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Opinion - New Tools Needed to Keep Our Farms Green and Our Streams Clean
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By Matthew Ehrhart Chesapeake Bay Foundation

There has been a lot of public discussion about the water quality of our rivers and streams and why more hasn’t been done to monitor their health. Right now, Pennsylvanians have a rare opportunity to make change happen by supporting proposed legislation that will improve the health of our waterways throughout the commonwealth.

Public investments in wastewater plants, programs like Growing Greener, and initiatives of watershed groups and the agricultural community are making a difference in reducing pollution in our rivers and streams. But the task is enormous. More than 13,400 waterway miles in Pennsylvania do not meet water quality standards, often, due to agricultural and stormwater runoff. While farmers want to do their best to keep streams clean, their hands are often tied by limited resources.

A new, innovative tool introduced in the General Assembly would encourage private investment in projects to help solve some of our most difficult water quality problems. The Resource Enhancement and Protection Act of Pa (REAP) would provide transferable business or personal state tax credits to farmers and landowners to cover part of the cost of installing best management practices that will reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution going into local rivers and streams.

Tax credits worth up to 75 percent of project costs, with a maximum of $150,000 per taxpayer, would be provided to clean up barnyards, plant forested buffers, install streambank fencing and remove unstable legacy sediments from floodplains. The program would allow the tax credits to be sold and transferred to others or rolled ahead for up to 15 years. Also included is a sponsorship program that allows businesses to finance projects on farms and receive a tax credit for their investment.

Farmers are committed stewards of the land, and have repeatedly demonstrated that if given the appropriate tools, they will take action to reduce pollution. But to date, the tools have been lacking. Each year, state and federal programs that assist farmers in reducing pollution have to turn farmers away.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation believes the health of our local waterways, drinking water supplies, and the Chesapeake Bay depend, in large part, on having a healthy agricultural industry.

We believe the REAP Program offers a valuable new tool to help us address the serious water quality problems still facing us here in the Commonwealth, as well as meeting our commitments to reduce pollution flowing from the Susquehanna River into the Chesapeake Bay. REAP would take effect statewide, improving the water quality in rivers and streams throughout PA and improving and safeguarding the water supplies of the commonwealth’s citizens.

We congratulate Senators Wenger (R-Lancaster), Waugh (R-York), and O’Pake (D-Berks) and Representatives Stern (R-Blair), Hershey (R-Chester), and Daley (D-Washington), and all the sponsors for introducing REAP in Senate Bill 1286 and House Bill 2878.

Links: Chesapeake Bay Foundation Information Page on REAP

Issue NoteBook: Resource Enhancement & Protection Tax Credit Proposal


12/1/2006

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