River Management Plan redux

20-year-old document doesn’t address ‘hydraulic fracturing’

By SANDY LONG

NARROWSBURG, NY — In the 20 years since the River Management Plan (RMP) was forged through a long and often contentious process that engaged a broad base of community perspectives, much has changed in the Upper Delaware River corridor. The development of the original plan “to conserve, protect, maintain and enhance the river corridor’s unique resource values and social and economic vitality” caused a decade of considerable unrest in the river valley, but resulted in a hard-won document representing many voices.

Since that time, unanticipated opportunities and threats have arisen, including technologies that were not in use when the plan was created, prompting renewed interest in updating the plan.

One of those technologies is hydraulic fracturing—a specialized type of drilling requiring extensive amounts of water combined with toxic chemicals and injected underground at great force to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale underlying much of the river corridor. The method and its potential environmental impacts are hotly contested these days, as the gas and oil industry targets the region’s natural gas resources.

The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) oversees implementation of the RMP. Following the designation of the Upper Delaware River as a component of the National Wild and Scenic River System in 1978, the UDC evolved as a component of the RMP and operates under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service (NPS), through which it receives federal funding.

The UDC is comprised of representatives from eight New York towns and five Pennsylvania townships bordering the Upper Delaware River, as well as the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is a non-voting member and the NPS Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River is a partner.

At the UDC’s meeting on July 2, a letter from Callicoon resident Buck Moorhead was read into the record.

Moorhead wrote, “In the interest of clarity and accuracy, and contrary to assertions made by representatives of the UDC and public at last month’s meeting, the term ‘hydraulic fracturing’ is not mentioned in the River Management Plan. Given the fact that over 20 years have passed since the RMP was written, it would be helpful and valuable to the Upper Delaware Region to have a conversation between all stakeholders, including landowners, agencies, organizations and municipalities within this region to see if consensus can be reached about the extraction of gas due to hydraulic fracturing in a portion of the river corridor designated as a Wild and Scenic River.”

UDC Town of Tusten representative Charlie Weiland responded, “I was at all those meetings back in the ’80s and you don’t know everything that’s coming. In deference to his [Moorhead’s] statement that nothing was mentioned, I’ll bet you there’s a whole bunch of animals that weren’t mentioned either, but they’re covered in the context [of the RMP].”

“We know that the term is not in existence in the management plan,” concluded UDC chairman George Fluhr.

Back to the table?

The incident is the latest demonstrating the need for a renewed look at the RMP, which, although comprehensive at the time, was not able to foresee the impact of technologies that didn’t exist when it was created.

“The plan has a lot of merit, but we need to look at it again for this and other issues,” said NPS superintendent Vidal Martinez in a follow-up interview. “Technology has changed and they couldn’t have anticipated the possible implications of things like frack fluids and the possible impact on the environment.

“We’ve been discussing the possibility of reviewing and updating the plan with the UDC and within the NPS,” Martinez said. “We’re not saying, ‘stop the drilling,’ but we are charged with protecting the resources of the Upper Delaware River.”

“At the time this plan was written, nothing of this scale was anticipated,” added NPS assistant superintendent Sandra Schultz. “We have applied for funding to update the plan, but we’re competing with 83 other units of the NPS.”

“We need to do it and we’d like to do it,” said Bill Douglass, executive director of the UDC. “Our intent would be to go through the entire plan, but we can’t do anything until the funding comes through.”

In a recent interview with UDC staff members and Fluhr for the story, “UDC: at the hub of the RMP” (see TRR issue 19), both cited the organization’s ongoing role in bringing together the river corridor towns and keeping information related to the RMP flowing like the river it strives to protect.

“We’ve got a 20-year track record to prove that we’re here to be helpful and to coordinate these efforts,” said Fluhr, while Douglass described the UDC’s most important role as “providing a forum for all parties to meet and discuss river corridor-related issues.”

In response to federal overtures in the 1960s to stake a presence in the Upper Delaware region, multiple groups formed to protect local interests against the threat of a federal takeover. Today, the prospect of massive powerlines and natural gas extraction are provoking similar responses among stakeholder groups. Bringing those stakeholders to the table to address such complex issues is vital, if there is anything to be learned from the past.

But will the UDC initiate the type of community conversation requested by Moorhead? “We haven’t discussed it among the board members yet,” said Douglass. “It would be their decision.”

The UDC meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at its office in Narrowsburg. Meetings are open to the public. Visit www.upperdelawarecouncil.org to learn more.