DEP Secretary John Quigley told the York Daily Record editorial board Monday Pennsylvania will miss its 2017 commitments to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.
“We’re going to miss our 2017 goals,” he said simply and noted this is a problem the Wolf Administration inherited.
He followed up by saying there is a need to reboot the Chesapeake Bay Program and noted he has been reaching out to all Bay stakeholders to develop the revised plan from “square one.”
Among other things, he said, DEP needs to get more data about the practices farmers already have on the ground.
“We also need more resources,” said Quigley. “Over the last 20 years Pennsylvania has spent $4 billion cleaning up the Bay. The average cost-share BMP (best management practice) is $45,000 to $55,000. There are a lot of farmers for whom a $45-$55,000 expenditure would put them out of business.
“Gov. Wolf campaigned on the need for a Growing Greener III to put more resources into BMPs and to help the agriculture community,” said Quigley. “At the same time there needs to be an expectation that farmers will do the right thing.
“Really it’s not about the (Chesapeake) Bay, it’s about water quality in Pennsylvania,” said Quigley. “We all have a responsibility to take ownership and responsibility for Pennsylvania’s water quality.”
In response to a question, Quigley said the work in York County on reducing nutrient pollution should be commended. He said he would like to see that model applied statewide.
He said he hoped to announce a new Chesapeake Bay Plan before the end of the year.
Pennsylvania would have had to put practices on the ground to eliminate 10 million pounds of nitrogen and 212 million pounds of sediment from going into our rivers and streams-- in the next 452 days in order to meet the 2017 milestone.
Pennsylvania is even further behind because the state 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.
The question is what position the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other stakeholders will take on Pennsylvania not meeting its milestone commitments.
Click Here to watch the video of the York Daily Record interview. (The comments on the Chesapeake Bay come at minute 42.)
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