Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

The DRBC gets a new Executive Director today. Though he won’t take office for several months, this marks the end of the Collier interlude when the agency diverted from its mission to favor special interests.

It is the end of an ignominious era. Carol Collier, whose own anti-drilling views have stopped any forward progress on potential Marcellus Shale drilling in the Delaware River Basin, will today leave the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) that she has headed for 15 years. Last September when she announced she would retire this March, we predicted her platitudes about finalizing draft shale drilling plans would go nowhere. We were right (see DRBC Director Carol Collier Announces Her Retirement). It’s now goodbye and good riddance.

The new executive director of the DRBC, in place of Collier, will be Steven J. Tambini, currently vice president of operations at Pennsylvania American Water. Steve has been a water guy for over 30 years with lots of experience in water supply engineering and water resource planning. He will take over on August 1st.

Until then, Tambini is not saying much. The Marcellus Shale Coalition says they’re looking forward to working with him to craft common sense regulations that will allow shale drilling in places like Wayne County, PA. The rabidly anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper organization says they don’t know Tambini. Translation: “He’s not one of us.” Which may indeed be a good sign…

Here is the official announcement of Tambini’s appointment from the DRBC:

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) today announced that Steven J. Tambini has accepted the position of Executive Director, effective August 1, 2014.

“We are pleased to welcome Steve Tambini as the DRBC Executive Director,” said Commission ChairPro Tem Michele Siekerka, who represents New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “Steve’s background and experiences are sure to be of great benefit to the ongoing work of the commission.”

A formal resolution officially appointing Mr. Tambini will receive action by the commissioners at their next business meeting on March 12. He succeeds Carol R. Collier, who is retiring on that date after 15 years of service.

“Carol Collier has been a dedicated advocate for the protection of the natural resources and potable water supply in the Delaware River Basin,” Ms. Siekerka said. “Her dedication and leadership at DRBC will be greatly missed.”

Chief Administrative Officer Richard C. Gore will serve as Acting Executive Director until Mr. Tambini assumes his new duties on August 1.

Mr. Tambini, 54, is a native of New York and a long-time resident of Burlington County, N.J. He brings over 30 years of experience in water supply engineering and water resource planning, management and operations to the DRBC. Prior to his current position as Vice President of Operations at Pennsylvania American Water, Mr. Tambini held important leadership posts at New Jersey American Water. He played a key role in the planning, implementation and regulatory approval for the development of New Jersey American’s Delaware River Regional Water Treatment plant and Tri-County Water Supply, which successfully addressed regional groundwater decline in South Jersey and continues to provide water supply to numerous N.J. communities in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. During his career, Mr. Tambini has also provided engineering leadership to American Water subsidiaries serving 12 other states that encompassed a wide range of water resource and water supply challenges and projects.

Mr. Tambini’s work on both the Pennsylvania and New Jersey sides of the Delaware River has allowed him to develop and build relationships with regulators and stakeholders throughout the basin. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin, the National Association of Water Companies – Pennsylvania Section, and the Rancocas Conservancy. Mr. Tambini previously served on the board of trustees for the American Water Works Association – New Jersey Section (AWWA NJ) and he chaired the AWWA NJ Water Utility Council, which was responsible for legislative and policy issues related to water. He was a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Water Supply Advisory Council for a number of years, where he represented his industry and worked with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection on numerous water supply and water resource initiatives, including the development of the Water Supply Master Plan.

Steve Tambini holds a B.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering, both from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. He is a registered professional engineer in New Jersey and New York.

Mr. Tambini will be only the fourth executive director in the DRBC’s 53-year history. The incumbent, Carol Collier, was appointed in 1998. Preceding them were Gerald M. Hansler (appointed in 1977) and James F. Wright (appointed in 1962). Mr. Tambini’s selection concludes a national search process undertaken by the commissioners that began soon after Ms. Collier announced her retirement plans in September.

The DRBC is a federal/interstate government agency responsible for managing the water resources within the 13,539 square-mile Delaware River Basin without regard to political boundaries. The five commission members are the governors of the basin states (Del., N.J., N.Y., and Pa.) and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ North Atlantic Division, who represents the federal government.

A story from the Philadelphia Inquirer, quotes both the Marcellus Shale Coalition and Delaware Riverkeeper on the appointment of Tambini:

The president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, David Spigelmyer, said the industry group looks forward “to working constructively and collaboratively with Mr. Tambini on critical energy-related issues, specifically advancing common sense, workable regulations that permit safe shale development in portions of northeastern Pennsylvania.”

The Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, said she did not know Tambini. She said the executive director has an obligation to put protection of the people and the watershed first. She called it “a high hurdle of responsibility . . . that includes shedding any and all allegiances to industry, private interests, and particular political entities.”

The commission’s chief administrative officer, Richard C. Gore, will head the agency until Aug. 1.(2)

Finally, further stoking our optimism about Tambini’s appointment is this observation from the odious Food & Water Watch:

Seth Gladstone with Food and Water Watch called Tambini’s appointment “suspicious and disconcerting.” Pennsylvania American Water is an associate member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the state’s major gas industry trade group.

Editor’s Note: Jim’s description of the money-grubbing food-throwing Food & Water Watch organization as “odious” is one of the reasons we love publishing his articles from time to time here. He never fails to utter what we’re all thinking. Like him, we are hopeful about Steve Tambini, but we’re not going to jinx things by expecting too much either. The main thing is this; Carol Collier leaves today.

Collier was an ideologue who should never have been appointed to head such an important multi-state agency. Tom Ridge helped put here there when he was Pennsylvania’s Governor, and it was a disaster from the beginning. The DRBC had, like the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), been a non-ideological entity that enjoyed a decent reputation as a neutral arbitrator of water issues, as a planning and management agency committed to balancing needs.

Collier, from the moment of her arrival took things in an environmental true believer direction, totally ignoring the economic part of the mission. I will never forget meeting her for the first time as part of a delegation from the upper basin to talk about gas drilling. She was completely humorless and dismissed every point we made with some condescending remark. She was intellectually incapable of seeing beyond the trees with which she was obsessed.

The DRBC Comprehensive Plan updated under Collier’s watch, in contrast with the thoroughly professional SRBC version, was filled with quotes from  prominent environmentalists. She gave the thugs from the Delaware Riverkeeper free rein, putting them on five of her seven committees, among other acts of favoritism. She let the William Penn Foundation buy influence with grant money. It was often difficult to tell whether she was acting for the Foundation, its Pinchot Institute partner or the DRBC.

Still, Collier was only doing what anyone could have easily predicted from the outset. We can’t blame her as much as the folks who appointed her, and that is the ultimate lesson. Water and energy issues are far too important to be turned over to ideological special interests on either side. We need non-ideological managers committed to solving problems and moving ahead in a balanced way. Here’s hoping the Commissioners did the right thing this time and got a manager, not an ideologue.

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