The Environmental Quality Board Tuesday voted 15 to 1 to accept a recommendation by the Department of Environmental Protection to keep the existing water quality classification of the Perkiomen Creek Watershed in Berks, Montgomery and Lehigh counties, but allow the petitioners to resubmit a new petition without waiting for two years as required by Board policy.

A rulemaking petition submitted by the Delaware Riverkeeper in 2006 asked for the watershed to be redesignated Exceptional Value.

The final vote came after 90 minutes of discussion and after a motion was defeated 10 to 6 to keep the petition open record open for another 12 months to allow the petitioners to submit additional, updated information to justify their request.

All parties in the discussion agreed DEP and petitioners were working hard to gather the best available data to evaluate the petition.  DEP also prepared a comment/response document after recent public comment period was held to gather more information on the potential reclassification.

DEP’s recommendation and supporting documents said the aquatic and water quality data did not meet the requirements for a stream to be considered High Quality or Exceptional Value.

For more information, visit the Environmental Quality Board webpage.  The next meeting of the EQB will be on May 21.  The April meeting is canceled.

3/24/2014