DRBC Releases Framework for Water Resources Resilience

For Immediate Release

April 13, 2026

(West Trenton, N.J.) -- The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has released a detailed framework for its resilience planning to ensure sustainability of the basin's water resources. This report, concluding the scoping phase of DRBC's Water Resources Resilience Plan (WRRP), marks a critical milestone for enhancing resilience in the four-state region.

Focusing on protecting key basinwide 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, the new report sets the scope of the WRRP, which will culminate in detailed planning to manage these water resource assets in the face of broad challenges such as climate change.

"By consolidating diverse water resource impacts under one planning process, the DRBC aims to ensure a secure water future for over 14 million people," said Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, the DRBC's Executive Director. "This initiative marks a pivotal step in long-term management of our shared water resources."

"Impacts from climate change pose a significant challenge to water utilities across the nation," said Julia Rockwell, who oversees the Philadelphia Water Department's Climate Change Adaptation and Watershed Protection programs and is an Advisory Committee on Climate Change (ACCC) member. "As critical service providers, it is our obligation to prepare for the impacts of climate change, and we are committed to working with DRBC and other partners to proactively address climate-related risks on a basinwide scale."

"The DRBC's resilience planning is a great compliment to the regional resilience needs assessment recently undertaken by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)," said Christopher Linn, AICP, DVRPC's Manager of the Office of Resilience and Environment and the ACCC's vice chair. "Addressing the impacts of flooding and increased stormwater runoff on infrastructure, neighborhoods and water quality is an increasingly important issue for our partners throughout the region, as highlighted by outreach conducted for our resilience needs assessment."

Public engagement conducted in 2025 via listening sessions and online input helped to shape the water resource assets and hazards to be considered by the WRRP.

"Over 150 people, representing all four Basin states, shared their thoughts with the DRBC," said Sarah Beganskas, Ph.D., DRBC's manager of water quality assessment. "Our stakeholders highlighted the need for long-term water resource protection and sustainable planning."

Many stakeholders noted the basin's aesthetic beauty and range of recreational opportunities and acknowledged the Delaware River as an important source of water.

"We know that Delawareans are concerned about climate impacts and supportive of actions that build resilience and reduce emissions," said Steven Smailer, P.G., Director of the Division of Water at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and DRBC Alternate Commissioner. "DRBC's resilience planning is unique in looking at the entire river basin."

The WRRP aims to ensure long-term sustainability for over 14 million water users. Commissioners of the DRBC voted unanimously in 2024 to have staff prepare this first basinwide resilience plan. The plan focuses on matters within the authority and jurisdiction of the Commission and will complement the efforts being made by Commission members. The next phase of the WRRP, focused on addressing climate change impacts, is expected to be completed by early 2028.

Members of the media and the public are invited to learn more about the WRRP's framework for resilience in a webinar scheduled for April 30 at 12 p.m., and may register here: https://tinyurl.com/WRRP-webinar.

The DRBC is a federal/interstate government agency created in 1961 by concurrent compact legislation, marking the first time 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 Commission members are the governors of the basin states (Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division, who represents the federal government.

To learn more about the Commission, please visit www.drbc.gov or follow DRBC on X at @DRBC1961.

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Contacts:

Elizabeth Brown, [email protected]

Kate Schmidt, [email protected]

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