NEGLIGENCE • MISMANAGEMENT • ARROGANCE • GREED
By Elaine O'Neil

No; - I am not talking about Enron – a corporation and its officials that let its profit motive outweigh its Social Contract with the people who lived and worked in its corporate shadow. I am talking about the Delaware River Basin Commission - and the NYC DEP – and the CHOICE these entities have made to ignore the safety of the thousands of people who live, work and play in the shadow of the NYC Reservoirs located on the headwaters of the Delaware River. Instead of learning from the three preventable disasters that have cost so many so much these past two and a half years, you come before us today with a proposal that continues to jeopardize the safety and welfare of the residents, businesses, towns and river ecology that you are supposed to protect. I say “supposed to” because if you were serious about flood mitigation, you would propose Safety Voids of 15 to 20% in each Reservoir. If you were serious about protecting the cold water fishery that YOU created with the very existence of the Reservoirs, then you would have habitat sustaining cold water releases large enough to prevent harm to the Trout and the Dwarf Wedge Mussel in the Main Stem of the Delaware. According to the water release levels you propose, YOU CHOOSE NOT TO.

If you were truly a “good neighbor”, you would not let your Reservoirs be at 100% capacity EVER.

If you were to respect the rights of those down river from the Reservoirs, you would protect the Scenic and Wild Life Designation of the three quarters of the Delaware – instead of letting the River be raped and devastated, past and future, by repeated, preventable floods.

Did you learn from your arrogant mistakes?

Did you learn from your costly mismanagement choices?

Apparently not – because you propose to keep the Reservoirs 100% full from April 1st until August 1st.

Back in September, 2006, Mr. Miri, NJ DEP and Mr. Gast, Pa DEP – both Compact Party Representatives unveiled an “Adaptable Flexible Management Flexible Flow” concept at a meeting in Upstate NY. The reaction then, as now, was and is against implementing such a plan. With the release levels you proposed and the lack of Safety Voids, public sentiment was against such a plan. Without adequate release levels and an operational mandate for Safety Voids, how can anyone living or working or recreating in the shadow of the Reservoirs be safe?

In the fall, the four Governors of the Delaware Basin States commissioned a Flood Mitigation Task Force. Mr. Miri, Mr. Gast and Ms. Myers (Mr. Gast’s Boss), were all members of the Reservoir Subcommittee. Did any of them offer the FFMP concept for Task Force review and discussion? No; they said nothing. The Proposal was hidden from the Task Force – kept secret.
What were Mr. Miri , Mr. Gast and Ms. Myers afraid of ? Was the fear that the Task Force would see the Plan for what it could be – a true flood mitigation Plan containing Safety Voids?

Was this fear so great that the DRBC members who worked on the FFMP decided to wait until after the Task Force Recommendations were sent to the four Governors and published before the DRBC publicly unveiled the FFMP? You, collectively, Mr. Gast, Ms. Myers and Mr. Miri, could have presented this Plan as a Task Force Work item and been Heroes - but you chose not to.

Do Governors Rendell and Corzine know that the individuals they have appointed to the DRBC have turned their backs on the very people they are paid to represent and protect?

Do they Governors know that the people of their states will continue to pay millions and millions in State and Local taxes for infrastructure repair and clean up on a continued basis – because Mr. Gast and Mr. Miri chose to help create a Plan that will guarantee NYC’s profit from the sale of water to outside concerns at the expense of the life, property, river commerce, river town economies and river ecology of the states of NJ and PA and (Upstate) New York.

With the Plan’s mandatory 100% Full Reservoirs from April 1st to August 1st, THERE WILL BE CONTINUED, PREVENTABLE FLOODING – a CHOICE that the creators of this Plan willingly made – thus betraying the very states they are supposed to protect. I guess we will find out what the Governor Rendell and Governor Corzine know soon enough. If they Veto this plan in May, then we, their voting constituents, will know that our Governors CHOSE to protect their citizens over the hording of excess water – for the sake of Profits through the sale of over 121 million gallons per day (2004 data) to non NYC concerns.

All That Needs To Happen For Evil To Flourish Is For Good Men – And Women - To Do Nothing.

Elaine O’Neil