More than a dozen environmental initiatives were approved by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor in 2004. Here’s a quick rundown on what was accomplished this year.

Brownfields Redevelopment: Senate Bill 1026 (LaValle-D-Beaver) and Senate Bill 10 (Brightbill-R-Lebanon) authorized the Governor’s Economic Stimulus Package to create a new Commonwealth Financing Authority to provide over $1 billion to programs like Business in Our Sites and community revitalization efforts to redevelop existing brownfield sites, build new infrastructure facilities and restore older communities. Also passed was House Bill 500 (Freeman-D-Lehigh) creating the Elm Street Program to promote residential neighborhood development in older communities and Senate Bill 778 (D.White-R-Indiana) creating the Keystone Innovation Zone Program to promote economic development around colleges and universities.

Sewer/Wastewater Funding: Voters approved a $250 million bond issue to fund water and sewage system improvements. The General Assembly then passed Senate Bill 1102 (Gordner-R-Northumberland) authorizing the use of that money, plus $100 million more, with specific provisions to fund nutrient reduction technologies that will benefit the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds.

Manure Hauler Certification: House Bill 1809 (Egolf-R-Perry) creating a commercial manure hauler and broker certification program in the Department of Agriculture was signed into law. The legislation is designed to help make sure manure is applied to land in Pennsylvania in compliance with nutrient management program requirements, especially manure coming in from other states.

Watershed Education Program: House Bill 2775 (Zug-R-Lebanon) creates a Watershed Education Program within the Department of Education to provide grants to school districts and environmental education centers to support watershed education efforts.

Advanced Energy Portfolio: Senate Bill 1030 (Erickson-R-Delaware, and Ross-R-Chester in the House) which requires electric distributors and generators that sell directly to retail customers to have 18 percent of the energy they sell be from renewable or sources other than coal and nuclear power by 2019.

Alternative Fuels/Energy Financing: Senate Bill 255 (Tomlinson-R-Bucks) making changes to the Alternative Fuels Incentive Program to include stationary power projects. The bill also authorizes a one-time $10 million transfer to the Energy Development Authority that was included in this year’s budget.

Guarantee Energy Savings: House Bill 1996 (Adolph-R-Delaware) was signed into law by Gov. Rendell which provides school districts and local governments with new options for saving energy through guaranteed energy savings contracts.

Senior Environment Corps: Senate Bill 1041 (Pippy-R-Allegheny) establishing the Senior Environment Corps Program in law within the departments of Aging and Environmental Protection.

Forestland Beautification: House Bill 2227 (Rubley-R-Chester) authorizing the Governor to take $500,000 from the Recycling, Solid Waste Abatement or the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund to provide monies for the Forestland Beautification Program in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Dumping Penalty: House Bill 2029 (Cruz-D-Philadelphia) became law providing penalties for illegal dumping in Philadelphia to include a penalty of six month suspension of driving privileges.

Fishing License Increase: House Bill 2155 (B.Smith-R-York) increased fees for fishing and boating licenses and permits. The bill also includes new forms of licenses and permits including a Lake Erie stamp, a combo Lake Erie/Trout stamp and charter boat/fishing guide permits.

Environmental Heritage: Senate Resolution 324, sponsored by Sen. Earll (R-Erie), Sen. Ray Musto (D-Luzerne) and others, encouraging the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to create a special Conservation Heritage Initiative to recognize the citizens, events and historically significant places in Pennsylvania that have contributed to the environmental heritage of the Commonwealth and the United States.

Multi-Municipal Planning: House Bill 796 (Marsico-D-Dauphin) became law extending multi-municipal land use planning to municipalities that are not contiguous, but are contained within one school district.

Mass Transit Districts: House Bill 994 (Rubley-R-Chester) authorizes the creation of public transportation districts to work cooperatively with counties, local governments, transportation authorities, the private sector, AMTRAK and other providers of public transportation and passenger rail services.

Coal & Gas Coordination: House Bill 2804 (Hutchinson-R-Venango) amends the Coal and Gas Resource Coordination Act by removing the requirement that a gas well must be located at least 330 feet from the boundary of the tract on which it is located. It also removes the section of the Act relating to exceptions to the 330 foot requirement, since exceptions won't be required.

2004-05 Budget Initiatives: The other significant piece of legislation passed this year dealing with the environment was the budget of course. Could we forget those marathon sessions?

The General Assembly gave Gov. Rendell what he wanted in terms of basic funding for the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources that included other items like: $10 million to start the pay back of $100 million borrowed from the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund in 2002; restoring $350,000 in funding for the Pennsylvania Center for Environmental Education, $300,000 for the Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps and funding for a statewide toll-free citizen compliant hotline.

Overall, DEP’s budget was about $2.8 million higher than in 2003-04 and included a $7.5 million Safe Water line item for miscellaneous water and sewer projects, $6.8 million for scrap tire cleanup grants, $450,000 more for county conservation districts, $507,000 more for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, $250,000 more for the Delaware River Basin Commission, $250,000 for mushroom nutrient management, and it folded funding from the old Office of Pollution Prevention and Compliance Assistance into the general Environmental Protection line item.

DCNR saw an overall $2 million increase in its budget, however, there was a $4 million decrease in the Heritage Parks Program, a $4 million increase in State Park Operations, a $1 million increase for recreation trails and a $707,000 increase in State Forest Operations.

Next week: Environmental Issues Left on the Table

12/24/2004