The Pennsylvania State University
The Graduate School
Department of Geography
TOCKS ISLAND DAM, THE DELAWARE RIVER
AND THE END OF THE BIG-DAM ERA
A Thesis in
Geography
By
Gina Bloodworth
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
August 2005
The thesis of Gina Bloodworth was reviewed and approved* by the following:
C. Gregory Knight Professor of Geography Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee
Deryck W. Holdsworth Professor of Geography
James P. McCarthy Assistant Professor of Geography
Stephen Beckerman Professor of Anthropology
Roger M. Downs Professor of Geography Head of the Department of Geography
*Signatures are on file in the Graduate School
iii ABSTRACT
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area sits in the backyard of both
New York City and Philadelphia. What seemed to be a universally supported water policy to build a major dam across the Delaware River precipitated instead to one of the most contentious regional fights over water policy and dam building in the East. Had the dam been built, it would have been the eighth largest dam project ever attempted by the
Corps of Engineers. The resulting reservoir was slated to inundate approximately forty miles of valley along the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, up to its border with New
York State. In this densely populated and rapidly urbanized watershed basin, echoes of power struggles and environmental crisis rippled throughout the Atlantic seaboard from
New York City to Washington D.C.
Utilizing a mixed qualitative methodology that includes interviews, archival and
legal research, and content analysis of multiple media sources, this dissertation examines
how the Tocks Island Dam project came about, and how it fell apart after three decades
of controversy, dissent, coalitions, propaganda wars, legal maneuvering, and chaos. This
research provides a textural understanding of how the Delaware River became the nexus
of conflicts between multiple and overlapping scales of water managers, large
government institutions such as the Corps of Engineers and various alliances of
stakeholders within a unique location in time and space. Uniquely situated
chronologically as well as geographically, the fight over the Tocks Island Dam occurred
during the tumultuous decades before and after the landmark environmental legislation of iv the 1970s, and during the end of the Big Dam Era. The transition from the previous dam-
centered era of water policy in America to the more eco-centric era of environmental
protection produced the most radical change in national water management directions in the last century. And during this transformation in national policy, the fate of Tocks
Island Dam and the Delaware River became entangled in, and contributed to those larger
social changes.
Today the resulting compromise of the decades-long struggle over water in the
Delaware River, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, is by far the most visited park east of the Mississippi River in the National Park system. However, the original dilemmas about flood control, drought control, drinking water, and water quality still lurk in the backdrop of water tensions and will most certainly reassert themselves in the future.
Keywords: Water Resources, Delaware River, Resource Management, Qualitative
Analysis, Environmental Conflict
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ……………..…………xii
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………….…….xivv
LIST OF TABLES……………………………….……………….……….…xv
Preface…………………………………………………….……………..…..xvi
Chapter 1 Why Resources and Rivers are Hard to Manage…………………………………………………………….…...... 1
Introduction……………………………………………………………………1
Where is the Delaware River?……………………………………………..….1
Resource Management Dilemmas……………………………………….……4
Water Management…………………………………………………………..10
Controversy on the Delaware River………………………………………….14
Interrogation of Relevant Qualitative Research Methods…………….……...17
Data Formats and Analytical Tools………………………………….…….....19
Constraints of the Study………………………………….……………….….26 vi
Chapter 2 Towards a Central Park for Megalopolis: Evolving Rationale for Building a Dam on the Delaware River………………………………………………………...………34
Introduction…………………………………………………………..…..34
Early Delaware River History…………………………………………....34
Planning Stages for the Tocks Island Dam………………………………41
Floods, Droughts and Federal Authorization…………….……………....46
Central Park for Megalopolis…………………………………………….52
Chapter 3 1962—Congressional Authorization of the Tocks Island Dam Project……………………………………………………..…..61
Introduction……………………………………………………………....61
Corps of Engineers………………………………………………….…....63
More than Just Dredging Rivers…………………….……….……...65
Sibling Rivalry……………………………………………………....68
Legal Arsenal………………………………………………………….....72 vii Federalism……………………………………..……………..….....73
Law and Geography…………………………….…………..……...75
Conflict Resolution Options…………………….…………..……..76
Rise of Recreation………………………….….…………….……..78
Media………………………………………………………….…….…..81
Silent Spring…………………………………………….……..…...82
Tennessee Valley Authority……………………………….….…....83
Conclusion……………………………………………………………....85
Chapter 4 1966--A Gathering Storm in the Minisink Valley………………………………………………………………92
Introduction…………………………………………………………...... 92
Corps of Engineers……………………………………………….……...93
Esprit de Corps……………………………………………………..93
Planning Process…………………………………………..……...... 93
Preliminary Examination……………………………………..…….96 viii Survey………………………………………………………..……96
Authorization………………………………………………..…….97
After authorization………………………………………………...98
Congressional Powerhouse……………………………….……….99
Techno-Wizards to Technocrats…………………………….…...105
Land Acquisition…………………………………………….…...109
Legal Arsenal………………………