Who Controls the Delaware River

The Delaware River is managed by the Delaware River Basin Commission http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/ under a Supreme Court Decree compact that includes the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and a representative of the federal government. For any changes to the water management of the Delaware River basin, all the states and New York City must agree unanimously on a proposal.

Downstream of New York City's dams, the Delaware River provides water to nearly 6 million residents, mostly found in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey. The entire Delaware River watershed represents only 0.4% of the U.S. land surface, however, it supplies roughly 10% of the U.S. population with its drinking water.

The Problems
When the 1954 Supreme Court Decree was written, the conservation movement was in its infancy. The rivers had no voice. The result was the adoption of a water management system focused almost entirely on efficient water supply to New York City, and to the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Today, because of the rigid rules governing the complex distribution of water, the Upper Delaware River system -including the rivers dammed by the reservoirs and the upper section of the main stem Delaware River - suffers from:

• Low water releases during much of the year
  Most seasons, releases from all 3 reservoirs do not protect the downstream ecology. New York City was given the discretion to release water from any of the reservoirs of its choice. Because Cannonsville Reservoir on the West Branch has lower quality water in the summer and has the potential to refill more quickly, it is most often used to meet flow requirements at Montague, leaving the East Branch and Neversink Rivers artificially low, and severely impacting fish and aquatic insects.
• Erratic changes in water level
  Releases oscillate back and forth, as much as between 20 cfs and 1,000 cfs in a day, creating unnatural and deadly conditions. During high releases, huge cold water plumes flow down the river and at low releases flows drop to levels of a stream. These highly variable flow and temperature conditions can alter or eliminate habitat for fish and insects alike.
• Spilling of the reservoirs
  The bottom line for water supply engineers is that spilling reservoirs are good, because the reservoirs are full. But spilling reservoirs do little to reduce flood damage, and can smother downstream rivers with warm water.
• Stranding of fish and fish kills
  The complicated system of flow targets downstream can strand fish and cause extreme increases in water temperature as water levels change erratically. New York City has started to ramp water releases to reduce stranding in the past few years.
• Low water releases during wet years
  Because the Montague flow target is met by natural stream runoff in wet years, releases into the Delaware River are reduced to artificially low levels for much of the summer and fall. Other downstream reservoirs such as Lake Wallenpaupack contribute water to the Montague flow target as well, reducing releases from New York City Reservoirs, even when they are nearly full.

• Very low water releases during a declared drought
  During times where the 3 New York City reservoirs reach the various "drought" levels, the river always loses - water releases are cut back a disproportionately higher level than drinking water withdrawals. Although New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has negotiated improvements to original release levels that equaled that of a small stream, these big rivers remain at risk of fish kills during periods when "drought" is declared.