DEP: Chesapeake Bay Reboot Not Ready Yet, DCNR: New PNDI Review Fee

DEP Secretary John Quigley told the Citizens Advisory Council Tuesday his plan for rebooting the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program is not done yet, but he hopes to be able to make an announcement in the near future.

Quigley said he continues to work with Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding and DCNR Secretary Cindy Dunn on the reboot.  Lots of consultation is needed internally and with stakeholders in the future, he said to make the program more effective.

There are 467 days left (as of September 21) to put practices on the ground to meet the state’s 2017 cleanup milestone-- eliminating 10 million pounds of nitrogen and 212 million pounds of sediment from going into our rivers and streams.

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.”

At his budget hearing in March, DEP Secretary John Quigley acknowledged, to his credit, Pennsylvania is not meeting its commitments to clean up Pennsylvania watersheds contributing water to the Bay and promised a plan to reboot the program to get it back on track.

Quigley and Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding reiterated their commitment to reboot Pennsylvania’s plans to meet Bay cleanup milestones at the July Chesapeake Bay Executive Council meeting.

Even by any rough measure, Pennsylvania will need to ramp up its watershed restoration programs significantly to meet its commitments.

Using the Commonwealth’s reported average rate of Chesapeake Bay Program implementation from 2009 to 2013, here’s an estimate of how much each of key measures would have to increase to meet the 2017 milestones done in April of this year:

— Forested stream buffers on farms: from 6 acres per day to over 38 acres;

— Farm conservation plan development: from 46 acres a day to over 589 acres;

— Rotational grazing practices: from 8.5 acres to roughly 135 acres a day;

— Urban stormwater infiltration practices: from 7 acres to 368 acres per day;

— Stormwater treatment wet ponds & wetlands: from 0.4 acres to 28 acres a day; and

— Dirt and gravel road repair: from 334 feet per day to over 1,411 feet per day.

New PNDI Review Fee

Ellen Shultzbarger from DCNR’s Division of Conservation, Science and Ecological Resources, gave Council a presentation on the changes coming to the PA Natural Diversity Inventory online Environmental Review Tool, including a new $40 fee for permit-related review receipts.

The new tool will be called PA Conservation Explorer and is divided into two parts-- a Conservation Planning tool where anyone can get general information on threatened, endangered and species of special concern in a project area; and the Environmental Review tool meant for project developers who need to have formal reviews done related to DEP permit applications.

There is no fee for the Conservation Planning tool, since it gives out only general information, but there will be a $40 fee for permit applicants using the Environmental Review tool for review receipts and registered to use the data.

The formal notice of the PNDI fee was published in the September 19 PA Bulletin with a 30 day comment period ending October 19.
About 16,600 DEP permit reviews are done on the PNDI Environmental Review Tool each year.

One of many upgrades to the Environmental Review tool will be the ability to upload a project to the review agencies for their further review and consultation.

DCNR expects to rollout the new tools in November with training sessions scheduled in the following months.
Shultzbarger’s presentation will be posted on the CAC Meeting webpage.

The Council’s next meeting is October 20 in Room 105 Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg starting at 10:00.

For more information, visit DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council webpage.