TINA MARKOE/Courier-Post A water skier skis near the old steel mill in Roebling.

TINA MARKOE/Courier-Post Looking down on the old Steel Mill in Roebling which is now a superfund cleanup site.

Environmentalists want pristine water for fishing and swimming. Shippers want deep water for safe passage and to carry more cargo per ship. Developers looking to build waterfront restaurants tend to view cargo terminals, fuel tanks, and containers as eyesores, not--as the maritime industry maintains--a backdrop for decent-paying union jobs.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to the Delaware's future will be uniting those forces in a plan to redevelop the river. Hundreds of people interested in the river's future...industry leaders, environmentalists, scientists and government officials...have been meeting since the spring to mold a plan to balance river development, recreational opportunities and environmental protection along the river.

The results of this planning effort, called "Flowing Toward the Future," will be presented to Whitman and the region's three other governors at the Camden summit. But some worry the process is too broad, because it includes the upper reaches of the Delaware all the way to New York state...an area of rolling mountains and rocky streams much different from the lower river.

"In other (places), the water is the defining element that brings people together," says Kathy Klein of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, a nonprofit education and fund-raising group. "Here, the river is more about political boundaries. And there are a lot of different agendas out there."

As they plan the Delaware's future, the region's governors and local officials can look for inspiration to Pittsburgh. Many credit Mayor Tom Murphy's almost obsessive vision for waterfront development with resuscitating that city after most of its steel mills closed. Under Murphy's leadership, Pittsburgh's riverfront is being developed with new housing, bike trails, marinas, commercial centers and light industry.

"The rivers are becoming a way to create economic opportunity," Murphy says. "You just need to say you're going to make it happen."

Near DeRousse Avenue in Pennsauken, officials hope to develop hundreds of acres of untamed riverfront land into a complex of upscale housing, entertainment attractions and a marina.

"It could be Pennsauken's last hurrah," says Carruth, the township's administrator.

Burlington City plans to build a golf course on wild and picturesque Burlington Island. Officials in Florence also have big ideas--from retail shopping to a marina--for the old Roebling Steel Mill, a crumbling testament to the river's past industrial might.

It was fishermen who were among the first in South Jersey to realize the river was rebounding, although many fish species remain unsafe to eat because of past and current pollution from PCBs, metals and other toxins.

At one time, anglers could catch only sore-riddled carp along a stretch of river flanked by oil refineries and chemical plants where West Deptford plans its RiverWinds marina complex, says Shields, the town's mayor. Now, although the river still is plagued by toxins, fishermen now pull in giant, clean carp in addition to striped bass and shad, species once virtually gone this far upriver.

In Pennsauken, Mark Engell marvels at the cleaner river and hopes the town's plans for upscale housing and a marina are just the beginning of bigger things on the Delaware.

"For years (the river) was a cesspool," he says. "Now it's amazingly clean...What a great gift to the next generation."