New Jersey § 32:20-1

§ 32:20-1.

WHEREAS, The States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware have each created,

and now maintain, a Commission (or Committee) on Interstate Co-operation for the purpose

of establishing and maintaining governmental machinery to facilitate communication,

negotiation, understanding and co-operation between said States, respectively, and

other States of the Union, both regionally and nationally, with power to establish

such committees, subcommittees, and advisory boards as are deemed advisable to conduct

conferences and to formulate proposals concerning subjects of intergovernmental co-operation,

to study the laws of the several States, hold public or private hearings, make findings

and recommendations, and to submit drafts of legislation to promote uniform laws for

the elimination of the confusion and conflict between the several States of the Union

and the Federal Government in the matter of laws and administrative practices concerning

conservation, prevention, abatement and control of pollution, water supply, public

welfare, flood control, and other subjects; and WHEREAS, Said Commissions (or Committees) on Interstate Co-operation of said States have

organized and established and are now maintaining as an instrument of governmental

machinery a joint advisory board known as “The Interstate Commission on the Delaware

River Basin,” as a regional commission composed of standing subcommittees of said

Commissions (or Committees) on Interstate Co-operation, respectively, for the purpose

of entering upon a program to study the conservation, water supply, pollution and

other potential uses and benefits of, and to develop integrated plans to conserve

and safeguard, the waters of the Delaware river basin, in the following specified

particulars: A. To serve as a fact-co-ordinating body and to develop the means and procedure by

which the general plans and policies proposed for the development of the region may

be carried out; B. To sponsor the carrying out of properly developed plans which result from surveys

and research concerning population, land and water resources and uses, and other related

subjects; C. To co-ordinate the activities of the Commission and Committees on Interstate Co-operation

and their joint agency, the Council of State Governments, with the work of the appropriate

State and Federal agencies for the prevention and abatement of pollution. D. To encourage interstate compacts and the enactment of uniform State laws for the

abatement of water pollution, for flood control and for the proper general use and

control of the waters of the Delaware river. E. To advance, perpetuate, and outline the work recommended by its conferences, and

to develop and propose new objectives; and WHEREAS, It is the purpose of the Commissions (or Committees) on Interstate Co-operation

of said four States, acting through said Interstate Commission on the Delaware river

basin, to eliminate confusion and conflict among said States by the promotion and

enactment of uniform laws in said States to preserve in a safe and sanitary condition

the waters and watershed of said Delaware river basin and to provide uniform concurrent

regulations for the control and the enforcement of the elimination of pollution in

the waters thereof in said States, respectively; and WHEREAS, Said Interstate Commission on the Delaware river basin, in co-operation with the

State health departments of said States, respectively, and the National Resources

Committee and the Public Health Service of the Federal Government has made a study,

for the purposes above recited of said Delaware river and its tributaries in said

Delaware river basin, and has formulated proposals for the inter-governmental co-operation

of said States in the correction and control of pollution of the waters thereof, which

have been formally approved, ratified and accepted by the health departments of said

States, the United States Health Service and the said National Resources Committee,

respectively, in the following form: WHEREAS, A substantial part of the territory of the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

and Delaware is situated within the Delaware river drainage basin; and WHEREAS, The increase in the population of the various municipal areas situated within the

Delaware river basin, and the growth of industrial activity within the basin, have

resulted in increasingly serious pollution of the waters of the Interstate Delaware

river and its tributaries; and WHEREAS, Such pollution constitutes a grave menace to the health, welfare, and recreational

facilities of the people living in the Delaware river basin, and occasions great economic

loss; and WHEREAS, The control of future pollution and the correction of existing pollution of the

waters of the interstate Delaware river and its tributaries is of prime importance

to the people living in the Delaware river basin and can best be accomplished through

the co-operation of the representatives of the people in the basin, in the States

of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; Now, therefore, the State of New York and the State of New Jersey and the Commonwealth

of Pennsylvania and the State of Delaware agree and are bound as follows: