Opinion - DEP Proposes Weakening Clean Water Protections, Your Help Needed

By Kim Patten, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

A "voluntary" protection program for our waterways with a rubber-stamped permit process is not enough to protect our drinking water, our rivers, and our Chesapeake Bay.

 

We need citizens like you to weigh in with Gov. Rendell on this important issue. Help us flood the Governor's office with letters, e-mails, and faxes urging him to support a mandatory Buffers 100 rule.

You will be directed to a sample letter to Governor Rendell that you can personalize and send directly from your computer.

 

At a time when the Commonwealth needs to continue making progress toward healthy rivers and streams, will the Department of Environmental Protection stop doing its job?

 

Over the past year, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has been fighting for Buffers 100, a proposal to require all new developments in Pennsylvania to maintain 100-foot forested buffers along streams.

 

These buffers are extremely effective natural filters, removing pollution from runoff before it reaches our waterways. Buffers 100 has garnered the support of over 140 organizations, businesses, and local governments, as well as bi-partisan support from over 40 state legislators.

 

Recently, instead of supporting Buffers 100, the Department of Environmental Protection has proposed a purely voluntary program that does not require developers to protect streams with forested buffers. Particularly disturbing is the incentive the state is offering for developers to participate in the program: eliminating state and county technical reviews of stormwater management as well as erosion and sediment control plans submitted by the developers' paid engineers. This scheme would be a virtual rubber stamp of plans, without ensuring they will protect our rivers and streams.

 

This type of permit approval process is illegal under the federal Clean Water Act. The structure of this program would allow developers' stormwater plans to be approved with no environmental agency review, relying instead on the developers to regulate themselves.

 

We have seen how well self-regulation has worked on Wall Street. Americans are paying dearly for that now. Industry self-regulation of the environment has not worked in the past, and it will work no better today. And citizens will pay in the form of polluted streams, eroding and flooded properties, and contaminated drinking water.

 

The proposal will leave DEP and conservation districts with no authority to require changes to poor or inadequate plans. Clearly, it's much more efficient and less expensive to correct a flawed plan before the permit is issued and the project is built.

 

DEP's proposal will also freeze the public out of the process. Concerned citizens will no longer have an opportunity to comment on stormwater plans and make suggestions for improving them. Instead, downstream neighbors will be left with the unfair and costly burden of dealing with real runoff problems after the development is built.

 

DEP will also no longer review proposed developments in Pennsylvania's most pristine "Exceptional Value" and "High Quality" streams, which again, under the law, require special protection by DEP.

 

CBF and its partners in the Pennsylvania Campaign for Clean Water have voiced their concerns to DEP, and offered suggestions for improving the program. In a public meeting on January 8, 2009, DEP presented some new ideas which, if implemented, may offer some improvements and address some of our concerns.

 

But even with these improvements, DEP would still be eliminating appropriate oversight of plans and opportunities for public participation—basic requirements of any permitting process under the Clean Water Act.

 

DEP needs to ensure that its stormwater program meets these basic Clean Water Act requirements, which are critical to protecting our rivers and streams. DEP also needs to stay true to its mission of protecting the environment and implement Buffers 100. It is a common sense, science-based proposal that will improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.

 

Visit this webpage to take action.

Links: Environmental Groups Opposed To DEP Rollback Of Clean Water Protections