With only a few weeks to go before the May 31 expiration of the Flexible Flow Management Plan (FFMP) that governs water releases from New York City’s three Delaware reservoirs, and with the threat by New Jersey not to extend the FFMP, we face a return to a water release regime that will have a devastating effect on the Upper Delaware’s wild trout fishery (see my March 1 TRR My View). For example, on June 1, the conservation releases from the Cannonsville dam into the West Branch of the Delaware could drop from 500 to 45 cubic feet per second, which would de-water the river, imperiling both the fish and the aquatic insects on which they feed.

The crisis was precipitated by New Jersey’s statement of February 17 that unless the other parties to the 1954 Supreme Court decree that governs Delaware River water policy agreed to eight specific demands, New Jersey would exercise its veto on an extension of the FFMP. If this happens, water release policy will be governed by the destructive and archaic 1983 release rules, the so-called “Revision 1.” Ironically, while New Jersey’s purpose is ostensibly to force New York City to reduce its water rights and increase its own, a return to the 1983 rules does not harm the city, but rather punishes the environment and economy of the Upper Delaware—and its innocent piscatorial bystanders. The crisis is imminent for, as I write, every indication from highly placed officials is that the Decree Parties remain seriously stalemated, and Revision 1 will indeed go into effect on June 1.

But there is a way to protect the environment of the upper river, if only New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS-DEC) and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC-DEP) jointly have the courage to do so. Here is the very simple idea: Revision 1 specifies minimum conservation releases. Nothing should keep the city and New York State from agreeing to voluntarily release more water into the Delaware. We know exactly how much water can and should prudently be released in the Delaware. It is the amounts specified by the FFMP which has been tested extensively via computer simulations, and which has been used on the river since 2007. The FFMP is demonstrably prudent, and its implementation has not damaged the interests of any river stakeholders. So why not just continue to implement them?

There is only one legalistic proviso that could be limiting. It is an archaic agreement that New York City forced upon NYS-DEC back in the 1980 in resolution of a lawsuit that the city had brought to keep NYS-DEC from setting any conservation releases at all. Paragraph 2 of this “Stipulation of Discontinuance,” Index 5840-80 of the New York State Supreme Court, would appear to constrain the NYS-DEC from calling for a conservation release more the 10% above the minimums specified in Revision 1. But it does not constrain the city from doing so on its own or in collaboration with the state, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and the Delaware River Master.

And of course, the precedent is established, as notwithstanding the 1980 restriction on conservation limits that can be demanded by the state, actual conservation releases into the Delaware have greatly exceeded these minimums for many decades—to the benefit of the fishery, and to no harm to other stakeholders. So please let’s get the heads of the NYC-DEP, the NYS-DEC, the Delaware River Master and the executive director of the DRBC to meet their responsibilities and collaborate to save the upper river from an unnecessarily rigid and destructive return to the rules of 1983. We know how to do better; we must do better.

[Peter Kolesar is a Columbia University professor emeritus, and participated in the development of the math behind the current FFMP, as well as advocacy for it.]