Delaware River basin managers could take conservation efforts if drought worsens

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Despite rain in the forecast later this week, regional water managers are considering coordinating efforts among states to conserve water in the Delaware River basin as reservoir levels continue to drop and salty water creeps toward Philadelphia’s main drinking water intake.

During a virtual public hearing Tuesday called by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to address the dry conditions and a possible upcoming water supply emergency declaration, officials said the basin could soon enter drought operations.

“The past 90 days have been dismal for precipitation,” said Amy Shallcross, manager of Water Resource Operations at the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Much of the region experienced a record dry October. The drought is classified as moderate to severe in Eastern Pennsylvania, severe in Delaware and severe to extreme in New Jersey. New Jersey has battled an unseasonably high number of wildfires this month, and some water customers there are under a mandatory water conservation order. 

Over the past month, the dry conditions have allowed salty water in the Delaware River to move north toward Philadelphia’s Baxter Water Treatment Plant, which draws water from the river to serve more than half of the Philadelphia Water Department’s two million customers. The Delaware River salt front, where salinity begins to exceed a federal drinking water guideline, sat more than 19 miles north of its normal November location Tuesday, just over 20 miles away from the Baxter intake — the closest it’s been in eight years.

The Delaware River Basin Commission oversees water quality and quantity in the basin states and is made up of a representative of the federal government as well as the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. During periods of drought, it has the authority to intensify its efforts to conserve water in the basin.

Reservoir levels in the upper and lower basin remain above the thresholds that automatically trigger drought operations. Two federal reservoirs in Pennsylvania are around 75% full. The combined water stored in three New York City reservoirs has declined since August, and now sits at just over 50% of the reservoirs’ capacity.

Water is released from reservoirs into the Delaware River as needed to help meet targets for the amount of water flowing down the river at specific locations.

“We’ve been adding a lot of water to the river to maintain flows downstream,” Shallcross said.

DRBC officials expect the New York City reservoirs to be under increased demand soon, as the city resumes its diversions from the reservoirs for drinking water. The city announced Monday it is pausing an aqueduct repair project that had stopped those diversions amid concerns about the drought.

“We might enter drought operations, and that’s because we expect a significant draw on the combined storage in the New York City reservoirs,” Shallcross said.

Rain and snow are forecast for the eastern United States later this week, but it’s not yet clear what impact this potential precipitation will have on water supplies and the severity of the drought.

“We had a rainfall forecast — it was for a lot less rain — and we didn’t see any of that in the river,” Shallcross said. “So it will be interesting to see how much rain that we get from this predicted storm event.”

The DRBC is “preparing for either outcome,” said spokesperson Kate Schmidt.

If drought conditions worsen, the Delaware River Basin Commission could declare a “water supply emergency” to implement a coordinated response as early as Thursday — or at its regularly scheduled business meeting in early December, officials have said.

When the basin enters drought operations, it triggers conservation actions such as smaller out-of-basin water diversions by New York City and New Jersey, water conservation orders or reduced river flow targets, which allow upstream reservoirs to release less water.

These actions help the Commission prepare to repel the salt front from drinking water intakes if needed by releasing more fresh water from upstream reservoirs.

The DRBC can launch drought operations before reservoir levels reach the drought thresholds, but the commission is not considering doing so at this time, Schmidt said.

Only a handful of people testified during Tuesday’s virtual public hearing. Several expressed concern about paving and water use associated with development in the upper basin, as well as climate change — which scientists say can intensify droughts by increasing temperatures. 

Karen Feridun, founder of the anti-fracking group Berks Gas Truth, lives near Neversink Mountain, where dry conditions complicated efforts to suppress a brush fire in recent days. She told DRBC officials that reading about the impact of the drought on local waterways has been “heartbreaking.”

“I feel like what’s happening now is what we’ve been telling you was going to happen if someone didn’t blink and start acting on climate change,” Feridun said.