A 3078 — Requires DEP to establish online flood, rainfall, river level, and sewer capacity dashboard.

A3078 1R [First Reprint] ASSEMBLY, No.

Assemblyman CHRIS TULLY District 38 (Bergen)  Assemblywoman  Co-SponsoredMARISA by:SWEENEY District 25 (Morris and Passaic) Assemblyman  VINCENT M.

"VINNIE" KEARNEY District 21 (Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union)   Co-Sponsored by:

  CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT      IntroducedAs Pendingreported Technicalby Reviewthe byAssembly LegislativeScience, Counsel.Innovation and Technology Committee on June 1, 2026, with amendments.

            1.   1.   a.  No later than 12 months after the effective date of P.L.   P.L.    , c.    (C.        ) , c.       (C.  ), (pending before the Legislature as this bill) the Department of Environmental Protection shall develop and publish on its Internet website, a publicly-accessible and searchable dashboard to track 1county and1 municipal flood risks in real time.

          b. b.   (1)  The online flood dashboard shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:information:        (a)  rainfall and precipitation levels;

          (a)(b)  rainfalllocal andriver precipitation levels;

          (b)(c)  localtotal water level rise in waterways or flood zones, including surface water rise, sea level rise, river levels;level rise, and sewer overflow, as relevant;

          (c)(d) totalstorm waterand level rise in waterways or flood zones,surge; including surface water rise, sea level rise, river level rise, and sewer overflow, as relevant;

          (d)(e)  stormdrainage andcomplaints; flood surge;

          (e)(f)  drainagereported complaints;flood damage;

          (f)(g)  reportedcurrent floodsewer damage;and stormwater system capacity;

          (g)(h)  currenthistory sewerof and1county stormwaterand1 systemmunicipal capacity;flooding incidents during the previous year;

    and (h)      history(i)   ofany municipalother floodingfeatures incidentsthat during the previousdepartment year;determines to be necessary to establish a comprehensive dashboard system.

and          (2)  (i)During anyperiods otherof featuresactive thatstorms or flood risk, as determined by the National Weather Service, the department determinesshall ensure the information on the dashboard is updated, at a minimum, on a weekly basis, using the most current information obtained by the department.        c.   Counties and municipalities shall report to bethe department such information as the department determines necessary to operate the dashboard.  The department shall establish a comprehensiveprocess, dashboardincluding system.the standardized digital formats required for reporting, for counties and municipalities to report data to the department pursuant to this section.

          (2)  d.   DuringThe periods of active storms or flood risk, as determined by the National Weather Service, the department shallmay ensureapply thefor informationfederal ongrant thefunds dashboardor isany updated,other atfederal aassistance minimum,that onmay abe weeklyavailable basis,to usingsupport the mostestablishment currentand informationmaintenance obtainedof by the department.dashboard.

            c.    2.   Counties1a.1  andBeginning municipalitiesone shallyear reportafter to the departmentdashboard suchhas informationbeen asmade publicly available, the department1[department] determinesDepartment necessaryof toEnvironmental operateProtection1 theshall dashboard. annually Thereview departmentthe shalldashboard, establishas awell process,as includingdata thecollection standardizedand digitalreporting formatsrequirements, requiredand forshall reporting,take forsteps countiesto standardize and municipalitiesconsolidate tothose reportrequirements datafor tothe purpose of:        (1)  reducing the departmentadministrative pursuantdemand toon this1counties section.and1 municipalities;

          d.   (2)  Theupdating department may apply for federal grant funds or any other federal assistance that may be available to support the establishment and maintenancestandardizing ofdata thereporting dashboard.protocols;

 and           2.   (3)  Beginningimproving onethe yearutility afterof the dashboardreported hasdata beenand madethe publiclyability available,to share the departmentdata shallacross annuallysystems, reviewincluding, theas dashboard,appropriate, assystems wellmaintained asby dataother collectionState departments and reportingagencies, requirements,county and 1[local] municipal1 agencies, and federal authorities.        1b.1  The department's review shall takeinclude, stepsbut tonot standardizebe andlimited consolidateto:  those      requirements(1)  foridentifying theand purposeeliminating of:duplicative reporting;

(1)      reducing(2)  assessing the administrativeneed demandto onestablish municipalities;or change standardized formats, requirements, protocols, and systems for data reporting, which may require 1[local governments] counties and municipalities1 to report data in machine-readable formats to facilitate the processing and analysis of reported data;

(2)      updating(3)  assessing State information technology needs to support technology-enabled and standardizingdata-driven dataregulatory reportingflood protocols;risk monitoring;

and      (3)(4)  improvinganticipating thepotential utilityuses offor the reportedenhanced datatechnologies and thesystems; ability to share the data across systems, including, as appropriate, systems maintained by other State departments and agencies, county and local agencies, and federal authorities.  The department's review shall include, but not be limited to:

          (1)  (5)  identifyingenabling systems to readily accept and eliminatinganalyze duplicativeadditional reporting;data metrics;

          (2)  (6)  assessingidentifying theopportunities need to establishcentralize orand changemodernize standardizedState formats,flood requirements, protocols, and systemsstormwater forinfrastructure, dataprocesses, reporting, which may require local governments to report data in machine-readable formats to facilitate the processing and analysisanalytic ofcapabilities; reported data;

    and (3)        assessing(7)  Stateidentifying informationfederal technologyfunding needs to support technology-enabled and data-driven regulatory flood riskdata monitoring;collection improvement.

     (4) anticipating potential uses for the enhanced technologies and systems;

     (5) enabling systems to readily accept and analyze additional data metrics;

     (6) identifying opportunities to centralize and modernize State flood and stormwater infrastructure, processes, and analytic capabilities;

and      (7)   identifying federal funding to support flood data collection improvement.

    STATEMENT        This bill requires that the Department of Environmental Protection (department) develop and establish on its Internet website a publicly accessible, searchable, and readily updated dashboard to track real-time rainfall, river levels, sewer capacity, and flood patterns at the municipal level.

     The online dashboard created by the department would include, at a minimum, rainfall and precipitation levels, local river levels, total water level rise, storm and flood surge, drainage complaints, reported flood damage, current sewer and stormwater capacity, history of flooding, and any other features determined by the department to be necessary to establish a comprehensive dashboard system.  The dashboard would be updated at least weekly during periods of active storm warnings.  The bill would require municipal and county emergency offices to report information the department determines necessary to operate the dashboard.           Under the provisions of this bill, the department is required to annually review the dashboard, as well as reporting requirements imposed on each local government unit, take steps to standardize and consolidate reporting, and ensure that a comprehensive, system-wide scope of data is collected.  This would include identifying and eliminating duplicative reporting;

assessing the need to establish or change standardized formats, requirements, protocols, and systems for data reporting;

assessing State information technology needs to support technology-enabled and data-driven regulatory flood risk monitoring;

anticipating potential uses for the enhanced technologies and systems;

enabling systems to readily accept and analyze additional data metrics;

identifying opportunities to centralize and modernize State flood and stormwater infrastructure, processes, and analytic capabilities;

and identifying available federal funding to support flood risk data collection improvement.