Our Mission
The Delaware Canal 21 mission is to organize and support existing and new partnerships; and to secure new public and private funding sources – as we explore new operating models that will supplement immediate and ultimate system maintenance. Delaware Canal 21 catalyzes planning and capital improvements in partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to sustain a fully-watered Delaware Canal and fully-accessible towpath trail. We respect the Delaware Canal and honor its beauty as an enduring historic artifact, and work to conserve its many ecological, cultural, and economic benefits that support modern transportation, recreation, environmental, and civic infrastructure and amenities.
Our Goals
The future the Delaware Canal will:
be full of water from end to end on a sustainable and reliable basis
have adequate maintenance especially preventative maintenance
enable adequate public access throughout its 60-mile towpath
Our Strategy
Delaware Canal 21 works as a think-tank and a catalyst for change. We envision innovative strategies; engage partners; secure funding; and execute imperative watering and access projects. Delaware Canal 21 develops partnerships at two levels simultaneously:
top down to improve the Canal’s business model
bottom up to improve the Canal one project at a time.
Accomplishments
Since its founding in 2013, Delaware Canal 21 has completed four foundational partnership projects with Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) that document physical and operational conditions, and present strategies to improve Delaware Canal watering, maintenance, and public access. These achievements include:
The Delaware Canal Vision Study, 2017 - was conducted as a corridor-long, civic engagement process to document public ideas for Delaware Canal improvements – from Easton to Bristol. Strategies were organized as Water; Access; Environmental; Safety, and Structural improvements.
Delaware Canal Preliminary Stormwater Study, 2017 – presented management and design solutions to solve multiple stormwater impacts caused by local creeks, the Delaware River and impaired functions of canal structures inside the state park.
Delaware Canal Workbook, 2020, vol. 1 – delivers technical analyses and schematic designs for seven priority watering and access tasks to improve operations of the Delaware Canal system, including partnership strategies for Easton, Scudders Falls, Yardley, Morrisville and Bristol, as well as two system-wide strategies to address water leaks and water quality.
Delaware Canal Waterway Authority Feasibility Study, 2022 – was completed to determine how alternative partnerships with PA DCNR can help fund and manage the watering elements of the Delaware Canal system.
Context for Our Efforts
Commercial operation of the Delaware Canal ended in 1931, after an extraordinary 99 years of service that defied the threats which closed nearly every other towpath canal.
Since then, a combination of campaigns by many extraordinary volunteer organizations, and the acquisition of the system right of way by the Commonwealth to become a Pennsylvania “greenway-blueway” state park are the reasons why we enjoy the history, beauty, and ecology of the Delaware Canal today.
The legacy of the Delaware Canal was recognized and fought for by the Delaware Valley Protective Association in the early 1930s. Other volunteer organizations followed, including; the Lower Bucks County Canal Conservation Commission, whose members sought and won the National Historic Landmark designation for the Delaware Canal – with support from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. The Friends of the Delaware Canal; the Historic Delaware Canal Improvement Corporation; New Hope for Our Canal; the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor; and many individual volunteers have all followed to collaborate in many ways to protect, improve, maintain, and tell the story of the Delaware Canal. The Delaware Canal might have been lost like most other towpath-era canals, were it not for the passion and commitment of thousands of volunteers over the past 90 years.
Delaware Canal 21 was founded in 2013, and is the most recent volunteer organization committed to sustaining the Delaware Canal. Delaware Canal 21 fills a needed niche in the partnership network of Delaware Canal volunteer organizations.
Delaware Canal 21 recognizes the legacy of commitments kept by the Friends of the Delaware Canal to preserve history, educate the public, improve structures, and collaborate with DCNR over decades to restore and maintain the Canal. In 2013, two former directors of the Friends founded Delaware Canal 21 to conduct those supplement technical tasks that were critical to advance the combined efforts of the Friends, D&L, and DCNR.
Since 2013, the four landmark projects conceived by Delaware Canal 21, and funded through Delaware Canal 21 strategies, have all been conducted through collaborations with these essential partners. In 2023, those four projects form the analytical research foundation that justifies the next stages for funding the design and construction of urgent infrastructure improvements and collaborative management within the 60 miles of Delaware Canal.
Delaware Canal 21 is currently engaged with DCNR and multiple partners to assemble the next phases state and federal funds, from sources outside the state parks capital budget, to engineer and rehabilitate priority elements of the Delaware Canal that need supplemental funds to accomplish in the next 3-5 years.