Lead, follow or get out of the way!

Upper Delaware river watchers should stop crying about how the New York City reservoirs are managed and look to the existing federal law that protects this river. The city’s draining of the Cannonsville reservoir, curtailment of downstream releases and the apparent acquiescence of Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) officials to those actions runs in the face of federal law.

The Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 9-542) was drafted including language to protect the Upper Delaware from contradictory water management by the states or federal government. Sections of the law, cited successfully some years ago, discouraged NYC diversion plans, which then presented a threat to the nationally protected river.

The l968 law listed the Upper Delaware as a “study” river and as such, no agency of the federal government would “license or abet any unit of government or commercial enterprise who proposed anything that would impact upon the original designated rivers” or “study rivers,”period. This prohibition includes the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the City of New York and everyone else.

The muscle of the law has already been invoked. In the 1980s, New York City proposed to sell off any hydropower from its release valves to the West and East Branch, respectively, as well as the collecting tunnel that carried these waters from the lower elevations of the reservoirs to the Roundout collecting reservoir. Water going through tunnels for hydro power was not going to come down the river.

In my position then as the National Park Service (NPS) Upper Delaware superintendent, I drafted a lengthy response to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and all other parties. Granting the license would have circumvented the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the authority of Congress. FERC stood up and took notice; so did the city. They had second thoughts and the plan died.

This wasn’t the only instance where the federal designation protected residents from competing water management plans. The NPS earlier successfully intervened at Shohola Township’s request when a developer wanted to dam Shohola Creek for hydroelectric power. The same provisions of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act applied.

Upper Delaware Council (UDC) Executive Director Bill Douglass and I made frequent trips to the NYC Board of Water Supply at their Vahalla, Westchester County, headquarters just to let them know that the Upper Delaware was not only a player, it was the 500-pound gorilla. But the DEC and DRBC were well represented and at the time, we stepped back and let them lead. Was it a mistake?

Stop wringing your hands, pointing fingers and get off your duffs. Fight this or there won’t be any Upper Delaware worth fighting for. If you don’t get action from the agencies, ask for Congressional oversight before everything goes to hell in a bucket. Ask your Congressman whether running the tailwaters dry is what Congress had in mind in l968 and 1978?

Running the river dry in winter is extremely dangerous. I didn’t spend 16 years of my life working on behalf of the valley to see another winter flood like the drought year of 1981. As a result of that flood, everyone was ready to condemn the NPS for not issuing a warning. We listened and entered into an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers Cold Weather Research Station in Hanover, New Hampshire to monitor winter ice conditions. Is that agreement still in effect? Many rescue personnel, including several NPS rangers, put their lives on the line that fateful night and the next day to help rescue people.

Now it’s the ecosystem’s turn. Let the NPS in Washington or Philadelphia and the Secretary of the Interior—or at least his stand-in—know what’s going on. You didn’t hesitate to contact Congress when you thought your homes and livelihoods were threatened. Well, they’re threatened again. If you don’t use the law, this has all been just sound and fury signifying nothing.

Guest editorial by John Hutzky