1.This Act may be cited as the
Delaware River Basin Conservation Act
of 2011
.
2.Congress finds that—
(1)the Delaware River
Basin is a national treasure of great cultural, environmental, and ecological
importance;
(2)the Basin contains
over 12,500 square miles of land in the States of Delaware, New Jersey, New
York, and Pennsylvania, including nearly 800 square miles of bay and more than
2,000 tributary rivers and streams;
(3)the Basin is home to more than 8,000,000
people who depend on the Delaware River and the Delaware Bay as an economic
engine, a place of recreation, and a vital habitat for fish and
wildlife;
(4)the Basin provides
clean drinking water to more than 15,000,000 people, including New York City,
which relies on the Basin for approximately half of the drinking water supply
of the city, and Philadelphia, whose most significant threat to the drinking
water supply of the city is forest clearing in the Upper Basin, according to a
study conducted by the Philadelphia Water Department;
(5)almost 180 species
of fish and wildlife are considered special status species in the Basin due to
habitat loss and degradation, particularly sturgeon, eastern oyster, and red
knots, which have been identified as unique species in need of habitat
improvement;
(6)the Basin provides
habitat for over 200 resident and migrant fish species, includes significant
recreational fisheries, and is a prolific source of eastern oyster, blue crab,
and the largest population of the American horseshoe crab;
(7)as of the date of
enactment of this Act, oyster landings in the Delaware Bay are at 100,000
bushels, down from the 500,000 bushels that were harvested in the 1980s, due,
in part, to water pollution and disease;
(8)the Delaware Bay
has the second largest concentration of shorebirds in North America and is
designated as one of the four most important shorebird migration sites in the
world;
(9)the Basin, 50
percent of which is forested, also has 1,000,000 acres of wetland, more than
126,000 acres of which are recognized as internationally important, resulting
in a landscape that provides essential ecosystem services, including
recreation, commercial, and water-quality benefits;
(10)much of the
remaining exemplary natural landscape in the Basin is vulnerable to further
degradation, as the Basin gains approximately 14 square miles of developed land
annually, and with new development, urban watersheds are increasingly covered
by impervious surfaces, amplifying the quantity of polluted runoff into rivers
and streams;
(11)the Delaware
River is the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi, and a critical
component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in the
Northeast;
(12)management of water volume in the Basin is
critical to flood mitigation and habitat for fish and wildlife, and following 3
major floods along the Delaware River since 2004, the Governors of the States
of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania have called for natural
flood damage reduction measures to combat the problem, including restoring the
function of riparian corridors;
(13)the Delaware
River Port Complex (including docking facilities in the States of Delaware, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania) is the largest freshwater port in the world, the Port
of Philadelphia handles the largest volume of international tonnage and 70
percent of the oil shipped to the East Coast, and the Port of Wilmington, a
full-service deepwater port and marine terminal, is the busiest terminal on the
Delaware River, handling more than 400 vessels per year with an annual
import/export cargo tonnage of more than 4,000,000 tons;
(14)the Delaware
Estuary, where freshwater from the Delaware River mixes with saltwater from the
Atlantic Ocean, is one of the largest and most complex of the 28 estuaries in
the National Estuary Program, and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary
works to improve the environmental health of the Delaware Estuary;
(15)the Delaware
River Basin Commission is a Federal-interstate compact government agency
charged with overseeing a unified approach to managing the river system and
implementing important water resources management projects and activities
throughout the Basin that are in the national interest; and
(16)restoration
activities in the Basin are supported through several Federal and State agency
programs, and funding for those important programs should continue and
complement the establishment of the Delaware River Basin Restoration Program,
which is intended to build on and help coordinate restoration and protection
funding mechanisms at the Federal, State, regional, and local levels.
3.In this Act:
(1)The
term Basin means the 4–State Delaware Basin region, including all
of Delaware Bay and portions of the States of Delaware, New Jersey, New York,
and Pennsylvania located in the Delaware River watershed.
(2)The term Basin State means each of the States
of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
(3)The
term Director means the Director of the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service.
(4)The
term Foundation means the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a
congressionally chartered foundation established by section 2 of the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act (16 U.S.C. 3701).
(5)The term grant program means the Delaware
River Basin restoration grant program established under section 5.
(6)The
term program means the Delaware River Basin restoration program
established under section 4.
(7)The
term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior, acting through
the Director.
(8)The
term Service means the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service.
4.
(a)Not
later than 180 days after amounts are made available to carry out this Act, the
Secretary shall establish a program to be known as the Delaware River
Basin restoration program
.
(b)In
carrying out the program, the Secretary shall—
(1)draw on existing
and new management plans for the Basin and work in consultation with applicable
management entities, including representatives of the Partnership for the
Delaware Estuary, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Federal Government,
and other State and local governments, and regional and nonprofit
organizations, as appropriate, to identify, prioritize, and implement
restoration and protection activities within the Basin;
(2)adopt an investment strategy that—
(A)supports the implementation of a shared set
of restoration and protection activities developed in accordance with paragraph
(1);
(B)targets cost-effective conservation
projects; and
(C)supports
measurable conservation efforts;
(3)establish the
grant program in accordance with section 5; and
(4)provide for
technical assistance in accordance with this Act.
(c)In
establishing the program, the Secretary shall consult, as appropriate,
with—
(1)the heads of Federal agencies,
including—
(A)the Administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency;
(B)the Administrator of the National Oceanic
Atmospheric Administration;
(C)the Chief of the Natural Resource
Conservation Service;
(D)the Chief of Engineers of the United States
Army Corps of Engineers;
(E)the Director of the National Park Service;
and
(F)the head of any other applicable
agency;
(2)the Governors of the Basin States;
(3)the Partnership
for the Delaware Estuary;
(4)the Delaware River
Basin Commission;
(5)fish and wildlife joint venture
partnerships; and
(6)other public
agencies and organizations with authority for the planning and implementation
of conservation strategies in the Basin.
(d)The
purposes of the program include—
(1)coordinating
restoration and protection activities among Federal, State, local, and regional
entities and conservation partners throughout the Basin;
(2)carrying out
coordinated restoration and protection activities throughout the Basin and
Basin States—
(A)to sustain and
enhance habitat restoration and protection activities;
(B)to sustain and
enhance water-quality improvements, including drinking water quality;
(C)to sustain and
enhance water management and flood damage mitigation improvements to benefit
fish and wildlife habitat;
(D)to improve
opportunities for public access and recreation in the Basin;
(E)to encourage
environmentally sensitive land use planning and development;
(F)to increase the
capacity to implement coordinated restoration and protection activities in the
Basin by conducting public outreach and education and promoting citizen
involvement; and
(G)to coordinate,
conduct, and support the planning, monitoring, and research activities
necessary to carry out coordinated restoration and protection activities;
and
(3)providing
competitive grants for technical assistance to carry out restoration and
protection activities in the Basin, with priority given to activities with
multiple benefits, including habitat, water quality, and flood
protection.
5.
(a)Delaware river
basin restoration programTo
the extent that funds are available to carry out this section, the Secretary
shall establish a grant program to be known as the Delaware River Basin
restoration grant program to provide competitive matching grants of
varying amounts to State and local governments, nonprofit organizations,
community organizations, institutions of higher education, and other eligible
entities to carry out activities described in section 4(d).
(b)The
Secretary, in consultation with the organizations described in section 4(c),
shall develop criteria for the grant program to help ensure that activities
funded under this section accomplish one or more of the following:
(1)Restoration or
protection of fish and wildlife species and the habitats of those
species.
(2)Improvement or
protection of water quality by reducing nonpoint and point source
pollutants.
(3)Reduction or improvement of the management
of water volume and flooding.
(4)Inclusion of
priority needs or actions identified in the single investment strategy adopted
under section 4(b)(2).
(5)Inclusion of
restoration and protection activities with multiple benefits in the Basin,
including habitat, water quality, and flood damage reduction.
(c)
(1)The Federal share of
the cost of a project funded under the grant program shall not exceed 75
percent of the total cost of the activity, as determined by the
Secretary.
(2)The non-Federal share
of the cost of a project funded under the grant program may be provided in cash
or in the form of an in-kind contribution of services or materials.
(d)
(1)The Secretary may enter into an agreement to manage the
grant program with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation or a similar
organization with applicable expertise.
(2)If
the Secretary enters into an agreement under paragraph (1), the organization
selected shall—
(A)for each fiscal
year, receive amounts to carry out this section in an advance payment of the
entire amount on October 1, or as soon as practicable thereafter, of that
fiscal year;
(B)invest and
reinvest those amounts for the benefit of the grant program; and
(C)otherwise
administer the grant program to support partnerships between the public and
private sectors in accordance with this Act.
(3)If
the Secretary enters into an agreement with the Foundation under paragraph (1),
any amounts received by the Foundation under this section shall be subject to
the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act (16 U.S.C. 3701 et
seq.), excluding section 10(a) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 3709(a)).
(e)The Secretary may
provide, or provide for, technical assistance to carry out this section, on a
nonreimbursable basis, to—
(1)other Federal agencies;
(2)State and local governments;
(3)nonprofit organizations;
(4)community organizations;
(5)institutions of higher education; or
(6)other entities, as the Secretary determines
to be appropriate.
6.Not later than 180
days after the date of enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, the
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the implementation of this Act,
including a description of each project that has received funding under this
Act.
7.Authorization of
appropriations
(a)The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service shall use funds within its existing budgetary authority to
carry out this Act.
(b)Of
any amount made available for each fiscal year, the Secretary shall use at
least 75 percent to carry out the grant program and to provide, or provide for,
technical assistance under section 5(e).