NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES The Delaware Estuary Over many years, there have been a number of organizations that have worked on the Delaware Estuary, located on the U.S. East Coast. The major tidal portion of the river from Trenton, N.J. to below Wilmington, Delaware is host to a wide variety of activities, including the port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here is a summary of some of the actions that have taken place that concern the estuary: THE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE DELAWARE ESTUARY The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) is a regional nonprofit organization established in 1996 to take a leadership role in protecting and enhancing the Delaware Estuary, where fresh water from the Delaware River mixes with salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. Its mission is to lead science-based and collaborative efforts to improve the tidal Delaware River and Bay, which spans Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary is one of 28 National Estuary Programs throughout the coastal United States working to improve the environmental health of the nation's estuaries. Its staff works with partners in three states to increase awareness, understanding and scientific knowledge about the Delaware Estuary, the region's most important cultural, economic and recreational resource.Important links with information on the Partnership can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership_for_the_Delaware_Estuary ; http://www.delawareestuary.org/ ; http://www.delawareestuary.org/about-the-estuary/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_9rirs2-3wIVAoGzCh36EgFoEAAYASAAEgLnIvD_BwE ; THE DELAWARE RIVER BASIN COMMISSION (DRBC) The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is a United Statesgovernment agency created in 1961 by an interstate compact, signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, between four states (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York). The purpose of the Commission is to bring the Delaware River under collective and balanced control, and to ensure fair usage by the states. To this end, the Commission conducts programs related to water quality protection, water supply allocation and water conservation, regulatory review and permitting, watershed planning, drought management, flood mitigation and loss reduction, and recreational activities (such as fishing).The DRBC was one of the first government agencies in the United States to address the problem of water pollution. The agency predates the EPA and the Clean Water Act.DRBC has been instrumental in implementing regulations concerning the amount of polluting substances that sources along the estuary are allowed to discharge into the waterway. Over the years, substantial time and money has gone into addressing the problem of water quality improvement. Important links about DRBC can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_River_Basin_Commission ; https://www.state.nj.us/drbc/ ; Major progress on water quality improvement has been accomplished by reducing the discharge of pollutants from major municipal and industrial sources along the estuary. A history of how this program worked, originally termed “waste load allocations,” can be found here: https://www.state.nj.us/drbc/quality/ ; However, the technical underpinning of the concept had earlier origins. The development of a mathematical model of the estuary was due to the work of Dr. Robert Thomann. A summary of some of his work can be found here: http://indico.ictp.it/event/a02286/contribution/64/material/0/0.pdf ; A discussion of the Delaware Estuary case can be found within this technical paper. The application of the model began earlier, however. Dr. Thomann was the Technical Director of the Delaware Estuary Comprehensive Study (DECS), which was the project that used the model to calculate the pollutant reductions for major sources along the estuary. The report of the DECS can be found here: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/94000THF.TXT?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=Prior+to+1976&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5Czyfiles%5CIndex%20Data%5C70thru75%5CTxt%5C00000030%5C94000THF.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x&ZyPURL ; Because of its unique status, the information about the Delaware Estuary has been included on the Sustainable Water Resources Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ; The discussion can be found on the left hand side of the main page, under the title Delaware Estuary. Tim Smith, Sustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ;