Gail Pedrick, New Hope
president, Delaware Riverside
Conservancy Inc.
Box 1, Stewartsville, 08886
On May 20, the Decree Parties (A Supreme Court Decree of 1954 established that five decree parties (New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and New York City) are responsible for the management of the reservoir levels for the Delaware River, including the approval of any/all relative plans). They voted to have 100 percent full NY Delaware Reservoirs from May 1-July 1 as part of the Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP) for the Delaware.
One hundred percent full NY Delaware Reservoirs are what we had before ‘04, ‘05, and ‘06 destructive floods, where nine people lost their lives and millions were spent to repair, roads, canals, bridges, homes etc. When the rainstorms were forecasted, New York could not let the water out of the reservoirs quickly enough to make room for the approaching rain event because of the small release values at the bottoms.
It takes weeks to create voids in the NYC Delaware Reservoirs to accommodate heavy rain events. When heavy rain comes it pushes water out of the already spilling reservoirs! In 2006, 109 billion gallons poured out of the three NY Delaware Reservoirs into the Delaware River — the equivalent of running Niagara Falls into the Delaware River for 37 hours.
This is the reason the reservoirs should never be at 100 percent, let alone vote to have them at 100 percent by the Decree Parties, members — Kelly Jean Heffner (Pennsylvania), Michele Siekerka (New Jersey), Mark Klotz (New York), Dave Wunsch (Delaware), Carter H, Strickland Jr. (New York City) from May 1-July 1.
Before the vote we mailed each Decree Party member our “Perfect Storm Can It Happen Again?” full page newspaper ads. 10, 433 signatures requesting 20 percent year around voids, many letters from elected officials all requesting voids. We asked that they share our information with their governor, as he would be the one to receive the media attention, if the Delaware floods in part due to 100 percent full reservoirs before the rain event.
Future action — This FFMP is good until May 2014. The new plan to be voted on May 2014 may be in effect for several years. We must stop the new FFMP plan from having 100 percent full reservoirs in it. Please email [email protected] for meetings etc. Help by sending a donation to address below toward the $14,000 costs. Visit: www.delawareriversideconservancy.org
FYI — Four of the five Decree Party members are the exact same people as four of the five Delaware River Basin Commission members. One makes the law (Decree Parties) the other (DRBC) enforces it, when put into the Water Code.

