For Immediate Release

February 1, 2007

(WEST TRENTON N.J.)  -- Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Executive Director Carol R. Collier today announced three additional February meetings to give the public an opportunity to provide feedback on the Interstate Flood Mitigation Task Force's flood loss reduction and flood mitigation draft recommendations for the Delaware River Basin.

The public meetings will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the following locations:

Feb. 13 -- Hugel Science Center, Lafayette College, High Street, Easton, Pa.

Feb. 15 -- Carvel State Office Building, Mezzanine Floor, 820 North French Street, Wilmington, Del.

Feb. 20 -- William Antheil Elementary School, 339 Ewingville Road, Ewing, N.J.

An informal "poster session" beginning at 6:30 p.m. will precede each meeting to give the public an opportunity to review information on display.

These three meetings are in addition to the one previously announced in a Jan. 31 press release which will be held on Feb. 8 at the Senator Charles D. Cook County Office Building, Board of Supervisors Room, 111 Main Street, in Delhi, N.Y.  Please note that the Delhi, N.Y. poster session and public meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively.

The task force's draft report now appears on the commission's web site at www.drbc.net.  Written comments will be accepted until Feb. 28, 2007, and should be mailed to: Robert Tudor, Deputy Executive Director, DRBC, P.O. Box 7360, 25 State Police Drive, West Trenton, NJ 08628.

"The Delaware River Basin Interstate Flood Mitigation Task Force has identified a total of 44 consensus recommendations for a more proactive, sustainable, and systematic approach to flood damage reduction," Collier said. "The task force has concluded that no set of mitigation measures will entirely eliminate impacts of flooding along the Delaware River, but the members believe that a combination of measures will improve the basin's resiliency -- its capacity to prepare for and recover from flooding -- in the future."

The recommendations are divided into six priority management areas:

• Reservoir operations;
  
• Structural and non-structural measures;
  
• Stormwater management;
  
• Floodplain mapping;
  
• Floodplain regulation; and
  
• Flood warning.

Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, and New York Gov. George Pataki, who serve as DRBC members, jointly sent a letter to Collier on Sept. 21, 2006 authorizing and requesting commission staff to form the interstate task force.  This was followed on Sept. 27 by the formal adoption of a resolution at a commission meeting which was unanimously agreed to by the four states and DRBC Chair Lt. Col. Gwen Baker, who represents the federal government on the five-member commission.

The interstate task force convened in October 2006 and is comprised of 32 members representing a broad array of government interests (both legislative and executive) as well as private sector and non-profit perspectives.  In a Dec. 29, 2006 letter, DRBC staff provided the four governors with an update on the status of the draft report and outlined the planned process to give the public an opportunity to review the recommended measures.  Incoming New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who took office on Jan. 1, 2007, was provided with this same information several days later.

Following the four meetings, the task force will meet to consider public feedback and prioritize actions, as well as to formulate comments and responses before a final set of recommended measures is submitted to the governors for their consideration.  DRBC Deputy Executive Director Robert Tudor is leading the staff support of this effort.

The Delaware Basin was devastated by severe floods in September 2004, April 2005, and June 2006, following a period of nearly 50 years without any widespread main stem flooding.

Additional information about the task force, including directions to the public meetings and the Dec. 2006 update letter to the governors, can be found on the commission's web site at www.drbc.net.

The DRBC was formed by compact in 1961 through legislation signed into law by President John F. Kennedy and the governors of the four basin states with land draining to the Delaware River (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania).  The passage of this compact marked the first time in our nation's history that the federal government and a group of states joined together as equal partners in a river basin planning, development, and regulatory agency.