Harry Campbell, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Pennsylvania Executive Director Friday issued an urgent statement to Gov. Tom Corbett and Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
In February attorneys general from 21 states filed a brief opposing the regional efforts of the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint, and in support of the Farm Bureau and other large agricultural interests, as well as the National Homebuilders Association. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a party to the lawsuit, defending the EPA.
In response, seven cities, including Philadelphia, Virginia’s Attorney General, and the National Parks Conservation Association along with 26 other environmental groups from around the country, are weighing in for clean water.
“Today, we urge Gov. Corbett and Attorney General Kane to make a commitment to the Commonwealth’s rivers and streams by signing a “friend of the court brief” in support of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, a plan that Pennsylvania helped create and has been successfully implementing. We cannot allow these investments to be derailed.
“Pennsylvania may not touch the Chesapeake Bay, but our connection to this ‘National Treasure,’ through the Susquehanna River, which contributes nearly half of all the fresh water entering the Bay, is unique. Flowing past farms, forests, and our communities – the Susquehanna River is the Bay. Our responsibilities, and the positive outcomes of the Blueprint, lie here at home and downstream as well.
“This effort is about clean water, which is vital to our communities, our farmers, and our industries. We will leave a legacy of clean water for our children and future generations. The Blueprint is working.”
