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Most Recent Commission Meeting Highlights



This page archives the information given and items approved at the most recent DRBC Quarterly Commission Business Meeting.
Meeting of June 11, 2026

The Delaware River Basin Commission held its regularly scheduled business meeting on Wednesday, June 11, 2026. The meeting, which was open to the public, was held virtually via Zoom Webinar.

A public hearing was held remotely on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, via Zoom Webinar. Items heard at the public hearing, which began at 1:30 p.m., included three draft resolutions and 11 draft dockets for withdrawals, discharges and other water-related projects that could have a substantial effect on the Basin's water resources and are subject to the Commission's review.

  • Written comments on the items heard on May 6, 2026, were accepted through 5 p.m., Monday, May 11, 2026.

The May 6 public hearing and the June 11 business meeting were livestreamed to DRBC's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/delrivbasincomm. 


Business Meeting Agenda

The business meeting on June 11, 2026, began at 10:00 a.m. and adjourned at approximately 11 a.m.

An open public comment session began after the close of the business meeting and lasted for about a half hour. Please Note: Comments made during Open Public Comment Sessions are NOT included in any decision-making record. There is no requirement for the Commission to provide for open public comment.

The agenda for the business meeting follows, with links to the items approved (info & links to documents are added to this page as they become available). All PDFs are archived.

  • Items heard at the May 6, 2026, public hearing are noted by *.

1. Call to Order & Welcome. (Commission Chair, Gregory Patterson)

2. Roll Call and Introductions. (Commission Secretary Pam Bush and Commissioners)


3. Minutes. (Pam Bush)

  • March 4, 2026 (The minutes of the March 4, 2026, business meeting were approved unanimously by the Commissioners; PDF)


4. Announcements. (Pam Bush)


5. Hydrologic Conditions Report. (Fanghui Chen)


6. Summary of Executive Director's Report. (Pam Bush on behalf of Kristen Bowman Kavanagh)

  • I'd like to recognize new staffer Brittany Gigliotti, who joined the Commission earlier this month as an Associate Counsel. She is a graduate of Villanova University School of Law and is admitted to the bar in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Brittany has almost 15 years of legal experience and most recently worked as a Senior Attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the Social Security Administration.

  • Additionally, the following interns will be supporting the Commission's work this summer: Carl Bargery, Yutong Du, Sam Erwine, Sonia Nicholson, Sonya Patel and Ava Williams.  

  • Highlights of work over the past three months include:

    • In March, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Safe Drinking Water Operator Outreach Program and the DRBC offered a free, three-part training series on water loss management that covered water auditing, metering, billing and leakage management. More than 75 water operators, water managers, water authority personnel, engineers and water system board members attended the training sessions. Learn more about DRBC's Water Audit Program

    • Also in March, the Commission published its 2025 Hydrologic Conditions Report (PDF) on precipitation, streamflow, storage, groundwater and the salt front location.

    • The Commission published Phase 1 of our Water Resources Resilience Plan (WRRP; PDF) in March. This scoping document details a framework for DRBC's resilience planning, focusing on protecting key Basin-wide water resource assets—water availability, aquatic life and landscape—from episodic hazards like floods and droughts and chronic hazards like increasing water temperatures and sea level rise. We also began development of Phase 2 of the WRRP, which will ultimately include a list of prioritized actions for evaluating potential impacts on our water resources and formulating management approaches for improving resilience and adaptation. A webinar was held on April 30th to begin the Phase 2 public engagement process, and all are invited to complete our Phase 2 Public Survey online or by visiting DRBC staff at one of several upcoming events listed on the website. Learn more about the WRRP (survey link and webinar recording link at this site).

    • DRBC hosted a tabletop exercise simulating a major spill response on the Delaware River in March. This exercise was conducted in collaboration with key federal, state and local agencies and water providers in the region. It focused on mitigation and response related to drinking water, including incident notification, operational coordination and utility impacts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency led the exercise, which was designed by members of DRBC's Subcommittee on Source Water Protection (SSWP) and discussed at a May SSWP meeting.

    • In May, DRBC published a technical report sharing the latest results of extensive field investigation and monitoring of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (also known as "PFAS" or "forever chemicals"). This marks the final report of a three-year assessment of PFAS in surface water, sediment, fish tissue and blue crabs that was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund. This multi-year assessment and complementary DRBC studies consistently detected PFAS, underscoring the complexity and scope of PFAS pollution in the Basin. A public webinar will be held on June 15th to discuss trends and takeaways from the report and to demonstrate a new interactive web application that visualizes PFAS levels across the Basin.

    • DRBC's most recent technical report – on the Salt Front Calculation Method – was published earlier this month. The location of the salt front is an indicator of salinity intrusion into the Delaware River Estuary. During drought emergencies, the salt front location is used to determine the amount of water to be released from reservoirs in the Basin to meet the Trenton Flow Objective. An additional purpose of the report is to document how the historical record for the salt front location was developed.

  • The Commission's annual field monitoring efforts accelerate in the spring. This year's efforts include biweekly monitoring of Special Protection Waters; cyanotoxins monitoring; freshwater salinization monitoring for chlorides; a pilot study on Antimicrobial Resistance; nutrient monitoring of tidal tributaries in partnership with the New Jersey DEP; bacteria monitoring with the Pennsylvania DEP; non-tidal biomonitoring; continued PFAS monitoring; a creel survey being done in partnership with the Delaware River Basin Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative to better understand recreational angling perspectives throughout the Basin; and the 60th year of Boat Run monitoring in partnership with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).

  •  The Commission held a public webinar on data centers and has hosted meetings of our advisory committees on water quality, water monitoring, water management and source water protection, respectively.

  • Throughout the last quarter, the DRBC has also participated in multiple outreach, education, and engagement activities with stakeholders throughout the Basin. These include the Delaware County Sustainability Conference, the PA Outdoor Economy Summit & Industry Expo, Drink the Delaware celebration, Lambertville Shad Fest, HydroMania, Chester River Fest, PADEP Climate Conversation, Pinelands Science Forum and World Environment Day. 

  • DRBC staff also recently helped clean up trash along the tidal Delaware River shoreline at the Palmyra Cove Nature Park. This is the seventh time in recent years that Commission staff volunteered for the Palmyra Cove clean-up, and we had a record turnout! Learn more and view photos.

  • Finally, on behalf of the Executive Director and the entire staff, I would like to thank Greg Patterson, DNREC Secretary, for his leadership over the last year as the Commission Chair on behalf of Governor Mike Meyer. Under Delaware's guidance, the Commission has made vital progress in safeguarding our shared water resources, advancing resilience and balancing competing water resource needs.


7. General Counsel's Report. (Ken Warren)


*8. A RESOLUTION to adopt the Commission's FY 2027 Budget. (E. Deck)


*9. A RESOLUTION to apportion among the signatory parties the amounts required to support DRBC's Current Expense and Capital Budgets for FY 2027. (L. Zhong)


*10. A RESOLUTION to adopt the Water Resources Program FY 2027-2029. (C. Pindar)


11. A RESOLUTION for the Minutes appointing a new Commission Secretary. (P. Bush)


12. Resolution for the Minutes Electing FY 27 Officers. (P. Bush) 


*13. Project Review Docket Applications.  (D. Kovach)

  • Please note that at each of its public meetings, the Commission may consider action on any item for which a hearing has been completed or may defer one or more such items for consideration at a public meeting of the Commission on a future date.

  • Dockets #1-11 were subject to public hearings on May 6, 2026.

  • Dockets #1-11 were approved unanimously by the Commissioners. All are PDFs.

Docket Location Map for Projects Heard May 6 (PDF)

1. Boyertown Boro, D-1973-199 CP-6.

2. Spring City Borough, D-1974-061 CP-7.

3. Community Utilities of Pennsylvania, Inc., D-1975-093 CP-7.

4. ABB Inc., 1986-069-3.

5. Alburtis Borough, D-1991-042 CP-5.

6. Delaware Valley University, D-1994-050 CP-4.

7. Upper Uwchlan Township, D-2000-055 CP-6.

8. Brookside Country Club, D-2016-005-2.

9. Pennsylvania American Water Company, D-1992-003 CP-4.

10. Upper Bern Township, D-2001-002 CP-6.

11. Merion Golf Club, D-2017-013-2.