Water Resources Advisory Committee To Discuss Controversial Permit Rollback

The Department of Environmental Protection is expected to present a new version of a controversial permit-by-rule proposal that would eliminate permit reviews for development projects to the Water Resources Advisory Committee on February 25.

 

In December, the PA Campaign For Clean Water this week expressed serious concerns about a Department of Environmental Protection proposal to rollback clean water protections by dropping individual erosion and sedimentation and stormwater permit reviews for new developments and substituting a permit-by-rule proposal.

 

The proposed permit-by-rule approach would only require an engineer's seal to guarantee compliance with erosion and sedimentation and stormwater management requirements for new development without the need for individual permit reviews by DEP or county conservation districts or any audits of permit-by-rule actions, even in High Quality and Exceptional Value watersheds.

 

The PA Campaign For Clean Water includes representatives of Clean Water Action, American Rivers, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Delaware Riverkeeper, Green Valleys Association, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club and 124 other groups.

 

The Advisory Committee meeting is in theSusquehanna Room, DEP Regional Office, 909 Elmerton Ave., Harrisburg starting at 10:00.