Pennsylvania has 530 days (as of July 20) to put the best management practices on the ground needed to eliminate 10 million pounds of nitrogen and 212 million pounds of sediment from going into our rivers and streams to meet the 2017 Chesapeake Bay cleanup milestones.
Pennsylvania is even further behind because we did not meet the 2013 pollution reduction milestones.
In June 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported Pennsylvania exceeded its 2013 Chesapeake Bay cleanup milestone for phosphorus by 242,000 pounds, but fell short in meeting the nitrogen goal by 2 million pounds and sediment reduction milestone by nearly 116 million pounds.
If Pennsylvania doesn’t meet the milestones, it leaves EPA free to come up with its own plan on how the state can meet them, and as Rep. Garth Everett (R-Lycoming) said during DEP’s budget hearing, “It isn’t pretty.”
The question comes down to whether the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf want to yield this responsibility to the federal government.
Further Reading:
12 Maryland Legislators Urge EPA To Force PA to Meet Clean Water Commitments
No comments:
Post a Comment