Rep. Reichley

By Rep. Douglas Reichley

As people in the southern United States and along the eastern seaboard face another hurricane season, it is important that residents in Berks and Lehigh counties also prepare for excessive rains that can cause flooding, whether they are from the remnants of hurricanes, nor’easters, snow melt or severe storm systems of any type.

Last year, many homeowners in the Lehigh Valley were devastated by floods caused by the remainder of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan that ravaged some local communities.

In response to the problem of how to best manage storm water that contributes to flooding during torrential downpours, the House has passed legislation that will enable counties and municipalities to work together to develop comprehensive plans to divert and handle storm water.

House Bill 88, which passed the House in June and is currently assigned to the Senate Environmental Resources Committee, will enable larger counties and municipalities to develop comprehensive watershed storm water plans to help better control and manage storm water within designated watershed boundaries. This would include privately owned land, as well as federal and state-owned land.

Each township or borough has to be cognizant of the impact that its development decisions have on neighboring communities. We have witnessed on an increasingly frequent basis the problems that occur when storm water runoff crosses municipal borders. It is true that comprehensive storm water plans that span municipal and even county boundaries can be complicated and costly.

The proposal creates a mechanism to fund the implementation of cooperative storm water watershed management plans by allowing for the assessment of a stormwater management fee on all property except that land owned by governmental entities. The benefits of adopting a plan could be enormous.

In the past, storm water management planning was the sole responsibility of a county, but counties did not have the legal authority to address pre-existing storm water issues. Each municipality had to manage storm water by setting its own standards in compliance with applicable state law. Under House Bill 88, counties can choose to work together to develop and implement uniform storm water management practices that best meet the specific needs of each community’s residents.

Berks, Lehigh and other eligible counties should look into the advantages and disadvantages of House Bill 88 so we can prevent further property damage associated with flooding. Flooding causes persistent problems for residents along Spring Creek in Lower Macungie Township and in many other areas within the Lehigh and Schuylkill river watersheds in Berks and Lehigh counties. With this new optional comprehensive watershed plan at our disposal, we can begin to cooperatively work to improve storm water management and reduce flood-related damage.

It should also be noted that the new Growing Greener law will allocate $230 million to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for watershed protection, acid mine remediation, oil and gas well plugging, advanced energy projects, geological hazard mitigation and brownfields reclamation.

The DEP may administer grants to municipalities and counties to assist or reimburse them for costs in preparing comprehensive watershed storm water plans. The grants, however, cannot exceed 75 percent of the allowable costs for the preparation of storm water plans and these grants are in addition to grants that are already allocated for similar purposes to counties and municipalities by the federal government.

Rep. Douglas Reichley (R) represents parts of Berks and Lehigh counties and can be contact at 610-965-9933, or by sending e-mail to: dreichle@pahousegop.com .

7/29/2005