On the recordFebruary 7, 2011
I rise today to commend and congratulate the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, SRBC, in honor of their 40th anniversary. The Susquehanna River Basin Compact, which went into effect on January 23, 1971, brought together the Federal Government and the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to form the SRBC, one of only two such Federal-interstate compact agencies in the Nation. The mission of SRBC is to manage the water resources of the Susquehanna basin under comprehensive planning principles, and to protect the Chesapeake Bay, one of the world's most productive ecosystems. The Susquehanna is America's largest eastern river and supplies over half the fresh water entering the Chesapeake Bay. This unique partnership has resulted in numerous benefits for the people of the basin, including the establishment of a basin-wide flood forecasting and warning system in one of America's most flood prone river systems; the storage and release of water during low flow periods from federally operated reservoirs; the management of large scale withdrawals and consumptive uses of water; and the monitoring of basin water quality.
