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The longest free flowing river east of the Mississippi has a bill in
congress to create The Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. This Act
if passed, would provide $5 million per year for five years to implement
a voluntary, coordinated approach to sustaining and enhancing habitat,
water quality and flood control improvements for fish, wildlife and
people.
Under the act, the Secretary of the Interior would coordinate a program
that would involve all four states in the basin, New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and Delaware. The program would provide support for local,
projects by non-profits, universities, state and local governments,
community organizations and others. This could support such things as
wetlands restoration and protection, flood mitigation and waterfront
revitalization.
The Delaware River Basin lacks a coordinated federal/state/local
oversight effort, even though it is home to more than 8 million people
and provides drinking water to 15 million. Other major American
watersheds, including the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, get tens
of millions of dollars in federal funding for conservation coordination.
The Delaware Basin get relatively little funding, and the upper basin
gets none. This bill can change that.
The Delaware River Basin Conservation Act (H.R. 4698) was introduced on
Feb. 25 by U.S. Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) and has bipartisan
co-sponsorship by U.S. Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Rush Holt
(D-N.J.), Charles Dent (R-Pa.) and Joe Sestak (D.-Pa.).
Please send an email asking them to support H.R. 4698, the proposed
Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. Here's a handy link to make it
easy:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Also, send an
email, to the congressmen listed above thanking them for supporting this
legislation.
