All seven former state environmental Secretaries who served the past four Governors have come together in the following op-ed piece to endorse voter approval of the Growing Greener Bond Issue on the May 17 election ballot.

The group of Secretaries was assembled by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council as part of the Vote Yes to Keep Pennsylvania Growing Greener Committee.

“On May 17 You Can Vote to Clean Up Pennsylvania’s Environment – Support the Growing Greener Ballot Question”

On May 17 voters in Pennsylvania will have an historic opportunity to approve an environmental bond issue that will address three of the Commonwealth’s most urgent environmental problems— acid mine drainage, the loss of working farmland and open space and cleaning up our rivers and streams.

These are not rural or suburban, western or eastern, Republican or Democratic problems. They are problems for all of us to solve and now you can help.

As former environmental agency Secretaries who served four Governors, we know first-hand the challenges these issues present to Pennsylvania.

And the cost of this initiative is small compared to its potential benefits. In fact, Gov. Rendell and Leadership in the Senate and House said they will not propose any increases in taxes or fees to pay for this bond issue.

Severely polluted water from abandoned coal mines is Pennsylvania’s number one source of water pollution-- over 2,200 miles of streams are sterile and unusable and more than 220,000 acres of abandoned mines need to be reclaimed.

These scars from past mining not only damage our environment, they often make our more rural areas of Pennsylvania unattractive for economic development.

Pennsylvania has made tremendous progress cleaning up thousands of acres of abandoned mines and hundreds of miles of streams thanks to a variety of state and federal programs, the modern coal industry and local watershed groups. But much more remains to be done.

The proposed bond issue builds on the progress we’ve made and would accelerate the pace of clean up to the benefit of hundreds of communities in our coal fields.

Between 1960 and 1990 our ten largest urban areas grew by 13 percent, but the amount of land we live on grew by 80 percent. In the process, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and open space permanently disappeared.

While Pennsylvania created the largest farmland preservation program in the United States and incentives for protecting open space, a significant portion of the funding for the farmland preservation program is coming to an end this year.

The Growing Greener bond issue on the ballot May 17 will restore this funding and help stem the loss of thousands of acres of valuable open land.

The longer we wait to preserve farmland and open space the more expensive it gets.

Pennsylvania’s streams need more help recovering from a variety of other environmental insults. Over 13,200 miles of the 83,000 miles of streams are impaired by water pollution of different types. Natural buffers along streams have been cut down and property damage has increased from flooding because natural floodplains have been eliminated.

To help solve these problems, local watershed groups, county conservation districts, businesses and local governments have partnered with state and federal agencies to promote watershed restoration projects that help eliminate nutrient runoff from farms, plant stream buffers, lower flooding potentials and restored streams that have not seen a fish in 125 years.

The bond issue on the ballot May 17 will help to dramatically expand support for projects like these in watersheds all across Pennsylvania.

The environmental problems we outline here affect every one of us because we all need clean water, farmland to grow our food and a clean, healthy environment to promote economic opportunity for our children.

While we’ve made tremendous progress in restoring our environment over the last 35 years, we’re not done yet.

As former environmental agency Secretaries who served Democratic and Republican Governors, we encourage you to vote “yes” on the environmental bond issue on May 17.

By voting, you have the opportunity to make a real difference in the future of thousands of communities all across Pennsylvania, and a cleaner environment for us all.

Clifford L. Jones

Secretary of Environmental Resources - 1979-1981 under Gov. Thornburgh

Peter S. Duncan

Secretary of Environmental Resources- 1981-1983 under Gov. Thornburgh

Nicholas DeBenedictis

Secretary of Environmental Resources- 1983-1987 under Gov. Thornburgh

Arthur A. Davis

Secretary of Environmental Resources- 1987-1995 under Gov. Casey

James M. Seif

Secretary of Environmental Protection- 1995-2001 under Gov. Ridge

John C. Oliver

Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources- 1995-2003 under Governors Ridge & Schweiker

David E. Hess

Secretary of Environmental Protection – 2001-2003 under Governors Ridge & Schweiker

For more information on the Growing Greener ballot question, visit the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s website at: www.PECPA.org .

5/6/2005