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Water Resource Associations of the Delaware River Basin

Jan '09

DRBC Releases First "State of the Basin" Report

Many of our readers may not visit the DRBC website on a regular basis. Because of its importance, this News Release is provide in its entirety.

On December 5, 2008, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) joined with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum to officially release the 2008 State of the Delaware River Basin Report (State of the Basin Report), as well as reintroduce PDE’s 2008 State of the Delaware Estuary Report (Estuary Report) which was released in July.

Speakers at the joint press conference included DRBC Deputy Executive Director Robert Tudor and PDE Executive Director Jennifer Adkins. Also speaking was Gerald Kauffman, the director of the University of Delaware Institute for Public Administration’s Water Resources Agency (IPA-WRA). Kauffman led a team of universities which collected and compiled data submitted to both DRBC and PDE earlier this year that was used as a baseline for their reports.

Both reports discuss the current health of the Delaware River Basin by examining the status of certain environmental conditions, as well as trends and actions needed to better monitor and improve these conditions in the future. The two reports provide a baseline analysis to help answer the question: Are things better or worse in the Delaware River Basin, and are the goals set forth in DRBC’s 2004 Water Resources Plan for the Delaware River Basin (Basin Plan) and the PDE’s 1996 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) viable and being achieved?
“The general assessment is that the answer to this question is both yes and no,” Tudor said. “While there are some conditions in the basin and estuary that have improved over time and are on a positive trend, there are others that have worsened, as well as some that have remained static.

Furthermore, while some goals in the plans have been attained, the reports highlight that more work needs to be done. Such progress will be tracked in subsequent analyses and through additional or enhanced monitoring programs. For water resource managers and policy makers, it is important to look at the basin both as a holistic system and as a sum of its inter-related parts in order to effectively improve its overall health and vitality.

”DRBC’s State of the Delaware River Basin Report serves as a benchmark of current conditions and provides a platform for measuring and reporting future progress. It is meant to be a companion to the 1981 Level B Study, which was the last comprehensive assessment of water resource issues in the basin, and a point of reference for gauging implementation status of the water resource management goals listed in the 30-year Basin Plan completed in 2004.

“Our federal and state commissioners directed the preparation of this periodic environmental condition report when they endorsed the principles, goals, and objectives set forth in the Basin Plan,” Tudor said. “The desired conditions listed in the State of the Basin Report link to specific Basin Plan goals and the collaboration that occurred to produce this report satisfies additional goals in support of institutional coordination and cooperation.”

The State of the Basin Report catalogs specific indicators, or measurements of environmental conditions, on which data were readily available and assembles them into four categories: hydrology, water quality, living resources, and landscape. Each of the 37 indicators – for example, water use, dissolved oxygen, horseshoe crabs, and wetlands – is discussed in terms of current status and trend (positive, negative, or static) toward a desired condition, as well as future actions and needs necessary to achieve that desired condition. The report also includes features on burgeoning issues such as climate change, emerging contaminants, invasive species, and the valuation of natural landscapes. It concludes with a summary of all conditions and recommendations for future monitoring and reporting. Updating this comprehensive report is planned every five years.

The State of the Delaware Estuary Report specifically examines the portion of the Delaware Basin where the fresh water of the Delaware River mixes with the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean, and includes the Delaware Bay and tidal river upstream to Trenton, N.J., as well as its surrounding drainage area. This Estuary Report, and the earlier one issued in 2002, tracks the progress that has been made toward implementing the 1996 CCMP, which is PDE’s long-term plan.
A total of 26 indicators were examined in the 2008 Estuary Report based on the availability of data and the capability of these indicators to explain current conditions and future needs. The method used to illustrate current status, trends, and actions and needs is similar to that used in the State of the Basin Report. Examples of estuary indicators are population, land use, nutrients, blue crabs, and salinity. “The Delaware Estuary is both a living and working estuary,” Adkins said. “Managing it is a delicate balance we and many others are working hard to preserve and perfect.”

DRBC and PDE collaborated with one another, as well as with state and federal agencies, universities, and advisory committees, to prepare both reports. Data were shared, assembled, and assessed among the partners, who also provided technical review. A portion of the funding for the State of the Basin Report came from the William Penn Foundation as part of the original grant for the Basin Plan. Additional monies were provided by DRBC, and substantial in-kind support was provided by university and state and federal agency partners. Funding for the Estuary Report came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program.

The State of the Basin Report is available on the DRBC web site.

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Around the Basin: Treating Abandoned Mine Waste Drainage

The Lehigh River is 103-miles long and has a 1,345 square mile watershed that includes ten counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It provides water to hundreds of thousands of households and is designated a Pennsylvania Scenic River along a third of its length.

Unfortunately, portions of the Lehigh are classified by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as “impaired because of metals.” This is because the river is adversely affected by abandoned mine drainage from the Eastern Middle and Southern coalfields. Within the watershed are numerous strip mines, pits and underground workings being drained by eight abandoned mine drainage (AMD) discharges entering four major Lehigh tributaries: Sandy Run, Buck Mountain Creek, Black Creek, and Nesquehoning Creek.
Abandoned mine drainage is surface water that emanates from an area disturbed by mining activities and is typically characterized by low pH and elevated levels of sulfate, acidity and metals such as iron, manganese, magnesium, zinc and aluminum. Abandoned mine drainage is undoubtedly the largest negative impact to water quality in the Lehigh River watershed. Each day the Lehigh receives approximately 75,000 pounds of AMD related pollutants.

In 2000, Wildlands Conservancy developed a comprehensive action plan to remediate the eight AMD discharges entering the Lehigh River, the largest of which was the Lausanne Tunnel, which enters Nesquehoning Creek in Carbon County.
Wildlands Conservancy worked to assemble a team of 22 project partners and raised nearly $525,000 to address the negative impacts of the Lausanne Tunnel. A treatment system was designed in which the outflow from the tunnel is redirected into a 1.5 acre man-made wetland complex. As water from the discharge is collected in the wetland, the metals it contains are removed and trapped by the wetland and its vegetation.

The Lausanne Tunnel remediation project became operational in 2004. Because Wildlands Conservancy and the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation maintain a water quality monitoring program at the restoration site, we know that the wetland is working to reduce the heavy metal loading to the Lehigh River. In 2007, the system was preventing approximately 120 pounds of iron (a reduction of 48%) and 45 pounds of aluminum (a reduction of 56%) from entering Nesquehoning Creek and the Lehigh River each day! Even better is that since 2004, each year the wetland system removes more metals than the year before, and as it continues to mature, its capacity to remove these pollutants is expected to increase.

The Lausanne Tunnel Remediation Project was coordinated by the Wildlands Conservancy and funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Federal Office of Surface Mining, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. Maintenance and monitoring of the wetland treatment system at Lausanne Tunnel continues through the generous support of State Representative Keith McCall of the 122nd legislative district, Carbon County, and through the Coca-Cola Foundation.

Encouraged by the success of the Lausanne Tunnel project, Wildlands is now working to remediate the second and fourth largest mine drainage impacts to the Lehigh, the Owl Hole discharge and the Buck Mountain #2 discharge, which together contribute approximately 14,000 lbs/day of metals to the Lehigh River.

Many thanks to WRA member Chris Kocher, Executive Director of the Wildlands Conservancy, for providing this article. The Wildlands Conservancy mission is to preserve, protect, restore and enhance the land, water, ecological and recreational resources of the Lehigh Valley and the Lehigh River valley. Established in 1973, the Conservancy collaborates with partnerships throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to achieve its goals. As a non-profit, member-supported organization, the Conservancy has protected more than 45,000 acres of critical farmland and open space in 18 counties of eastern Pennsylvania. For more information, visit their website (see link).
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DRBC Withdraws Flexible Flow Management (FFMP) Proposal

After years of painstaking work by numerous committees and individuals to develop an acceptable plan for managing operation of the New York City Reservoirs, DRBC has decided to suspend the current FFMP proposal. Their plan is to “go back to the drawing board” and work up a new proposal (sometime in 2009) that will be more flexible and not bogged down by the detailed parameters outlined in the first proposal.

Their decision was apparently based on more that 1900 comments received during eight public workshops and public hearings.

WRA commends DRBC for their efforts to date and their decision to reevaluate and rework the plan.
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Nominations Sought for the Dr. John L. Buzzi Memorial Scholarship for 2009

The Board of Directors of the Water Resources Association is pleased to announce that, for a sixth year, a $1,000 scholarship in memory of Dr. John L. Buzzi, former Chairman and Board member, will be awarded to a qualified high school senior that is interested in or desires a career in a water resources related field. The announcement of the scholarship is being sent to numerous high schools within the Delaware River Basin’s watershed. More information on the scholarship, eligibility, selection criteria and the application process can be found on WRA’s website at www.wradrb.org. If you receive this newsletter and know of a high school student that may be interested in applying for the scholarship because of his interest in water resources or related fields please pass this information on to him or her. If they have any questions they can contact the WRA office. Please note that the deadline for the application is March 31, 2009. The student selected will be notified in April. The award will be presented at WRA’s annual Recognition Dinner on April 22.

Chairman’s Message

To our many members, both individuals and corporate, as well as our friends, thank you for your time, dedication and support of our organization over these many years. Your WRA turns 50 this year so please mark your calendars and save the date of April 22, 2009 for our 27th Annual Recognition Dinner at the Down Town Club. We collectively will celebrate our golden anniversary at the Dinner.
At the WRA annual meeting on December 3, 2008 we welcomed our new Board of Director members Chris Conroy, Marlene Finizio and Paul Welle as well as those that were re-elected.

As a reflection on some of our involvement in the Basin this last year, your WRA was active on the matter of Special Protection Waters, President Robert Molzahn and I were at several of the DRBC meetings on this matter. We followed our up visit with Pennsylvania DEP officials last year with a visit and introduction to New Jersey DEP officials with plans to visit the new staff in Delaware in 2009. Our Dr. John Buzzi Memorial Scholarship program was expanded this year to reflect the accomplishments of three outstanding collegebound individuals. While the Annual Dinner does provide operating funds for the organization, part of the proceeds also supports the scholarship program for future water resources engineers and scientists. This program will be continued in 2009 so if you have a worthy high school senior interested in a field related to water resources please have them submit an application. Everything they need to know is on our website.

As with other non-profits, your WRA is also potentially facing some tough economic conditions which will challenge us. Membership is an area that needs the support an assistance of all our members. As a suggestion, bring a friend or colleague to the dinner as an introduction to WRA and follow up with a membership request. The dinner is a great venue to network with others in the Basin’s water resources community

For our friends receiving this newsletter please consider joining WRA on an individual basis. Together we can make a difference.

Thank you again for your support.

- Dennis W. Palmer, P.E., Chairman