Recent History

1931 - When New York City originally set it sights on withdrawing water from the Upper Delaware basin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware filed a lawsuit to protect their own water supplies on the Lower Delaware River. A 1931 U.S. Supreme Court decree ruled that New York City had the right to construct two reservoirs on the Upper Delaware – the Pepacton on the East Branch of the Delaware and the Neversink on the Neversink River. The court stipulated at this time that the city was allowed to withdraw 440 million gallons per day from the system and construction of the dams began in 1937.

1954 - During the construction of the Pepacton and Neversink dams New York City decided it needed more water from the Delaware system. Again, the fight was settled in the U.S. Supreme Court when in 1954 the original judgment was modified to allow the city to nearly double its withdrawal to 800 million gallons per day with the stipulation of the construction of an additional dam on the West Branch at Cannonsville. As part of this decision New York City was required to release sufficient water to maintain a minimum flow at Montague, New Jersey of 1,750 cubic feet per second. A federal River Master was appointed to monitor flows and direct the city to release more water when the Montague flow target was not being met.

1961 – An agreement between President John F. Kennedy and the governors of the four Delaware River Basin States created the Delaware River Basin Commission. The Commission was charged with oversight and management of the Delaware Basin water affairs.

1964 - New York City completed construction of the Cannonsville, Reservoirs on the West Branch Delaware River. Cannonsville Reservoir is the final reservoir to be constructed as part of the elaborate engineering system of reservoirs that provide drinking water to more than 9 million people in the New York City metropolitan area. Click here for more information.

1976 - New York State passed a law giving the New York State DEC authority to regulate releases from 31 reservoirs with capacities of one billion gallons or more. This included the three reservoirs on the Upper Delaware. The primary objective of the DEC under this directive was to enhance the recreational opportunities of the water bodies without impairing the drinking water supplies or hydroelectric production. Catskill Waters, a group of fishermen fighting for the Delaware, played a crucial role in passing this landmark legislation.

1980 - New York City brought a proceeding to the New York Supreme Court against the DEC in order to nullify the 1976 State law. This challenge led to a series of three-month extensions of the release regulations until they became permanent in 1982.

1982 - The basin states entered into the "Good Faith Agreement" in 1982. The major points of the agreement were the permanent adoption of the DEC experimental augmented conservation release schedule, establishment of drought warning and drought stage definitions, creation of a "thermal bank" that would be used to meet downstream temperature targets and the enlargement of the Cannonsville Reservoir for additional water storage. This is known as “Revision 1”. Problems included that the negotiated releases returned to the 1954 Supreme Court levels, nearly nothing, when drought conditions are in effect. The river could then only rely on the thermal bank, or a special negotiation between the DEC and New York City. In most cases the flow rates were reduced to the "Basic Conservation Release" levels, all less than 10 cfs, which led to elimination of habitat, thermal stress and death to trout during summer drought, and problems with anchor ice in the winter months.

1999 - New York State DEC negotiated with DRBC and New York City to alter the drought management plan so that the basin entered a drought watch stage before entering a drought warning, and provided for proportional reductions in water for the river. This in effect reduced the frequency of water releases dropping to the deadly "Basic Conservation Releases."

2000 - A group of fishermen, guides, and local citizens began meeting under the direction of Trout Unlimited to discuss how to influence the DRBC and New York City in order to change an out-dated, inflexible system that sacrifices a whole river system for water supply convenience. This group, called the Delaware Coalition, gained support from other nonprofit groups and politicians. This group becomes the Delaware River Foundation in 2001.

2003 - New York State DEC negotiated Revision 7, an experimental release program based on maintaining minimum water flow and water temperature targets based on a DEC study from 1983. Targets are located at 4 USGS gages downstream from the reservoirs on the three receiving rivers (Hale Eddy, Harvard, and Bridgeville) and the upper main stem Delaware River (Hankins). Targets were not met on many occasions because the “water banks” used for reservoir releases were inadequate and ran out of water. This target system allowed water levels to drop to low levels frequently near the reservoirs when natural runoff from streams met flow targets at the USGS gages, and required daily micromanagement by DEC and NYC DEP employees.

2005 – New York State DEC urges various fishing and conservation groups to unify and present a single flow policy recommendation.

January 2006 - The conservation coalition is formed by Dr. Peter Kolesar, Larry Miri and Jim Serio. Extensive computer modeling and analysis begin in earnest by Columbia University Professor Kolesar and engineering students. The Delaware River Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited and Theodore Gordon Flyfishers use various resources to develop the Adaptive Release Policy.