Delaware River Release Policy Revision Update
May 14, 2007


Representatives from the conservation coalition attended the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) meeting in West Trenton, New Jersey on May 10th. The DRBC informed the public that they are working to revise Flexible Flow Management Policy (FFMP) based on all the public comments. They will present a revised FFMP to the public at some point in the next several months, and then vote on approving a new flow management policy on September 18th, 2007. New Jersey commissioners recently called for a reexamination of their allotted water supply diversions agreed upon in the 1983 Good Faith Agreement. DRBC representatives said that they are scoping out how to structure such a reexamination over the next few years, but that they very much want to implement a new fisheries program this year based on reservoir-based adaptive water releases.

The DRBC extended Revision 7 program for reservoir releases from now until September 18th, 2007 with a full 20,000 cfs habitat/fisheries protection bank. New York State DEC will be responsible for maintaining flow and temperature targets where possible until that point. The DRBC will vote to extend the Revision 9 Spill Mitigation Program sometime before July 1st with different reservoir release volumes. The way that Revision 9 is designed, no spill mitigation releases are currently made from March 31st to July 1st.

The DRBC informed the public that that conservation coaliton's policy CP2 is still being considered as a possible flow policy for the Delaware River basin. The conservation coalition representatives at that meeting urged DRBC to pass a revised adaptive release policy with CP2 flow numbers. If CP2 were in effect now, water levels and fishing conditions on the Upper Delaware Rivers would be much better than they have been this past week. Under CP2, flows at Hale Eddy on the West Branch would have been approximately 410 cfs on May 9th instead of 240 cfs. CP2 has a 250 cfs release for the entire month of May from Cannonsville, and a 110 cfs release from Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs. The coalition has demonstrated through modeling that these May releases "cost" the DRBC very few total drought days in a critical time for the biology of the rivers.

The conservation coalition representatives challenged the state of New Jersey to explain why they had recently called for a reexamination of their diversions. New Jersey stated that recent water supply protection legislation and concerns about future water supply prompted such a large-scope reassessment of the 1983 Good Faith Agreement.

A presentation was also given by the DRBC about the comments received by the public about FFMP. Of the 450 individual comments they gathered March to early April, including the Hawley meetings, they had the following topics:
35% flooding
16% fisheries
10% miscellaneous
8% New York City water supply diversions

During the next public comment period when a revised FFMP is presented, all fishermen and conservationists will need to make our voices heard about how the ecology, the recreational economy, and flood concerns need to be addressed by a new reservoir releases policy based on science. CP2 provides clear benefits on all three important concerns. It provides higher, more consistent flows for the rivers, and importantly to the DRBC, it does so without creating additional risk to water supplies for New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Details on the Coalition’s Policy CP2 can be found on the website drarp.org.