On April 25, Lancaster Clean Water Partners wrote a letter to members of the General Assembly from Lancaster County opposing efforts to freeze state funding for county conservation districts, local farm conservation and environmental restoration projects.

The letter refers to legislation-- House Bill 1822-- passed by Republicans in the House last week freezing new grant commitments from the Conservation District Fund, Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund, Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Fund and more.

The bill is now in the Senate for consideration.  Read more here.

The group joins others opposed to the measure like the PA Association of Conservation Districts, PA State Grange, 11 major fishing and hunting groups, PA Land Trust Association, PA Recreation & Park Society, PA Parks & Forests Foundation, the PA Environmental Council,  PA Municipal Authorities Association and many others.

The Partners’ letter said-- “Freezing these funds will be devastating to Lancaster’s economy, communities, and efforts to improve the health of our local streams. We ask you to not support the passage of this bill in the Senate.

“Lancaster County has already put in an enormous amount of energy to meet the 2025 Total Daily Maximum Load (TDML) requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“These 2025 requirements are not going away because of COVID-19 or rapid defunding. When 2025 arrives, COVID19 will be gone but massive amounts of water quality improvement demands will remain in Lancaster and the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Without continued support, Lancaster farmers, businesses and municipalities will be left behind paying the heaviest price.”

“Additionally, cutting or diverting these funds would significantly stifle Pennsylvania’s recovery from the COVID-19 shutdown just at the time people and small businesses need an economic shot in the arm.

“The work that can be done to clean up our county streams is not just an environmental concern, it is a significant economic development opportunity for Lancaster County.

In addition to Lancaster Clean Water Partners, these individuals and organizations support the letter--

-- Allyson Gibson, Lancaster Clean Water Partners

-- Jeff Swinehart, Lancaster Farmland Trust

-- Peter Hughes, Red Barn Consulting

-- Chris Thompson, Lancaster County Conservation District

-- Heather Valudes, Lancaster Chamber

-- Phil Wenger, Lancaster Conservancy

-- Craig Lehman, Lancaster County Commissioner

-- Joellyn Warren, Lancaster County Clean Water Consortium

-- John Cox, Cox Consulting

-- Lisa Riggs, Economic Development Company of Lancaster County

Lancaster Clean Water Partners are urging individuals and groups to contact their local legislators to express their opposition to this legislation.  Click Here for more information.

The full text of the letter follows--

An alarm went off in Lancaster County communities this week with the passage of House Bill 1822. The alarm is still furiously sounding, causing panic, confusion, and disappointment.

“The bill, as passed in the House, would freeze any contracts for new expenditures from a series of environmental and other funds including the County Conservation District Fund, Keystone Recreation, Park & Conservation Fund, Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener), the Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Fund, Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA), Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority Fund, and PA Infrastructure Bank funds.

“Freezing these funds will be devastating to Lancaster’s economy, communities, and efforts to improve the health of our local streams. We ask you to not support the passage of this bill in the Senate.

“Lancaster County has already put in an enormous amount of energy to meet the 2025 Total Daily Maximum Load (TDML) requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“These 2025 requirements are not going away because of COVID-19 or rapid defunding.

“When 2025 arrives, COVID19 will be gone but massive amounts of water quality improvement demands will remain in Lancaster and the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Without continued support, Lancaster farmers, businesses and municipalities will be left behind paying the heaviest price.

“Additionally, cutting or diverting these funds would significantly stifle Pennsylvania’s recovery from the COVID-19 shutdown just at the time people and small businesses need an economic shot in the arm.

“The work that can be done to clean up our county streams is not just an environmental concern, it is a significant economic development opportunity for Lancaster County.

“It is a defense against further federal regulatory intrusion into our development activities and our agriculture economy.

“Our Conservation District is necessary for our farmers and for moving development projects along.

“Effectively, this amendment would put county conservation districts out of business at a time when their services are needed most to help farmers and landowners with projects that will help Pennsylvania’s economy recover.

“Districts depend on state support from the Conservation District Fund to pay a significant portion of their operating costs to provide vital conservation services to farmers and landowners and to issue permits for new land development projects.

“In addition to the impacts on our agricultural community, these proposed approaches would severely curtail our ability to make and keep streams clean by compromising years of efforts to protect in tact forests and forested riparian buffers, setting clean water efforts back substantially.

“It takes an average of 5 years of working with owners to get a forest protection project to settlement.

“To have funding pulled at the last stage will destroy these efforts (and investments already made). These deals are time sensitive and holding them hostage to calls to reopen shows a lack of understanding of the role of forests in clean water and also the role they play in increased demand for publicly accessible forests in a pandemic.

“As our legislator, your responsibility is to uphold the values of the people, and act on our best interest.

“Think about our county and what is best for our communities.

“When the pandemic passes, our streams will still be unhealthy and highly polluted.

“When the pandemic passes, we will need our farmers more than ever.

“We need these continued economic investments now in order to come out of this situation as strong as possible. The funding cuts are immediately contrary to that.

“We ask you to not support the passage of this bill.

Sincerely,  The Lancaster Clean Water Partners

Click Here for a copy of the letter.

Lancaster At The Epicenter

Lancaster County is at the epicenter of efforts to meet Pennsylvania’s obligations to clean up its rivers and streams to meet Chesapeake Bay cleanup requirements.  The County, alone, is responsible for making more than 20 percent of the needed reductions in nutrient and sediment pollution.

Lancaster Clean Water Partners has demonstrated remarkable leadership in developing a plan to meet these obligations, pulling together local resources, local partners from all sectors of the community and making projects happen on the ground.

The action taken by Republicans in the House puts the Partners’ goal of-- Making Lancaster’s Streams Clean and Clear In Our Generation-- at risk.

For more information, visit the Lancaster Clean Water Partners website.  Click Here for their message urging residents to contact their legislators to oppose this legislation.

[Editor’s Note: $172 Million Just Sitting There: The Senate and House are still sitting on a $172 million surplus in their own operating accounts, but they don’t seem ready to repurpose the money to help taxpayers and real people during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Read more here.

[Sacrifice is good… for other people in their view, apparently.

[Click Here to read more about "legislative privilege" and hiding how the General Assembly spends taxpayer money.]

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Related Articles:

-- House Republicans Pass Bill To Freeze Funding For County Conservation Districts, Local Parks, Farm Conservation, Watershed Restoration Projects; Will Hurt Local Economies

-- PA Conservation District Assn.: House Republican Effort To Freeze Funding For County Conservation Districts Will Shut Them Down, Hurt Local Economies

-- May 3-9 County Conservation Districts Week Overshadowed By Lawmaker Efforts To Freeze, Shutdown Conservation District Funds

-- PA State Grange Farm Organization Opposes Proposed Freeze On Conservation District, Local Farm, Restoration Project Funding

-- 11 PA Fishing, Hunting Groups Urge Lawmakers To Oppose Freeze On Local Farm Conservation, Environmental Restoration Project Funding

-- PA Land Trust Assn. Says House Republican Effort To Prohibit State Expenditures On Conservation Districts, Local Conservation Projects 'Insanity'

-- PA Recreation & Park Society Opposes Republican Efforts To Freeze Funding For Local Park, Recreation, Conservation Projects

-- PA Parks & Forests Foundation Urges Lawmakers To Oppose Freeze On Recreation, Conservation Funding Addressing Imminent Health Threats, Help Economy Recover

-- PA Environmental Council: Almost All Funds Targeted By Republican Freeze Support Local Environmental, Conservation Efforts

---- PA Municipal Authorities Assn, 19 Waste Authorities Oppose Proposed Freeze On Recycling Funding

-- Op-Ed: State Government Is Ignoring Pennsylvania’s Constitutional Right To A Clean Environment For Generations Yet To Come - Ron Evans, PA Environmental Defense Foundation

-- Op-Ed: My Fellow Conservatives Are Out Of Touch On The Environment - Fmr. Gov. Tom Ridge

[Posted: April 27, 2020]

5/4/2020