The Department of Environmental Protection has scheduled a series of six regional virtual public hearings on January 6 to accept regional comments to prepare the draft 2022 State Water Plan Update. (formal notice)

The purpose of the hearings is to solicit comments from interested persons on water resources planning issues related to the preparation of the regional component of the State Water Plan.

The public testimony will be passed along to each Regional Water Resource Committee to take into consideration before they vote on their Regional Priorities.

This is the fourth round of public meetings DEP has hosted on the development of the next update on the State Water Plan.

The Plan update, required every five years by Act 220 of 2002, serves as a policy and guidance document providing information, objectives, priorities and recommendations to be considered in a broad range of state, local and private water resource decisions.

Another goal of the Plan update is to review and finalize Critical Area Resource Plans in the Potomac and Ohio regions that were left unfinished during the 2009 update.

Also being developed is a Digital Water Atlas that will make water use information now being collected more accessible to the State Water Planning process, river basin commissions and users of water information statewide, both public and private.

Hearing Dates

The virtual hearings will be held--

-- January 6: Delaware River Watershed Regional Committee- 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.;

-- January 6: Lower Susquehanna River Watershed Regional Committee- 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.;

-- January 6: Potomac River Watershed Regional Committee- 11:00 to Noon;

-- January 6: Ohio River Watershed Regional Committee- 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.;

-- January 6: Great Lakes Watershed Regional Committee - 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; and

-- January 6: Upper/Middle Susquehanna River Watershed Regional Committee - 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Persons wishing to present testimony at a hearing must contact Mark Matlock for the Department of Environmental Protection (Department) and the Committee, at 717-783-2285 or RA-StateWaterPlan@pa.gov at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing to reserve a time to present testimony.

 Language interpretation services are available upon request. Persons in need of language interpretation services must contact Mark Matlock by 5 p.m. on December 30, 2020.

Information on how to join the hearings will be available on each Committee’s webpage.  Click Here to visit the Regional Committee webpages.  Click Here for more information on how to join the hearings online and via conference call.

Regional Committee Meetings

The next scheduled meetings of each Regional Water Resources Committees will be--

-- January 12: Delaware River Watershed 9:00 a.m.

-- January 13: Lower Susquehanna River Watershed 9:00 a.m.

-- January 14: Potomac River Watershed 1:00 p.m.

-- January 21: Statewide Water Resources Committee 9:00 a.m.

-- January 26: Ohio River Watershed 1:00 p.m.

-- January 27: Great Lakes Watershed 9:00 a.m.

-- January 28: Upper/Middle Susquehanna River Watershed 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to visit the Regional and Statewide Committee webpages.

For more information on this process, visit DEP’s State Water Plan webpage.  Questions should be directed to Mark Matlock by calling 717-783-2285 or send email to:  marmatlock@pa.gov.

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[Posted: December 24, 2020]

12/28/2020