Delaware Commissioner Dr. Harry Otto was honored at the
July 15, 2009 meeting for his years of service on the DRBC

Harry, who retired from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control on July 1, was presented a framed collection of images from the Delaware River Basin. Pictured here with Harry are Federal Representative Colonel Peter DeLuca and Executive Director Carol Collier.

Commission Chair Mark Klotz, who represents New York Governor David Paterson on the DRBC, read the following resolution:

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WHEREAS, Dr. Harry W. Otto has devoted 49 years of his professional career to environmental resources management; and   

WHEREAS, at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, as environmental laboratory director and most recently senior science advisor in the Division of Water Resources, Harry has provided distinguished public service to the people of Delaware since 1971; and

WHEREAS, since 1998, Harry has served as Third Alternate to the DRBC for Governors Thomas R. Carper, Ruth Ann Minner, and Jack A. Markell in succession, but his involvement with the commission has spanned four decades; and

WHEREAS, Harry’s earliest work with the DRBC during the early 1970s consisted of, in part, providing laboratory support and water quality monitoring data for the Delaware River from Port Mahon, Delaware to Trenton, New Jersey; and

WHEREAS, Harry later became Delaware’s representative to and chaired the DRBC’s Water Quality Advisory Committee; and

WHEREAS, in 1979 Harry chaired the task force organized under DRBC Docket No. D-77-20 to undertake an “Appraisal of the Upper Basin Reservoir Systems, Drought Emergency Criteria, and Conservation Measures”; and

WHEREAS, for many years, Harry has been a vital representative of Delaware’s interests on the Flow Management Technical Advisory Committee and its successor, the Regulated Flow Advisory Committee, and

WHEREAS, as one of Delaware’s representatives during complex negotiations among the five parties to the U.S. Supreme Court Decree of 1954, Harry has devoted countless hours to searching for common ground among the basin states and New York City over streamflows and reservoir operations, while taking into account a wide range of technical constraints and competing water demands and needs; and

WHEREAS, Harry retired from DNREC on July 1, 2009; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Delaware River Basin Commission:

Commission members and staff extend their sincere appreciation to Dr. Harry W. Otto for his contributions to water quality improvements in the basin and to the search for innovative approaches to flow management, as well as for his always professional and even disposition, his commitment to excellence in public service, and his friendship.  We wish him and his wife Nancy good health and much happiness as they begin a well-deserved retirement.

July 15, 2009

Harry and Nancy Otto