DELAWARE RIVER BASIN COMMISSION

Activities

Commission Programs

The Commission is proposing a Basinwide Waterway Corridors Protection Program (WWCPP). Working in concert with the basin states and the federal government, the WWCPP has the following goals:

1) Develop monitoring programs of representative stream segments to determine the status and trends of physical and other features of the Basins's WWCs;

2) Protect riparian vegetation, stream banks, and stream channels;

3) Restore deteriorated streams to stable configurations;

4) Manage storm water on a watershed basis to reduce flooding, protect water quality, and to maintain the stability of streambanks and channels;

5) Establish a basinwide, interconnected green way corridor along the Delaware River and its tributaries to enhance open space and aesthetic landscapes in the Delaware River Basin, and provide for the protection of the environmental, cultural, and economic features;

6) Analyze existing regulations dealing with protection of WWCs; and

7) Prepare a web site (this one still under construction) and a brochure depicting favorable and unfavorable WWC practices.

Commission Activities

In addition to preparation of a web site (goal number 7), we are focusing on goal number 1: develop monitoring programs, and are considering initiating some activities for goal number 3: restore deteriorated streams. The other goals are future undertakings.

We have been exchanging ideas on monitoring programs with the USGS, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the University of Delaware. We are cooperating with the U.S.G.S. on a proposed monitoring project entitled Effect of Urbanizing Watersheds on Stream Channel Morphology and Bank stability.

We are working with the USGS on a high-flow study of the Musconetcong River, Flatbrook, and other streams. The study, funded by NJDEP, is examining potential water quality and stream channel-oriented criteria that would be applicable for high-flow situations.

At the request of the National Park Service (NPS), the Commission (Resolution No. 99-14) agreed to assist NPS staff in the restoration and related monitoring of an unnamed tributary of VanCampens Brook located on NPS lands in Warren County, New Jersey.

At a May 12, 1999 meeting with the Delaware River Basin Fish & Wildlife Management Cooperative, the group expressed much interest in the Commission working with state fishery personnel and others to provide demonstration stream restoration projects.

The Commission is considering such demonstration projects in the White Clay watershed within Delaware, the headwaters of Assunpink Creek in New Jersey, and yet-identified sites in New York and Pennsylvania.

View looking upstream of washed-out dam, Assunpink Creek, New Jersey. Located immediately upstream of Whitehead Road at the boundary of Lawrence and Hamilton Townships.

The Commission has established a Waterway Corridors Subcommittee to assess and provide guidance on the WWCPP, and to provide a forum to discuss and coordinate ongoing WWC programs of the participating State and federal agencies and private organizations. Membership includes representatives of the basin state environmental agencies, the U.S. EPA Regions II and III, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U. S. Geologic Survey, and Rutgers University. We seek additional members.

Waterway Corridors Home Page

 

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P.O. BOX 7360, West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360
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croberts@drbc.state.nj.us