Article 1
Short Title, Definitions, Purposes, and Limitations
Section 1.1.--Short Title. This compact shall be known and may be cited as the Susquehanna River Basin Compact.
1.2.--Definitions. For the purposes of this compact, and of any supplemental or concurring legislation enacted pursuant to it:
1. "Basin" shall mean the area of drainage of the Susquehanna River and its tributaries into Chesapeake Bay to the southern edge of the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland.
2. "Commission" shall mean the Susquehanna River Basin Commission hereby created, and the term "Commissioner" shall mean a member of the commission.
3. "Cost" shall mean direct and indirect expenditures, commitment, and net induced adverse effects, whether or not compensated for, used or incurred in connection with the establishment, acquisition, construction, maintenance, and operation of a project.
4. "Diversion" shall mean the transfer of water into or from the basin.
5. "Facility" shall mean any real or personal property, within or without the basin, and improvements thereof or thereon, and any and all rights of way, water, water rights, plants, structures, machinery, and equipment acquired, constructed, operated, or maintained for the beneficial use of water resources or related land uses or otherwise including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, any and all things and appurtenances necessary, useful, or convenient for the control, collection, storage, withdrawal, diversion, release, treatment, transmission, sale, or exchange of water; or for navigation thereon, or the development and use of hydroelectric energy and power, and public recreational facilities; of the propagation of fish and wildlife; or to conserve and protect the water resources of the basin or any existing or future water supply source, or to facilitate any other uses of any of them.
6. "Federal government" shall mean the government of the United States of America, and any appropriate branch, department, bureau, or division thereof, as the case may be.
7. "Project" shall mean any work, service, or activity which is separately planned, financed, or identified by the commission, or any separate facility undertaken or to be undertaken by the commission or otherwise within a specified area, for the conservation, utilization, control, development, or management of water resources which can be established and utilized independently or as an addition to an existing facility and can be considered as a separate entity for purposes of evaluation.
8. "Signatory party" shall mean a state or commonwealth party to this compact, or the Federal government.
9. "Waters" shall mean both surface and underground waters which are contained within the drainage area of the Susquehanna River in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
10. "Water resources" shall include all waters and related natural resources within the basin.
11. "Withdrawal" shall mean a taking or removal of water from any source within the basin for use within the basin.
12. "Person" shall mean an individual, corporation, partnership, unincorporated association, and the like and shall have no gender, and the singular shall include the plural.
1.3.--Purpose and Findings. The legislative bodies of the respective signatory parties hereby find and declare:
1. The water resources of the Susquehanna River Basin are affected with a local, state, regional, and national interest, and the planning, conservation, utilization, development, management, and control of these resources, under appropriate arrangements for intergovernmental cooperation, are public purposes of the respective signatory parties.
2. The water resources of the basin are subject to the sovereign rights and responsibilities of the signatory parties, and it is the purpose of this compact to provide for a joint exercise of these powers of sovereignty in the common interest of the people of the region.
3. The water resources of the basin are functionally interrelated, and the uses of these resources are interdependent. A single administrative agency is therefore essential for effective and economical direction, supervision, and coordination of water resources efforts and programs of Federal, state, and local governments and of private enterprise.
4. Present and future demands require increasing economies and efficiencies in the use and reuse of water resources, and these can be brought about only by comprehensive planning, programming, and management under the direction of a single administrative agency.
5. In general, the purposes of this compact are to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of possible controversy; to make secure and protect developments within the states; to encourage and provide for the planning, conservation, utilization, development, management, and control of the water resources of the basin; to provide for cooperative and coordinated planning and action by the signatory parties with respect to water resources; and to apply the principle of equal and uniform treatment to all users of water and of water related facilities without regard to political boundaries.
6. It is the express intent of the signatory parties that the commission shall engage in the construction, operation, and maintenance of a project only when the project is necessary to the execution of the comprehensive plan and no other competent agency is in a position to act, or such agency fails to act.
1.4.--Powers of Congress; Withdrawal. Nothing in this compact shall be construed to relinquish the functions, powers, or duties of the Congress of the United States with respect to the control of any navigable waters within the basin, nor shall any provisions hereof be construed in derogation of any of the constitutional powers of the Congress to regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations. The power and right of the Congress to withdraw the Federal government as a party to this compact or to revise or modify the terms, conditions, and provisions under which it may remain a party by amendment, repeal, or modification of any Federal statute applicable hereto is recognized by the signatory parties.
1.5.--Duration of Compact.
(a) The duration of this compact shall be for an initial period of 100 years from its effective date, and it shall be continued for additional periods of 100 years if not less than 20 years nor more than 25 years prior to the termination of the initial period or any succeeding period none of the signatory states, by authority of an act of its legislature, notifies the commission of intention to terminate the compact at the end of the then current 100-year period.
(b) In the event this compact should be terminated by operation of paragraph (a) above, the commission shall be dissolved, its assets and liabilities transferred in accordance with the equities of the signatory parties therein, and its corporate affairs wound up in accordance with agreement of the signatory parties or, failing agreement, by act of the Congress.