Home > Meetings > Commission Meeting Archives > Most Recent Commission Meeting Highlights
Most Recent Commission Meeting Highlights


On this page is a recap of the most recent DRBC Quarterly Commission Business Meeting.

  • Here you will find information given at the most recent business meeting, as well as links to the items approved.

  • Click here for links to recaps from the current and previous year.


Stay Up to Date


DRBC Business Meeting Minutes
Meeting of December 10, 2025

The Delaware River Basin Commission held its regularly scheduled business meeting on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. The meeting, which was open to the public, was held virtually via Zoom Webinar.

A public hearing was held remotely on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, via Zoom Webinar. Items heard at the public hearing, which began at 1:30 p.m., included 26 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 up for hearing on November 5, 2025, were accepted through 5 p.m., Monday, November 10, 2025.

The November 5 public hearing and the December 10 business meeting were livestreamed to DRBC's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/delrivbasincomm. 


Business Meeting Agenda

The business meeting on December 10, 2025, began at 10:30 a.m. and adjourned at approximately 11:25 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).

  • Items heard at the November 5, 2025, 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)

  • August 26, 2025 (The minutes of the August 26, 2025, special public business meeting were approved unanimously by the Commissioners; pdf)

  • September 10, 2025 (The minutes of the September 10, 2025, business meeting were approved unanimously by the Commissioners; pdf)

4. Announcements. (Pam Bush)


5. Hydrologic Conditions Report. (Amy Shallcross)


6. Summary of Executive Director's Report. (Kristen Bowman Kavanagh)

  • First, congratulations to John Yagecic, DRBC's Manager of Water Quality Assessment, who will be retiring from the Commission at the end of this month. Upon his retirement, John will have been with the DRBC for 25(!) years, having started in December 2000 as a Water Resource Engineer/Modeler. John became a Supervisor of the Standards and Assessment Section in 2007, and in 2016 he was promoted to his current position as Manager of Water Quality Assessment. In this role, John supervised and directed the work of a professional staff of engineers and scientists engaged in the development of water quality standards and supporting regulations for maintaining and improving water quality; planning and conducting water quality monitoring studies; and the preparation of our biannual water quality assessment. John has also been the long-time staff liaison to the Commission's Water Quality Advisory Committee.

    John received his engineering degrees from Penn State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. And prior to joining the Commission, he worked nine years for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. John is a registered professional civil engineer in multiple states and was an adjunct instructor at Temple University for many years.

    Impressive as it is, this snapshot of John's professional career does not do justice to his value to the Commission. John has made significant and long-lasting contributions to improving water quality in the Basin through his scientific work, his innovative ideas, and his ability to bring together people with diverse viewpoints in the spirit of collaboration. John's knowledge and expertise are matched only by his tenacity and drive to solve problems and make improvements. He takes seriously his role as a public servant and is highly respected by his colleagues within DRBC and by water and environmental professionals throughout the Basin. John will be greatly missed here at the DRBC, and we wish him all the best in the future.

  • I would also like to recognize two other staff who are celebrating 20 years of service at the Commission; they are Communications Specialist – Kate Schmidt and Manager of Water Resource Planning – Chad Pindar.

  • Additionally, I would like to recognize Meg McGuire, who founded the Delaware Currents news project in 2015 to focus on stories from the Delaware River Basin. Meg will be shutting down Delaware Currents at the end of this year, and we are grateful for her efforts over the last decade to shine a brighter light on our shared waters.

  • In September 2025, the EPA announced a final rule establishing federal water quality standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pa., and Wilmington, Del. This final rule will help improve water quality to protect sensitive aquatic species in the Delaware River, including the federally endangered Atlantic Sturgeon and Shortnose Sturgeon. The new standards issued by EPA establish aquatic life protection and propagation as an achievable "designated use" with corresponding dissolved oxygen water quality criteria to protect this use.

  • In October 2025, the DRBC published A Strategy to Implement New Dissolved Oxygen Criteria in the Delaware River Estuary (pdf). This document outlines a technical approach for a wasteload allocation study to be performed by the DRBC that the states may use as a basis to derive and impose valid numerical effluent limitations. DRBC scientists will continue to work in close cooperation with EPA and the Estuary co-regulating states (Pa., N.J. and Del.) to support EPA's new DO criteria. 

  • This and other work of the Commission have been shared with the public at our September and December meetings of our Water Quality Advisory Committee, as well as our October meeting of the Water Management Advisory Committee. Several other advisory committee meetings are scheduled for this winter; visit the link for more information.

  • Staff have also made many public presentations on our water resource programs at:

  • Additionally, our outreach and engagement programs wrapped up this fall with participation in Trenton RiverFest and the Delaware River Festival, as well as with DRBC's 2nd Annual Trenton Community Day and a legislative outreach event aboard New Jersey’s official tallship, the AJ Meerwald.

  • The 2024 Annual Report (pdf), which annually highlights our work and achievements, was published this fall and is available online.


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

8. RESOLUTION for the Minutes Directing Staff to Develop a Wasteload Allocation Study. (T. Amidon)


*9. 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 #1-26 were subject to public hearings on November 5, 2025. 

  • Docket #27 was postponed to allow additional time for review in advance of the Nov. 5 public hearing (but after it was noticed).

  • Docket #26 was postponed to allow additional time for review after it was heard on Nov. 5.

  • Dockets #1-25 were approved unanimously by the Commissioners. All are pdfs.

Docket Location Map (pdf)

1.      Green Lane - Marlborough Joint Authority, D-1966-002 CP-3.  

2.      Gulph Mills Country Club, D-1966-217-3.  

3.      Lower Frederick Township, D-1978-041 CP-5.  

4.      Jim Thorpe Borough, D-1981-071 CP-6.  

5.      Blue Ridge Real Estate Company, D-1985-081-3.  

6.      Pennsylvania American Water Company, D-1988-089 CP-4.  

7.      Bernville Corporation, D-1992-027-4.  

8.      Borough of Bally, D-1994-044 CP-5.  

9.      Meter Services Company, D-1994-049 CP-4.  

10.    Valley Forge Sewer Authority, D-1995-006 CP-6.  

11.    Lehigh County Authority, D-1999-011 CP-4.  

12.    New Hanover Township Authority, D-1999-040 CP-6.  

13.    Lower Makefield Township, D-2002-048 CP-4.  

14.    Tinicum Township, D-2014-014 CP-3.  

15.    Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., D-2015-001 CP-2.  

16.    Brookmont Health Care Center, D-2018-004-2.  

17.    FedChem, LLC, D-1971-064-2.  

18.    Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., D-1981-061 CP-6.  

19.    Eagle Lake Community Association, Inc., D-1987-055 CP-5.  

20.    Pennsylvania American Water Company, D-1990-027 CP-3.  

21.    Maidencreek Township Authority, D-1991-058 CP-7.  

22.    Town of Fallsburg, D-1994-059 CP-3.  

23.    Port Jervis City, D-2013-019 CP-2.  

24.    Wheelabrator Falls Company, LP, D-2019-003-2.  

25.    Birdsboro Municipal Authority, D-2012-020 CP-1.  

26.    Gan Eden Estates, D-2017-002-1.  This draft docket has been postponed to allow additional time for review.

27.    Rising Light Ridge, LLC, D-2024-002-1.  This draft docket has been postponed to allow additional time for review.