Technical Summary: State of the Delaware Basin Report
Date
2008-07-04
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Abstract
This report defines environmental indicators for the State of the Delaware River Basin project. Indicator data were collected by a collaboration among the Delaware River Basin Commission, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), U.S. Geological Survey, and a consortium of the four land-grant universities that represent the states in the basin—Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, and University of Delaware.
For many environmental indicators, the health of the Delaware River Basin has improved or at least remained stable in many watersheds, even in the face of an industrial legacy, increased land development, a growing population, and rising thirst for water supplies. Water quality as measured by dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, lead and zinc levels is improving or constant in a majority of the watersheds and main stem waters since 1990. Delaware and New Jersey are partnering on an oyster-restoration project, which involved planting 500,000 shells on reefs in the bay. Watershed groups are removing dams that have been an impediment to fish migration. Many of the 1,600 Federal Superfund sites are being cleaned up and remediated. Blue crab landings are up, resulting in a $7 million economy. Bald eagles, an endangered species that relies on clean streams for its fish-laden diet, are returning to the basin in growing numbers. Black bears are returning to the mountain forests in the headwaters of the basin. Shad and striped bass are swimming upstream again. There are more forests in the basin then there were in the 1930s, although there was a decline between 1996 and 2001. More than 400 miles of rivers in the basin are now protected as part of the National Wild and Scenic River program. These improvements were prompted by environmental programs administered by Federal, state, and local governments, the DRBC, PDE, and USEPA.
On the other hand, there are certain troublesome trends. The common pesticides atrazine and metolachlor have been detected in at least 80 of 100 streams in the basin. Fish-consumption advisories are imposed on almost 4,000 miles of streams in the Delaware Basin. About 10% of the streams in the basin are declared impaired by the USEPA and the states. Oyster catches have dropped to 100,000 bushels per year in the bay. The red knot, a shore bird that depends on Delaware Bay horseshoe crab eggs for food, is closer to extinction. The habitat of the brook trout—the state fish of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania—is declining and extirpated in 15% of the basin although habitat remains in 50% of the basin. The Atlantic sturgeon is teetering on extinction, only two fish per haul were caught in the Delaware in 2004, none in 2005. The Louisiana water thrush, an upland bird species, is declining. Impervious cover in suburbanizing watersheds is increasing with more development and population growth. The Delaware Basin has lost 18 mi2 of agriculture, 4 mi2 of wetlands, 48 mi2 of forests, and gained 70 mi2 of urban/suburban land between 1996 and 2001. Three major floods occurred along the Delaware River in 2004, 2005, and 2006, damaging hundreds of homes in the river floodplain. These are all declines that are worth reversing.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, Federal, state, and regional governments initiated environmental programs that resulted in water-quality improvements and reduced water pollution in the Delaware River Basin. The Delaware River Basin Commission has been cited as one of the first actors responsible for restored water quality in the Delaware River and Estuary:
In 1968, Stewart Udall, Secretary of the U. S. Department of the Interior from 1961-1969, stated, “Only the Delaware among the nation’s river basins is moving into high gear in its program to combat water pollution.”
In 1968, the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration noted, “The Delaware River Basin is the only place in the country where water-quality standards and waste-load-allocation procedures were being followed.”
In 1982, the Western Governor’s Association Report wrote, “The DRBC’s framework for regional coordination under the Federal-interstate compact mechanism appears unrivaled by any existing or proposed institutional arrangement.”
In 1996, William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator of the USEPA from 1970-1973 and 1983-1985 remarked, “Looking back, the DRBC was the vanguard in the Johnny-come-lately march to manage water resources on a watershed basis.”
Water quality in the Delaware River Basin has improved due to water pollution–control actions that extend back to Richard Milhouse Nixon’s consent to the Clean Water Act in 1972, JFK’s signature on the DRBC compact in 1961, and as far back as the original Delaware River watershed agency, INCODEL, when America was on the edge of war in 1940. The Delaware River Basin Commission plans to update the State of the Basin Report at five-year intervals. In the next half-decade, emphasis should be placed on programs to reverse the decline of those indicators of poor health. Recent history indicates that environmental health can be improved using the cooperative watershed approach espoused by the Federal government and the four states through the comity of the Delaware River Basin Commission and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.