An article in today's Harrisburg Patriot News raised the issue of what new governor's accomplish in the first year of their administrations. Here's a head start on comparing the second year of a governor's tenure with the environmental accomplishments during the second year of the Ridge-Schweiker Administration--
-- Pennsylvania officially adopts a goal of "zero pollution" in all environmental programs; DEP creates first Office of Pollution Prevention & Compliance Assistance (January)
-- DEP fields more than 350 employees to help respond to the Blizzard-Flood of 1996 and establishes a special Flood Recovery Center on its website (January).
-- DEP receives recommendations from first stakeholder group on Municipal Waste and Recycling regulation and program changes (January).
-- DEP creates Wetlands Replacement Fund and Wetlands Registry to encourage landowner preservation and creation of wetlands (January).
-- DEP wins 1996 ECOS Editor’s Choice Award for Public Participation and communications programs with weekly Update newsletter and website from the Council of State Governments (March).
-- DEP, DCNR, Education Agriculture, Penn State co-sponsor first "Building A Sustainable Future in Pennsylvania- A Conference on Sustainable Development" in Harrisburg (March).
-- DEP leads first Pennsylvania delegation to the Globe ’96 environmental technology conference in Canada to promote Pennsylvania’s environmental technology companies. (March).
-- The Host Municipal Inspector Program for municipal waste landfills and incinerators renewed (July).
-- Gov. Ridge becomes first Pennsylvania Governor to chair the Council of Great Lakes Governors (July).
-- Environmental Hearing Board reports backlog of appeals of DEP actions has been eliminated (August).
-- DEP adopts the first comprehensive agency Public Participation Policy to encourage effective public involvement in developing policies and regulations (August).
-- Gov. Ridge orders overhaul of municipal waste permit system by Executive Order (August).
-- The Governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey join U.S. EPA in pledging to act to protect Delaware River Estuary (September).
-- DEP appoints Diane Wilson first director of Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program (September).
-- The 25 winners of first Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence eliminated 2.8 billion pounds of pollution while achieving annual savings of $9.7 million in operating expenses and more than $1.8 million in onetime capital costs (October).
-- Gov. Ridge joins Chesapeake Bay states in Bay-wide pledge to create 2,010 miles of streamside buffers by the year 2010 (October).
-- The Pennsylvania Center for Environmental Education created by Gov. Ridge (December).
-- 81.6 percent of the stream miles assessed by DEP in 1996 fully support stream uses and, therefore, the Federal "fishable/swimmable" goal. Partial support of uses is reported in just over 7.6 percent of those streams assessed. Water uses are not being supported in just over 2,647 miles or 10.8 percent of those assessed. A total of 24,482 of Pennsylvania's 53,962 miles of streams have been assessed for this report. Although the assessments do not include all streams, it is believed, based on all available information, that many of the remaining 29,480 miles of Pennsylvania streams support uses. (DEP Water Quality Assessment Report, 1996)
-- Gov. Tom Ridge received the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Water Companies' annual James McGirr Kelly Award for Excellence for his efforts to provide a safe and reliable water supply for Pennsylvanians. (July)
-- 1996 Land Recycling Program annual report. (July)
-- Regulatory Basic Initiative one year later report. (October)
-- The Waste Tire Recycling Act was passed which provided funding to cleanup and recycle over 24 million waste tires from abandoned tire piles through 2002 through grants and enforcement actions. The act was amended in 2002 to add the Waste Tire Haulers Registration Program. (December)
-- 1996 first year of zero fatalities in underground anthracite and industrial minerals mines in Pennsylvania. (January, 1997)
Here's a list of first year environmental accomplishments during the Ridge-Schweiker Administration.
