delaware & Raritan Canal to a daily running average of 85 million gallons per day when the basin is in a drought emergency.

Additional details, including the FFMP agreement and OST background information, can be viewed on the web site of the Office of the Delaware River Master, which administers the provisions of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree, at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/odrm/.

Pennsylvania Signs One-Year Renewal of Multi-State Water Agreement for Delaware River

Pennsylvania has signed a one-year renewal of an agreement governing the management of water in the Delaware River, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced today.

The renewal of the flexible flow management program, which was also signed by fellow parties Delaware, New Jersey, New York and New York City, is effective Friday, June 1.

Pennsylvania is a party to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decree that established an equitable allocation of water use under federal common law.

“This agreement will ensure that the continual and steady flow of water in the Delaware River protects Philadelphia’s water supply from salt water, which can flow in from the Atlantic Ocean,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “This extension will allow all of the partners to work together this year to find longer-term solutions to the flow issues on the Delaware River.”

The agreement allows for the occasional release of large volumes of cold water from reservoirs in New York to improve fishery habitats and ecology downstream as well as provide a balance in water supply throughout the states during drought conditions. The reservoirs provide drinking water for millions of residents in the four states.

The agreement also calls on New York to store less water in some of the reservoirs during most of the year, creating greater storage capacity during storm events to help reduce flooding downstream.
For more information, visit www.dep.state.pa.us or call 717-783-4693.

Upgraded Forecast System Will Provide Water Supply Operators with More Information

 No matter what they say, it's never win-win when it comes to NYC.  It's NYC wins, everyone else loses.

Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland today announced a new agreement with the National Weather Service in which DEP will provide the Weather Service with up to $1 million to help speed up the development of state-of-the-art forecasts of water flows through streams in the watershed. Streamflow forecasts enable DEP water supply operators to better predict the amount of water that will enter reservoirs and as a result more accurately predict reservoir levels and water quality in the future. The enhanced streamflow forecasts will eventually be a part of DEP’s Operations Support Tool (OST), a cutting-edge, $5.2 million integrated monitoring and modeling system that collects real-time data on stream inflow, water quality, and reservoir storage levels, integrates forecasts of future inflows, and applies system operating rules to predict future conditions in the water supply system. OST helps DEP make more informed decisions about how to operate the system to ensure reliable, high quality supplies by retaining water in advance of dry conditions and to release water in advance of wet conditions. The agreement will allow the National Weather Service to speed the development and implementation of the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service (HEFS), which will provide probabilistic forecasts to help water supply operators understand the range and likelihood of river levels and as a result help them assess risk.

“This is a win-win situation for both DEP and our partners, the National Weather Service,” said Commissioner Strickland. “NWS gets additional funds to pilot its new forecasting system in a discrete region, which will facilitate their eventual nationwide rollout. And DEP gets the cutting-edge forecasts needed for the Operations Support Tool much sooner than if we had to wait for the nationwide rollout.”

“Effective partnerships with state and local government play a big role in our vision for a Weather-Ready Nation, and our agreement with NYCDEP is a great example,” said Jack Hayes Ph.D, director, National Weather Service. “With NYCDEP’s help accelerating our schedule, we can improve our warnings for events that threaten lives and livelihoods and give sophisticated users, like DEP, the forecasts they need to optimize their water resources decisions based on their operating rules and risk tolerance.”

The National Weather Service began experimental development of the ensemble forecasting capability several years ago and the nationwide implementation is scheduled for completion later in 2014. DEP’s Operations Support Tool will be complete by 2013 and requires HEFS forecasts to provide the most use to system managers. NWS will use DEP funds to hire additional staff who will help speed the development of the system at the two offices that cover the New York City water supply region: the Middle-Atlantic River Forecast Center (MARFC) in State College, PA (covers Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink Reservoirs) and the Northeast River Forecast Center in Taunton, MA (covers Schoharie, Ashokan, Rondout, and all East-of-Hudson reservoirs).

The Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service will help water supply operators assess risk. For example, if a storm is forecast, HEFS will produce several different forecasts (an “ensemble”) of peak river levels that provide an objective estimate of the uncertainty in the river forecast. Operators can use this information along with knowledge of current water supply conditions to assess risk and make more informed operational decisions. Current NWS operations provide only a single peak forecast with no estimate of forecast uncertainty.

The Operations Support Tool enables DEP’s water supply operators to more accurately predict water storage levels in the city’s reservoirs so that DEP can better manage the movement of water throughout the reservoir system, and ultimately, to the nine million New Yorkers who rely on the city’s drinking water every day. It substantially increases DEP’s operational responsiveness and the ability to protect water quality and improve the aquatic habit below the reservoirs.

DEP manages the city’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of water each day to more than nine million residents, including eight million in New York City, and residents of Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP employs nearly 6,000 employees, including more than 750 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and others professionals in the upstate watershed. In addition to its $49 million payroll and $132 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.5 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with a planned $13.2 billion in investments over the next 10 years that creates up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year.