Richard Green, Lambertville
The following is an open letter to New Jersey and Pennsylvania officials:
As you know, Sept. 24 is when the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will vote on the proposed Flexible Flow Management Plan (FFMP), or its surrogate, the amendments to the Water Code.
I am asking you to act now to stop the enactment of the FFMP (or the water code amendments) because it is not effective in regulating the waters of the Delaware and may even mitigate current flood prevention efforts.
Before enacting any rules and regulations for the Delaware, we must wait for the completion of the flood study currently under way to learn the root causes of Delaware flooding, and then begin working on sustainable solutions to stop future floods.
On another matter, I am asking our New Jersey and Pennsylvania representatives to support the DRBC in its efforts to regulate land use and development in the floodplain.
”Rooftop” and “blacktop” runoff are obvious contributors to flooding. The DRBC is to be commended for convening a diverse committee comprised of all stakeholders (including riverside property owners) to address floodplain rules and regulations in the watershed states i.e., construction codes, land use rules, development guidelines, storm-water management, etc.
This is a good thing!
We cannot become a hostage to the notion that the New York City reservoirs are the sole contributor to Delaware River flooding. Not only is this a naive notion, but a dangerous one as well.
I am asking the DRBC and our elected and appointed officials to begin working on the problems of storm-water management, riverside development and runoff, which are major flood contributors.
New Jersey has made progress in the above arena with Pennsylvania remaining intransigent. Pennsylvania’s intransigence makes it no different than the state of New York in not addressing the root causes of the three floods. Both states continue to be actors in this unending dilemma of repetitive river flooding.
Richard Green
Lambertville

