Friends of the Upper Delaware River
For More Info:
Dan Plummer, dan@fudr.org or 607-363-7848
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 18, 2012
SCIENCE, POWER OF COALITIONS EXAMINED
AT CONFERENCE ABOUT DELAWARE RIVER
The hard facts of science and the fine art of coalition-building were focal points of a conference last week about the wellbeing of the upper Delaware River.
About 60 people attended the third-annual “Water Water Everywhere” conference on Oct. 9 at West Branch Angler & Resort near Hale Eddy, N.Y. Participants included conservationists, academics, advocates and representatives of government agencies charged with managing water resources. The event was hosted by Friends of the Upper Delaware River.
Jeff Skelding of the National Wildlife Federation said Delaware River advocacy has lagged behind that of other American water coalitions, including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. As a result, he said, the Delaware River system has also lagged in federal funding, even though it serves nearly 20 million people in 42 counties spread over four states.
He urged Delaware River advocates to adopt the NATO principle of collective defense: Harm any water and you harm all water.
The Delaware Watershed Conservation Coalition, which includes about two dozen conservation organizations and river stakeholders, was founded at the first “Water Water Everywhere” conference in 2010.
This year’s conference featured participation by a new umbrella group, the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed. Based at the New Jersey Audubon Society, its goal is to unite residents and stakeholders from the headwaters in New York’s Catskill Mountains to the Delaware Bay.
The coalitions have brought clout to the non-governmental member groups, which in the past struggled to be heard by water decision-makers, including the Delaware River Basin Commission.
“It’s not just us anymore,” said Dan Plummer, board chairman of FUDR. “These coalitions give us a seat at the table, alongside the decision-makers.”
The groups have coalesced around the need for consistent cold-water releases from the Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink reservoirs during summer months to protect the upper Delaware’s ecosystem, including its trout. Cold water released from the bottom of the dams has helped create the upper Delaware habitat that has spawned wild trophy rainbow and brown trout, but inconsistent releases during summer heat waves cause “thermal stress” that imperils the fishery, experts said at the conference.
Coalition members have fought for years to improve the water-release protocols, which are linked to a 1954 agreement signed by New York City and Delaware basin states, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Garth Pettinger, of the New York chapter of Trout Unlimited, said New York City has dominated the water battles for long enough.
“Their attitude is that they’ll take what they want, and whatever’s left over is good enough for the river,” Pettinger said.
He said a new filtration system at the city’s Croton reservoir in Westchester County will make more downstate water available, which should reduce the need for water from the Delaware watershed.
“It’s time to hit the reset button” on the release plan, Pettinger said.
Several speakers noted that requests to the city’s Bureau of Water Supply for extra water releases during extraordinary heat waves have often gone unanswered. Three of four such requests were ignored during the summer of 2012.
Decisions often are arbitrary. For example, requests made late in the week or over the weekend often draw no response, speakers said. Requests made early in the week—when a full staff is on duty—are more likely to gain replies.
Fred Henson, a fisheries supervisor with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York City is unlikely to favor automatic trigger points for cold-water releases to relieve thermal stress—for example, when water temperatures at key river gauges rise above 70 degrees, when many experts believe trout become imperiled.
Henson cited the city’s “entrenchment.”
“They view themselves as having that prerogative, and they do not wish to delegate it,” he said.
Peter Bousum, an FUDR board member, said, “There has to a system set up to make this work on hot days, and it has to be dynamic, changeable and convertible as needs arise.”
Peter Kolesar, a professor emeritus from the Columbia University Business School, called the current template of ad-hoc decisions “just ridiculous.” He added, “Is this any way to run a business?”
Mark Hartle, chief of aquatic resources for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, urged the Delaware coalition to speak as one voice in favor of a science-based alternative to the current water-release plan.
He said the coalition should consider two key questions: “What do you want, and what are the facts behind that?” he said. “If you can’t answer those questions, you’re not in the game.”
One possible answer was put forward as a work-in-progress at the conference by Columbia’s Kolesar, an avid flyfisherman and expert in statistics and management.
His work suggests that an increase of about 100 cubic feet per second of water from the Cannonsville Reservoir, on the Delaware’s West Branch near Deposit, can lower the water temperature by nearly one degree Fahrenheit on the main stem of the river 15 miles downstream at Lordville.
“Our goal is to design a science-based protocol for thermal relief releases,” Kolesar said. He called thermal stress “a solvable problem.”
Among the other speakers at the conference were Don Hamilton, the National Park Service chief of resource management for the Upper Delaware, and Anthony Caligiuri, regional executive director the National Wildlife Federation. The NWF’s Rachael Dawson and Kim Breidler, who directs the newly formed Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, also spoke.
Plummer said coalition representatives will meet soon to seek a consensus on proposals to amend the current water-release plan. The Delaware River Basin Commission is expected to institute a new plan that will take effect next June 1. Last year, conservation coalitions gained traction through support of the Joint Fishery White Paper as a one-year alternative to the infamous Flexible Flow Management Plan that had been in place for several years. Many components of the White Paper were included in the current plan, and Plummer said the coalition hopes to influence any new plan for 2013.
He said flexibility should be a key so that water managers can deal with the problem systematically when the inevitable heat waves happen.
“Once again this year, the conference showed that we are gathering scientific proof that can be used to improve the water-flow plan,” Plummer said. “Our job now is to get these results in front of the folks who are capable of making the needed changes. Part of our coalition-building process has been in developing relationships with these decision-makers. We’re looking forward to the opportunity for fruitful input.”
