President Kennedy and the governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey at a ceremonial signing of the Delaware River Basin Compact on Nov. 2, 1961 in the White House.

A breakthrough in water resources management occurred in 1961 when President Kennedy and the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York for the first time signed concurrent compact legislation into law creating a regional body with the force of law to oversee a unified approach to managing a river system without regard to political boundaries.

The members of this regional body - the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) - include the four basin state governors and a federal representative appointed by the President of the United States.

"Looking back, the DRBC was the vanguard in the Johnny-come-lately march to manage water resources on a watershed basis." - William D. Ruckelshaus, former U.S. EPA administrator, 1996.

When the DRBC was created, some 43 state agencies, 14 interstate agencies, and 19 federal agencies exercised a multiplicity of splintered powers and duties within the watershed, which stretches 330 miles from the Delaware River's headwaters near Hancock, N. Y., to the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

The Compact's signing marked the first time since the nation's birth that the federal government and a group of states joined together as equal partners in a river basin planning, development and regulatory agency.

The five members appoint alternate commissioners, with the governors selecting high-ranking officials from their state environmental agencies. Each commissioner has one vote of equal power with a majority vote needed to decide most issues. Exceptions are votes on the commission's annual budget and drought declarations, which require unanimity.

"Our great Commonwealth was founded by the spirit of community and will continue to grow and prosper as we look to dedicated organizations such as yours for guidance, information and protection. Your efforts to promote interstate comity and to remove the causes of controversy among the states in the uses of water resources are unquestionably worthy of honor." - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, 1996.

Commission programs include water quality protection, water supply allocation, regulatory review (permitting), water conservation initiatives, watershed planning, drought management, flood loss reduction, and recreation.

The DRBC is funded by the signatory parties, project review fees, water use charges, and fines, as well as federal, state, and private grants.

Annual elections are held for commission chair, vice chair, and second vice chair, based on a rotation of the five signatory parties. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is currently serving as chair for the July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 term. The other commission members are New York Governor David A. Paterson (vice chair), Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner (second vice chair), Federal Representative Brigadier General Todd T. Semonite, and Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell.

The commission holds business meetings and hearings on policy matters and water resource projects under regulatory review. These sessions, along with meetings of the commission's various advisory committees, are open to the public.

"The Commission, which pioneered the concept of partnerships, has the tools through its organizational structure to oversee a unified approach to the development and control of the river system without regard to political boundaries." - Delaware Governor Thomas R. Carper, 1996.

The fact that five separate governmental bodies with their own sovereign powers can successfully work together on an equal footing in managing a common resource has caught the eye of other river managers not only in this country, but around the world. In recent years, commission representatives have been invited to Australia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria to tell the DRBC story and offer assistance. Officials from those countries also visited the commission's offices in West Trenton, N.J., as have delegations from Sri Lanka, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Jordan, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, India and Japan, among others.

Listing of DRBC Milestones and Accomplishments

"I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers. Most of what I love about the country is a gift of the rivers ... America is a great story, and there is a river on every page of it." - Charles Kuralt

Delaware River Basin Compact
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The DRBC: Managing Interstate Water Conflicts Through Sound Science, Adaptation, and Collaboration
(July 2004; free Adobe reader required to view)

50th Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court Decree