Dear Mr. Rush:

On behalf of the ten conservancy organizations that have joined in signing this letter, we are requesting that you reconsider and reverse a decision made by your agency to discontinue funding for the operation and maintenance of 26 stream gauges located in the area from the City draws most of it potable water supply.

The list of gauges for which the City plans to withdraw its support in three stages over the next 18 months was recently posted on the National Water Information System website of the U.S. Geologic Service. This list includes six gauges specifically identified by USGS as being used for flood prediction and flood modeling. USGS reports that the annual operation and maintenance cost for each gauge is $17,000, so the potential savings for the City from withdrawing this support for all 26 gauges is $442,000 per year. This amount is less than 0.05% of DEP’s $1 Billion+ operating budget for 2009.

However, many of the members of organizations joining in this letter as well as the communities located throughout these watersheds rely – on a daily basis – on the information provided by these gauges. The information provided by these gauges is the essential to the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the flood emergency coordinators in each of the communities throughout the watersheds that contribute to the City’s water supply system. We also understand that many of these gauges will perform important functions in the new flood analysis model being prepared for the Delaware River Basin by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the USGS and the National Weather Service and to be delivered to the Delaware River Basin Commission for public release in the next few months. If maintenance of these gauges is discontinued, the effectiveness of the model will be compromised from the moment it is released.

These gauges also provide information that is essential to the protection and sustainability of the aqautic ecosystem of these watersheds. This ecosystem supports some of the best fisheries, water-based recreational uses and ecological tourism in the eastern United States. Protection and recovery of various endangered and threatened species also depends on the information from these gauges.

Finally, without the continued operation of these gauges, we question how the City will be able to comply with its obligations under the U.S. Supreme Court decree entered in 1954 in State of New Jersey v. State of New York and City of New York, 347 U.S. 995 (1954).

We urge you to reconsider and reverse the decision to withdraw financial support for these critically important facilities.

Sincerely,

Jeff Zimmerman
Zimmerman & Associates
jjzimmerman@comcast.net
(240) 912-6685

On behalf of:

Friends of the Upper Delaware River
Aquatic Conservation Unlimited
Drowning on the Delaware
Trout Unlimited, Inc.
R.A.F.T.
North Delaware River Watershed Conservancy
Delaware Riverside Conservancy
New Jersey State Council of Trout Unlimited
New York State Council of Trout Unlimited
Pennsylvania State Council of Trout Unlimited