UDC says power line is incompatible

By LAURIE STUART

NARROWSBURG, NY — After installing its first woman as chair, the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) last week took assertive action and called the proposed Pegasus power line incompatible with the River Management Plan (RMP).

“We are not saying we are approving or disapproving of this project,” Executive Director William Douglass said, as he introduced a letter addressed to Richard Muddiman, president of Pegasus Power Systems, “We are making our position that this project is incompatible with the River Management Plan known.”

The letter, dated January 8, was copied to UDC member towns and townships, United States Congress and Senate members, New York and Pennsylvania senators and assembly members, federal and state environmental agencies, state public utility commissions, regional river associations, the National Park Service (NPS) and Norfolk Southern Railroad.

The letter documents Pegasus Power Systems’ letter dated October 1 and its five-page Strategic Overview, released on October 6, regarding the project. It reiterates the promises made by Pegasus that overhead transmission lines or towers would not be used, that the Canadian company will consult with the UDC and the NPS and that all information will be shared on a timely basis.

The UDC letter makes clear that according to the RMP, major electric lines are an incompatible use anywhere in the river corridor and constitute “a clear and direct threat” to the corridor.

In conclusion, the letter asserts the UDC’s obligation to uphold the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and to protect the Upper Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River. Click here for a copy of the letter.

DRBC tightens belt

In her status report to the council, Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Executive Director Carol Collier announced that the agency is facing a budget crisis. Underfunded for the last seven years, DRBC has developed a two-part budget for adoption this year. The first budget assumes that the agency will be funded at the levels of existing contracts, and the second budget, a decrement budget, which will be put into effect in July if funding levels are not received, will include staff and program cuts.

Collier said in 1995 an American Heritage Foundation study, prompted by the desire for a balanced federal budget, outlined organizations that were more locally valued. Associations like the Delaware River Basin Commission, as well as other basin commissions so rated, were “red-lined” and funding was withheld.

Collier said the federal government did this in spite of the fact that the commission received a 100-year contract when it created by the United States Congress.

“Up to this year, the agency has been getting by. We kept some vacancies and had a general fund that we were robbing to make up for the federal deficit, but that is gone now,” she said.

The federal share of $694,000 is 80 percent of the commission’s shortfall. Another $123,000 is a shortfall created by New York State.

The proposed service reduction plan will be available online by the end of the week at state.nj.us/drbc.

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to get to the UDC meetings,” she said.

The budgets will be discussed at the commission meeting on January 21 at its offices in West Trenton, NJ. The phone number is 609/883-9500.