Your article “Farmers fear bay cleanup costs” outlined concerns that farm families have, but fell short on explaining the process.
EPA is under a court order to develop a science- based pollution budget for the region and is already moving to utilize their existing enforcement authority. Pennsylvania has one final chance to decide how to meet the pollution reduction goals and develop a strategy that fits the commonwealth. I urge everyone to make sure their voice is heard in that process.
Everyone will have to do more.
Legislation pending in Congress is critically important. The Chesapeake Clean Water Act would provide significant new funding to address urban and suburban runoff, as well as providing up to $96 million in technical assistance to farmers to address the Chesapeake and more than 7,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s impaired streams. In addition, it would initiate an interstate trading program that could bring more than $100 million annually in new revenue to Pennsylvania farms. Once a farm has met and exceeded environmental requirements, the farmer is eligible to sell credits for additional pollution reduction on the farm. Reducing pollution from agriculture is generally more cost effective than from other sources, so farmers will be able to sell the credits for significantly less than what a local government would pay to reduce the same amount of pollution from stormwater. Urban centers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Virginia could fund conservation efforts on Pennsylvania farms that improve local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.
Clean water for all Pennsylvanians will only be achieved when accountability is coupled with resources. The Chesapeake Clean Water Act achieves this. Senator Specter is on the committee that will vote on this legislation, and the Commonwealth needs his support to help fund the cost of the pollution reductions that will soon be mandated.
Matt Ehrhart,
Harrisburg
--Matt Ehrhart is Pennsylvania executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Letters
Clean water
- Letters
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Unconcerned lawmaker
Republican Representative Kurt Masser's leadership and support of Governor Tom Corbett's agenda have proven to be nothing short of a disaster for everyone from senior citizens to the children statewide and locally.
- Accountability
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Comic relief
Yet again, the Northumberland County commissioners have supplied -- unintentionally I can only hope -- comic relief in these troubled times for our county.
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Belonging here
This morning, as I was leaving the Sunbury Islamic Center with a group of moms and kids from our Sunday school, someone drove by and screamed out their car window to us: "Go back to where you belong."
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Transportation taxes
On May 22, the state House voted on HB 1100. The Democrat-sponsored bill exempted the sale of airplanes, airplane parts and airplane repairs from the 6 percent state sales tax.
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Stepping up for river
I represent a group of 22 retired state Department of Environmental Protection professionals who have more than 600 years of combined service in managing all aspects of the commonwealth's water quality and pollution control programs.
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Catalyst for study
The Susquehanna River, in many ways, unifies our region. Yet this vital ecological and economic engine, and the source of drinking water for millions, has been increasingly showing signs of distress.
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Access to closed school
As a member of the New Berlin Borough Council, I am interested in maintaining access to the New Berlin Elementary School property for the citizens of the New Berlin community.
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Critical period
More than two years ago, Sunbury native Ashley Spotts received a life-saving lung transplant due to cystic fibrosis (CF) and diabetes. Pennsylvania Cystic Fibrosis, Inc. (PACFI) established the Ashley's Angels Transplant Fund to help the family with medical expenses, and area individuals and families responded by donating to the fund and/or having fundraisers.
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Tough to stop a train
To add a bit of perspective to the recent accident in Milton, as well as subsequent reporting and editorial comments, let's keep in mind that a train cannot overcome the immutable laws of physics.
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Unconcerned lawmaker
