UPPER DELAWARE, NEW YORK & PENNSYLVANIA- Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Executive Director Steve Tambini today announced a special hearing to be held on November 19 at 1:30 p.m. for the Commission to accept public input on the persistent dry conditions throughout the Delaware River Basin and how to address them. The purpose of the hearing, which will be held virtually, is to seek input from interested parties as the Commission considers declaring a “water supply emergency” if conditions worsen.

“Many areas in the Delaware River Basin continue to experience significantly below-normal precipitation with resulting effects on streamflows, groundwater levels and reservoir storage,” said Tambini. “These conditions have already prompted the states of New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania to declare drought watches or warnings in most or all of the counties that lie within the Basin.”

Beginning in October, low flows in the Delaware River prompted the DRBC to direct releases of stored water from a federal reservoir, Beltzville (Carbon Co., Pa.) to meet the minimum flow objective for the river at Trenton, N.J. “As of 8 a.m. today, approximately 1.12 billion gallons (BG) of water has been released from Beltzville Reservoir to meet the Trenton Flow Objective,” said Amy Shallcross, DRBC’s Water Resource Operations Manager. An additional source of water in the lower basin that is available for use to meet the Trenton Flow Objective is Blue Marsh Reservoir (Berks Co., Pa.).