10/07/24 - 148 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/yk64wwfb
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Spotlight- Conservation Districts Play Key Role In Protecting The Environment
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By Craig Todd, Monroe County Conservation District On May 24 the House Finance Committee held a hearing in Shawnee Inn on House Bill 2443 (Levdansky-D-Allegheny) to enact a natural gas production severance tax to help fund environmental programs, including a portion for funding county conservation districts. Here are the comments of Craig Todd, District Manager for the Monroe County Conservation District, presented to the Committee on the need for additional funding for districts. My name is Craig Todd and I am the District Manager of the Monroe County Conservation District. I have been an employee of the District for 28 years. I would like to thank the Finance Committee for traveling to Monroe County so that we can discuss the need for a severance tax on natural gas extraction as well as a percentage allocation of the tax to County Conservation Districts. While the development of the Marcellus shale gas resource presents tremendous economic opportunities to our region, there is a corresponding potential of equal magnitude for short and long term degradation of our high value natural resources. These resources have and must continue to function and maintain our quality of life and our economies.
The rapid emergence of leasing and drilling activity found us ill prepared to deal with its associated regulatory, social and environmental impacts. State regulations enacted in the 1980’s are woefully inadequate to deal with more recent technologies that have allowed exploration in the Marcellus Shale to occur.
We are playing catch up for many of the associated activities including drilling and fracking, water consumption, waste storage and treatment, air quality, ground water contamination and hazardous materials handling, not to mention impacts to our landscapes, roads and communities. Many of the recent problems are a direct result of an inadequate federal, state and local regulatory framework.
It will take an enormous commitment of time and money to position ourselves so that we can responsibly benefit in a sustainable way from the development of Marcellus Shale. I would be happy to discuss conservation district involvement in this after my testimony.
County conservation districts are an important part of our community’s and region’s conservation infrastructure. Conservation districts are subdivisions of state government created by the Soil Conservation District Act of 1945. Because the state’s 66 conservation districts are governed by local boards and staffed by local professionals, we can craft our programs to address local conservation issues and needs.
Monroe County has an abundance of the state’s most valuable wetland resources, a part of the county has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as one of the “Last 40 Great Places” on the planet in need of protection, the last free flowing river in the east forms our easterly border, our water resources are special protection, and we have consistently been one of the fastest growing counties in the state.
In response to this, the Monroe County Conservation District’s 17 employees include two wetland biologists, an agricultural conservation technician, a watershed specialist, a Pa. licensed professional engineer, three erosion control technicians and five environmental educators.
Our programs include Level III state delegated erosion control and NPDES permitting programs, general permitting under Chapter 105, Act 167 stormwater planning, floodplain monitoring through DCED, conservation planning on our agricultural lands, dirt and gravel road program, county wide water quality monitoring program and an environmental education center that sees 25,000 students a year.
Programs developed in response to local and regional resource needs are typical of county conservation districts statewide. We are not just a good idea because we can’t tax.
Our programs are the hub of any community’s conservation efforts, achieved through interagency coordination, outreach, consensus, science and collaboration. The necessary integrated approach to conservation cannot be accomplished without strong local conservation district programs.
Districts have become very adept at funding their programs. Contracts, fees, grants, county commissioner support, cost sharing, agreements, and historically tenuous state funding provide revenues.
We have gotten good at marching on an empty stomach. As programs and reliance on those programs has exponentially increased, state support has decreased.
State funding originates from the budgets of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environmental Protection. Conservation districts have never had a dedicated source of funding.
Allocations to conservation districts in 1999 were not adequate and did not meet the 50 percent cost share commitment for specific positions and core programs. Proposed funding for conservation district programs for fiscal year 2010/2011 are at 1999 levels. Monroe County Conservation District 50 percent core program costs for fiscal year 2009/2010 are $126, 000 with a state allocation of $47,340.
We receive no allocation for our Chapter 105 delegation or our engineering delegation for NPDES stormwater discharges from construction sites. The costs associated with these delegations are not included in the $126,000 figure.
At this point House Bill 2443 is the only bill that dedicates 3 percent of the revenues to the conservation district fund which is administered by the State Conservation Commission. As stated, I believe that all districts should benefit from this dedicated funding.
On a personal level, I would be embarrassed to receive the same funding from this source as the Bradford County Conservation District or Susquehanna County Conservation District. Allocations would be determined by the State Conservation Commission.
Without knowing what form a final bill will take, we strongly urge that a minimum dedicated 3 percent be retained and that the revenues from this tax not be deposited into the general fund.
We are extremely grateful to you for including dedicated funding to conservation districts in this proposal. Having been a district manager for 25 years, this has been an issue and need that has repeatedly been discussed.
I know that district programs are being cut, layoffs are being considered and the conservation infrastructure for which both the public and private sectors rely on, now more than ever, is at a critical juncture.
An unprecedented opportunity exists to ensure that conservation district programs endure and strengthen in response to the challenges presented by not only natural gas exploration and extraction, but future land development and the consumptive use our state’s natural resources.
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5/24/2010 |
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