Tocks Island, located upstream from Delaware Water Gap in the Delaware River was the controversial site of a dam, proposed in the 1950s, which would have created a 37-mile (60-km) long lake between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with depths of up to 140 feet. Although the dam was never built, 72,000 acres (291 km²) of land were acquired, which became the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
The Tocks Island Dam Project was under consideration prior to the 1955 flood, which caused several deaths and immeasurable damage to the Delaware River basin. The need for flood control brought the issue to the national level, and in 1965 a proposal was made to Congress for the construction of the dam. The Tocks Island National Recreation Area was to be established around the lake, which would offer recreation activities such as hunting, hiking, fishing, and boating. In addition to flood control and recreation, the dam could be used to generate hydroelectric power, and, more significantly, the water stored in the lake would be pumped to supply water to the cities of New York and Philadelphia.
The United States government began acquiring, often by condemnation, land from residents that lay within the boundaries approved for this unprecedented recreation area. Today, there are few existing structures from the original town of Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, and there are few remaining from Bushkill, Pennsylvania and other surrounding areas.
On the New Jersey side, much of the area of Pahaquarry Township was taken over, leaving the community with no more than a few dozen residents. On July 2, 1997, Pahaquarry Township, whose population had dwindled to fewer than a dozen people, was dissolved and incorporated into Hardwick Township.[1]
Protesters whose land had been acquired raised the issue of unfair acquisition of land. Two such individuals, Nancy Shukaitis and Ruth Jones, formed a group called the Delaware Valley Conservation Association. Along with other supporters, they attended government hearings and meetings of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Another individual who was instrumental in bringing national attention to the issue was Justice William O. Douglas, who fell in love with the area after visiting Sunfish Pond with his wife.
The decision on the future of the project lay with the Delaware River Basin Commission, the governing board of which included the governors of the four states in the Delaware River Basin (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware) and a federal representative who reported to the U. S. Secretary of the Interior. The project's momentum was slowed in the early 70s by objections voiced by New Jersey Governor William T. Cahill, who was concerned with land acquisition issues raised by local residents, by the potential adverse environmental impacts of the project, and by the costs that would be imposed on New Jersey to provide sewerage and highways to serve growth in Northwest New Jersey that would be prompted by the recreation area that would surround the dam. The recreation area was needed to provide the economic benefits needed to allow the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would build the dam, to demonstrate that it had a positive ratio of benefits to cost. The further studies prompted by Cahill's objections and by question raised by his successor, Governor Brendan T. Byrne, in 1974 revealed that better and more economical options existed to reduce flood damage and improve water supply than the dam. The dam was disapproved by a majority vote of the Delaware River Basin Commission in 1975.
Financial problems also contributed to the demise of the project. With the United States funding the Vietnam War, the allocation of $384 million needed to fund the dam and lake became less feasible. Finally, the geology of the area was too unstable to build the earthen dam. The bedrock could not support what would be the largest dam project east of the Mississippi River.
In 1992, the project was reviewed again and rejected with the provision that it would be revisited ten years later. In 2002, after extensive research, the Tocks Island Dam Project was officially de-authorized.
Today, the land is preserved by the National Park Service as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
A video documentary called Controversy on the Delaware: A Look Upstream at the Tocks Island Dam Project was created in 2006 that investigates the Tocks Island Dam Project.
Feiveson, Harold, Frank Sinden, and Robert Socolow, "Boundaries of Analysis: an Inquiry Into the Tocks Island Dam Controversy," 1976. Albert, Richard C. Damming the Delaware: The Rise and Fall of Tocks Island Dam, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987.