Late last month, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a $33.97 billion spending plan that will serve as the financial roadmap for the next fiscal year. The General Assembly passed all accompanying bills and Governor Wolf signed the budget bills into law on June 28 before fleeing Harrisburg for the summer.

It would be difficult to find a person living in or visiting the Delaware River Watershed who does not have a memory connecting them to the Delaware River main stem or one of its tributaries. Whether it’s sitting outside on a warm summer’s night by the waterside with a cold drink in hand, splashing joyfully with your friends in the cool creek water to beat the heat, or finally catching that monstrous striper that you swear has been avoiding you for years. If you live along the Schuylkill River (PA), the Christina River (DE), the Neversink River (NY), the Rancocas Creek (NJ), or any of the 216 Delaware River tributaries, there’s always outdoor adventure to be had.

After a fiscal year 2020 budget analysis of the four Delaware River Basin states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware), Sandra Meola, the Director of the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, a network of over 140 nonprofits located throughout the basin, has prepared the following statement.

The Delaware River Watershed is no stranger to water quality and flooding issues. In Delaware, the need for sustainable clean water is growing. After all, 90 percent of Delaware’s waterways are considered impaired and communities across the state, many of which are underserved, face chronic flooding. As the need for clean water funding grows, state and local budgets decrease, leaving a large gap between funding and statewide needs. Delaware Nature Society (DNS) has studied and advocated for Delaware’s water quality for decades and concluded that it would take a grassroots advocacy and education effort to push for much needed funding. So, in 2015 DNS brought together a core group of conservation organizations and pitched the idea of building a statewide outreach and education campaign to grow a strong, unified voice for clean water funding.

In the just-released New Jersey 2020 fiscal year budget, funding fell $200,000 short for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a four-state agency charged with overseeing water quality and quantity of the Delaware River Basin. In response, the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, a network of over 140 nonprofits located within the four states of the Basin (NY, NJ, PA, DE) have prepared the following statement.

On May 1, 2019, the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed (CDRW) and Choose Clean Water (CCW) joined forces to storm Harrisburg for the second annual Pennsylvania Clean Water Education Day spearheaded by PennFuture. In total, about thirty individuals from both organizations came together during at the state capitol to educate lawmakers in a series of meetings, literature drop-offs, and a press conference highlighting the importance of clean water. Twenty-three meetings with Pennsylvania senators and house members were held that day along with thirty literature drop-offs. With 13 million people relying on the Delaware River Basin for water, clean water must take priority for the health, safety, and the economy of the region.

With the spring weather breaking into warm summer days, now is the perfect time to enjoy the green, open spaces of the watershed. The Delaware River Watershed has become a haven for outdoor recreation, from hiking and biking to watercraft activities like kayaking and tubing. Outdoor recreation in the watershed not only brings families together for memorable bonding experiences, but it succeeds in bringing together like-minded outdoor enthusiasts. Preservation of green, open spaces is an asset to communities while also making economic sense, since outdoor recreation brings in $887 billion annually on a national level. Safeguarding recreation by conserving outdoor spaces in the watershed is critical, which is why the Congress must fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

On May 16, 2019 in Philadelphia, the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania made a shared commitment to protect the Delaware River Watershed and agreed to work as equal partners to grow the region’s economy and protect America’s “founding waterway.” The Governors signed a proclamation agreeing to work together to make the Delaware River Basin the national model for sustainable economic development, drinkable clean water, healthy fish and wildlife populations, outdoor recreation and nature-based climate resilience.