New Jersey balks at New York City’s Delaware River plan

Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New Jersey’s environmental commissioner says the state won’t sign off on a one-year extension of the management plan for water releases from New York City’s upstate reservoirs into the Delaware River.

Commissioner Bob Martin says the plan that expires Thursday doesn’t allow New Jersey to withdraw its “fair share” of water from the Delaware.

Paul Rush, deputy commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, says that means his agency will have to go back to a 1983 management plan that reduces water releases from current levels. That could harm trout and tourism businesses downstream of the city’s dams as the river level drops.

Martin says Wednesday he hopes negotiations over a revised plan resume, but he’s not ruling out litigation.