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Water Legislation

Resources Planning Act and The Water Rights Act

Two major pieces of legislation govern the management of Pennsylvania’s vast water resources: The Water Resources Planning Act, No. 220 and The Water Rights Act. These two laws establish the rules that govern how Pennsylvania’s water is managed, protected, and allocated.

• The Water Resources Planning Act, No. 220 (27 Pa. C.S. §3101 et seq.), passed in December 2002, requires the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) to update Pennsylvania’s State Water Plan to determine how much water the commonwealth has, how much it uses, and how much will be available in the future.
• The Water Rights Act, P.L. 842 (Act No. 365) was enacted in 1939 to provide authority for allocation of water supplies to public water suppliers (Act 365). Under this act, public water supply agencies must obtain Water Allocation Permits from PA DEP to acquire rights to use surface water sources in Pennsylvania. All other withdrawals of surface and ground water are subject to common law rules that govern landowners’ rights to withdraw water from sources on their land for their uses on that property.

In addition, regulations promulgated by the several other Pennsylvania and regional organizations have water conservation provisions that affect Pennsylvania’s water supply. These organizations include:

• The Delaware River Basin Commission is a four state (Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York) regional body with the force of law to oversee a unified approach to managing the Delaware River Basin.
• The Susquehanna River Basin Commission is an interstate watershed agency created to deal with water resource problems occurring anywhere in the vast drainage area of the Susquehanna River and its many tributaries.
• The Public Utility Commission has jurisdiction over all utilities in Pennsylvania, including more than 200 water and wastewater utilities.
• The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency coordinates state agency response to support county and local governments in the areas of civil defense, disaster mitigation and preparedness, planning, and response to and recovery from manmade or natural disasters.

PA State Water Plan

The Pennsylvania Constitution states that all Pennsylvanians have a right to pure water, and imposes a duty on all citizens to conserve and maintain water resources for the future. The Water Resources Planning Act, No. 220, signed into law on December 16, 2002, established a Statewide Water Resources Committee and six Regional Water Resources Committees that are charged with guiding the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) through the development of a new State Water Plan and updating it at five-year intervals.

The result is the current State Water Plan, approved by PA DEP Secretary John Hanger on January 28, 2009. As a functional planning tool, this updated water plan provides Pennsylvanians with a vision, goals and recommendations for meeting the challenges of sustainable water use over a 15-year planning horizon. The plan consists of inventories of water availability, an assessment of current and future water use demands and trends, assessments of resource management alternatives, and proposed methods of implementing recommended actions. It also analyzes problems and needs associated with specific water resource usage such as navigation, stormwater management, and flood control.

 

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