HAWLEY, PA — Dysfunctional. Uncompromising. Non-transparent. In need of group therapy.

Those criticisms and more were heard at the Delaware River Basin Commission’s Regulated Flow Advisory Committee (RFAC), which put a focus on Upper Delaware concerns by agreeing to meet at the Lake Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center on December 3.

Perhaps the biggest beef concerned who was not at the table.

None of the designated principals from the four basin states and the City of New York who possess the authority through the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree to take unanimous action on the Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) guiding releases and diversions from the city’s three upstate reservoirs attended.

The committee participation consisted of staffers from the environmental departments of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York City.

Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Executive Director Steven J. Tambini explained that the role of RFAC, which met most recently on April 17 in West Trenton, NJ, is to provide information to the commissioners who represent the four basin states and the federal government. They were being responsive to requests to come hear the concerns from the upper basin.

“The DRBC is not a party to the decree, but we have a deep interest in what happens with the FFMP and we provide support to the decree parties technically. This is an opportunity to take input to the decree parties and inform the public on what’s been going on,” he said.

While noting that decree party principals are not required to attend RFAC meetings, Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR) Executive Director Jeff Skelding said, “there was an expectation that we’d see some” of them to address directly in this rare opportunity.

“Our inability to get an audience with the decree party principals is frustrating. Our constituents feel left out, which engenders suspicion, frustration, and occasional hostility,” Skelding said, speaking on behalf of the Delaware Watershed Conservation Coalition, the Upper Delaware River Tailwaters Coalition, the Upper Delaware River Business Coalition, and the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed.

Delaware County Watershed Affairs Commissioner Dean Frazier said he can’t help but to “resent experts telling us how to live and what to do” when he feels their actions do not always take local impacts into consideration.

“If it sounds like I have an attitude, I do! Whatever decisions you guys make affect us directly. We’ve got the resource, but we’re [treated like] third class citizens,” he said.

Dr. Peter Kolesar of Eldred, professor emeritus at Columbia University, said he was “profoundly discouraged” at the lack of any decree party principal participation.

“Why am I here again singing the same damn song?” he angrily asked before advocating for the addition of an experimental thermal stress relief protocol to the FFMP, a scientific-based presentation to protect coldwater species that he’s been making since 2011 to no avail.

“We are all here because we wanted to influence the decision-makers. Why in heck can’t you guys collaborate? The river can’t speak for itself,” he said.

The FFMP, which is currently due to expire May 31, 2016, has been extended with no significant changes for the past four years, accompanied by an annual press release stating, “The decree parties… will use the next year to further evaluate this interim reservoir management plan and use the experience to help guide ongoing negotiations to develop future multi-year agreements.”

RFAC members acknowledged that those negotiations have been largely stymied by the failure of the various positions of decree parties to align. For instance, Steven Domber from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) said that New Jersey believes that “a transparent and fully vetted assessment of water availability is the critical first step to achieving a successful, equitable and long-term agreement,” adding that the good faith agreement has not been thoroughly reviewed in over 30 years despite significant changes in the basin’s conditions and technological modeling improvements.

New Jersey has developed a new River Ware model to simulate daily reservoir storages, flows and diversions, which it is requesting be used to help perform such a reassessment. However, New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) Reservoir Releases Policy Development Chief Thomas Murphy read a statement from the City of New York saying they “will not take the model or its results into account in Decree Party negotiations.” After reading the statement, he added, “We recognize that there are large, difficult issues that are going to take time to resolve,” but added, “we are entirely supportive of trying to achieve what we can” in the meantime.

But without consideration of its proposed model and a reassessment of the sytem, New Jersey may not be willing to consider proposals and requests submitted by others at the meeting, according to a written document read by Domber. It said in part, “While many of the incremental changes discussed over the course of the negotiations, such as ramping, thermal mitigation, or modifications to the CSSO [Conditional Seasonal Storage Objective] procedures, are reasonable and obtainable, NJ does not believe that piecemeal change to the FFMP is the appropriate course of action.” His NJDEP colleague Joseph Miri characterized the issues among the decree parties as “tactical differences” and called for an overall re-assessment of the FFMP.

“We need to look at a way of operating the reservoirs that allows multiple objectives to be

FUDR’s Jeff Skelding said that will require having decree parties who are willing to work together, compromise, listen to the science, and provide more public participation.

“Let the sun shine in. Manage this watershed holistically. View the FFMP as a watershed management tool vs. a ‘what’s in it for us’ approach,” he said.

Chris Wood, the president and CEO of Trout Unlimited National, traveled from Washington, DC to attend the RFAC meeting.

“I’m here because the Upper Delaware River System is a national treasure. There is not a better wild trout fishery in the East. You all have the abilities to be such heroes here. Try to set aside some of that bickering, put the river first, and do what’s right for the river,” Wood urged.

“Put the bickering aside,” echoed New York Trout Unlimited State Chairman Ron Urban. “Make that habitat, the fishery, and the economy booming again.”

Upper Delaware River Business Coalition Co-Chair Theresa Allen, owner of the Hancock Liquor Store, pointed to the 2014 Cold Water Fishing and Boating Study that Dean Frazier had reported generates a $414 million value from the fishing, boating, and second home market industry in the upper basin area.

“Our region depends on the health of the river. It’s an important driver of our economy. I’m just afraid that we’re all going to walk out of here and nobody will listen,” she said.

Kittatinny Canoes co-owner Dave Jones said that the recreational outfitters on the Delaware River share the concerns of the conservationists and fishing community. He offered to give any interested RFAC member a free boating trip when flow levels are low to experience for themselves how critical reasonable flows are locally.

“This is a huge industry. This is our business. This is our economy. If we don’t have enough water, it has a short-term effect on that season and future implications on people deciding never to come back,” he said.

Staff from the UDC offered six recommendations for FFMP changes to: 1) increase minimum conservation release levels; 2) base availability on New York City estimated actual consumption; 3) not count water releases from Lake Wallenpaupack towards the Montague flow target in certain circumstances to help maintain adequate flow and temperature conditions in the Delaware above the confluence with the Lackawaxen River; 4) install a targeted flow and temperature river gage at Callicoon or further upstream on the Main Stem to help ensure habitat protection; 5) have New York City continue repairing leaks in its aqueduct system that waste water which could be better used to help supplement Delaware flows; and 6) incorporate the thermal stress relief protocol to protect the aquatic ecosystem and local economy during sustained dangerous temperature periods.

Delaware Riverkeeper Maya von Rossum observed, “What is happening with the management of the reservoirs matters all the way down the river basin.”

Noting that she meant no offense to the committee members. she said, “You’re not the ones we want to talk to. What are you going to do to create an opportunity for us to speak to the decree party negotiators?”

“All I can promise is that this energy is not going to die here,” replied RFAC Chairperson Hoss Liaghat from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection at the conclusion of the four-hour meeting. “We are taking notes and will transfer that excitement to our principals.”