The Joint Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee heard from DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Executive Director Julia Marano and Blaine Bohnam of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society about the Great PA Cleanup! and other anti-littering and beautification initiatives as part of a special Earth Day Environmental Issues Forum.

Secretary McGinty noted it took a diverse partnership, including private companies, to create the Great PA Cleanup! initiative, explaining that over 500 cleanups took place last year and 100,000 people contributed to the effort.

Julia Marano said Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is an alliance of government, communities and business groups which all share the goals of litter prevention, community beautification and proper waste handling. She noted there is a direct link between quality of life, economic vitality and a clean environment and that her organization works to determine best practices to be effective in keeping Pennsylvania beautiful.

Marano said there are three factors critical to improving Pennsylvania's environment: individual behavior, public policy and programs, and law and enforcement. She said four programs can help influence these factors: roadside beautification, a library of education materials, reducing and reusing construction and demolition waste and minimizing illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste and a statewide media campaign to reduce litter and illegal dumping

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has several priorities-- improving laws and enforcement, including conducting a national review of state and local litter and illegal dumping laws, assisting local police academies in educating officers about litter laws and researching effective enforcement methods to prevent litter and illegal dumping.

Blaine Bohnam gave the Committee background on the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and its 14,000 members. He explained the Society's Philadelphia Green Program, designed to create restore and care for Philadelphia's open spaces, which creates community gardens and public landscapes, completes Park revitalizations and does vacant land management.

The Society is undertaking several other initiatives: TreeVitalize a program to get homeowners to plant trees around Philadelphia, stormwater management and working on regional projects with the cities of York and Harrisburg

Committee Chair Rep. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango) adjourned the meeting and announced the next Committee meeting will be held on May 9 on the topic of greenhouse gas action plans.

4/15/2005