The DBRC Environmental Protection Program consists of 3 areas of focus for its mission; preparedness, response, and education. Being small enough to change with the needs of the port community has been an asset to DBRC throughout the 45 plus years of service it provided to the Delaware Valley waterways. The effectiveness of pollution prevention and environmental protection laws and regulations has led to a significant reduction in oil spills. As a consequence, a lack of readily available oil spill preparedness and response expertise has been identified throughout the industry. The DBRC Environmental Protection Program has become the primary mission of the organization in order to make up for the lack of experience and expertise that would otherwise be available to government and private sectors to maintain the environmental integrity of waterways impacted by oil spills.

First, the DBRC assists the US Coast Guard and State Officials through the implantation of the sensitive area protection plans for all the tributaries along Delaware River in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We conduct field site surveys annually and attended meetings to draft the required plans to be entered into the US Coast Guard’s Area Contingency Plan. DBRC crews return to the sites and deploy the protection boom as per the plans to verify that the plan is designed correctly. The US Coast Guard has also relied on the DBRC’s expertise to enhance booming strategies with research, testing and evaluations in protection of all inlets along the coastline of Sector Delaware Bay’s Area of responsibility.