Inter basin water transfers are a dangerous precedent. Why else would connections lay dormant since it was built in the 1940s. Foreign biota from Delaware river basin would contaminate Hudson water basin ecosystem. Bottom line , Ashokan and Pepacton reservoirs would be connected. Read on for DEP site information excerpt and link:

(DEP) Commissioner Carter Strickland today announced that construction has begun on a $21.2 million project to connect the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts for the first time. The two aqueducts together convey approximately one billion gallons of water each day to the city from six separate reservoirs located in the Catskills. The interconnect project at the Delaware Aqueduct’s Shaft 4 in the Town of Gardiner in Ulster County will allow DEP to move as much as 365 million gallons each day from the Delaware Aqueduct into the Catskill Aqueduct, providing additional operational flexibility and another tool to reduce turbidity in the water supply system after large storms.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/13-064pr.shtml