Thursday, August 31, 2017

2017 Allegheny River Cleanup To Be Held Sept. 9 To 16 In Warren County Area

The 9th Annual Allegheny River Cleanup will take place from September 9 to 16 and will spend 2 days on the Conewango Creek the 2015 Pennsylvania River of the Year and 3 days on the Allegheny River the 2017 Pennsylvania River of the Year in the Warren County area.
The cleanup will take place over five days:
-- September 9: Conewango Creek (Larimer Park to Front Street, 5 Miles) — Meet at Front Street launch site in North Warren at 8:30 a.m. for registration and shuttle to Larimer Park launch site. The Front Street launch site is at the foot of Hackney Meadows Lane off of Conewango Avenue.
-- September 11: Conewango Creek (Front Street to Point Park, 3.5 Miles) — Meet at Point Park in Warren at 8:30 a.m. for registration and shuttle to the Front Street launch site in North Warren.
-- September 12: Allegheny River (Wildwood to Tidioute Boat Launch, 7.5 Miles) — Meet at Tidioute Boat Launch at 8:30 a.m. for shuttle to Wildwood. This portion of the Clean-Up includes the federally designated Courson Wilderness Island. Courson Island is part of the Allegheny Islands Wilderness, designated as such when President Ronald Reagan signed the Pennsylvania Wilderness Act into law in October of 1984. It is a 62-acre alluvial island situated about two miles north of Tidioute. (It is the island that can be clearly seen while looking north up the Allegheny River from the famous Tidioute Overlook site.) For a more detailed description of Courson Island, see page 76 in the Native Tree Society’s report, Trees and Forests of the Allegheny River Islands Wilderness and Nearby Islands, Allegheny Islands Wilderness.
-- September 15: Allegheny River (Tidioute Boat Ramp to West Hickory, 8 Miles) — Meet at West Hickory boat launch at 8:30 a.m. for registration and shuttle to Tidioute Boat Ramp. Volunteers will be briefed about island locations, trash hot spots and other information at the launch site. If you’d like to volunteer but do not want to get on the water, shore helpers will be needed beginning at 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
-- September 16:  Allegheny River (Point Park to Buckaloons, 7 Miles) — Meet at Buckaloons Recreation Area near the boat ramp at 9:00 a.m. for shuttle to Point Park in Warren. Volunteers will be briefed about trash hot spots and other information at the launch site. If you’d like to volunteer, but do not want to get on the water, shore helpers will be needed beginning at 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
So what do volunteers do? Canoers and kayakers will pick up trash as they paddle downriver. Sometimes they will need to get out along the shore to pick up objects on the riverbank — this is where muck boots or waders come in handy. When your boat is full of garbage, float to the nearest trash drop-off point.
On-shore volunteers will be needed at these points to unload boats full of “treasures” and sort recyclables from trash, and to stack tires. Other volunteers will be needed to transport all of these goodies to designated dumpsters, trailers, and storage units.
When you register, you will need to know how many people are in your party in order to reserve your canoes. Limited space is available, so don’t delay. If you do not want to canoe, we still need lots of shore helpers to help unload, sort, and stack all of the bounty of our “harvest,” once the paddlers arrive back to shore.
Be sure to show up on the right day and at the correct time and place designated for your trip. Please don’t be late as this can set off a wave of delays throughout the day.
For more information and to register, visit the 9th Annual Allegheny River Cleanup website.
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DEP Approves Water Quality Permits For Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, Air Permit Still Under Review

The Department of Environmental Protection Thursday announced it has approved the Chapter 105 and Chapter 102 permit applications for the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Project. The pipeline will transport natural gas from northeast Pennsylvania to mid-Atlantic and southern states.
“DEP undertook a thorough review of these permit applications, and factored in thousands of comments from Pennsylvania residents,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “DEP’s technical staff reviewed the comments in evaluating the revised plans and final permit conditions that must be met throughout the construction process of this pipeline.”
The project required Chapter 105 Water Obstruction and Encroachment Permit for each of the 10 counties the project crosses (Susquehanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Wyoming, Columbia, Northumberland, Lancaster, Lycoming, Clinton and Lebanon), as well as 3 Chapter 102 erosion and sediment control permit authorizations.
“Transco is required to implement new protocols for alerting homeowners of activities near their homes and water supplies. In addition, Transco must offer to pre-test private water supplies along the pipeline route so that any impacts from construction can be quickly identified and remediated,” said McDonnell.
The permits were issued with strict special conditions designed to ensure the strongest possible protections for streams and wetlands, as well as additional stipulations for landowners with private drinking water wells.
An Air Quality Plan Approval for air emissions related to construction activities in Lancaster County is still under review by DEP. There is no timeline for a decision.
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (Transco), the operator of the pipeline, will require approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin construction.
“This is not the end of DEP oversight of this project. DEP will continue to hold the project accountable to regulatory standards that protect the environment and ensure the health, public safety, and welfare of local communities,” said McDonnell.
More information, including all of the permits, visit DEP’s Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline webpage.
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House GOP Plan To Empty Environmental Funds Means Not Paying 900 Grants Already Awarded

A plan by a group of conservative House Republicans lead by Rep. Dan Moul (R-Adams) to empty environmental special funds and transfer the money to the General Fund will mean not paying communities for all or part of at least 900 grants for local projects already approved and underway over the last two years.
Another 438 applications are now pending for new grants none of which will be funded if the environmental funds are raided.
Of course they could also just take any “uncommitted” funding which means there would be no new grants from those funds.  And once they take the money it is typically never restored again because next year the state budget problems will be worse.
One way or another we may find out more details about the plan.  Rep. Moul and a group of 17 conservative legislators have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday, September 5 at 1:00 to unveil it.  The press conference will be available through the House Republican Caucus website.
ABC27 News quoted Rep. Moul  Monday evening as saying they “discovered” “pots of money” sitting in “idle accounts.”  “Why would you go borrow the money and pay interest on money and raise taxes if you have taxpayer money sitting right there?”
While Rep. Moul did not go into detail about which funds, it is very clear he and his group are looking at the list of special funds drawn up by the Commonwealth Foundation that identifies over $3 billion in funding for what the Foundation calls the “Shadow Budget Programs.”
These funds are not shadow programs at all, of course, they fund important programs ranging from public transportation, agriculture and local environmental projects.  They are in the Governor’s Executive Budget every year.
With respect to three key environmental funds-- the Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund, the Recycling Fund and the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund-- they all work on a reimbursement basis.
After being awarded a grant, a community or nonprofit must spend its own money first on the project and then seek reimbursement from its approved grant after the project is done or at critical stages.  Sometimes that can take two or three years depending on the project.
And when a community spends these dollars on projects they are employing local contractors, landscapers and other businesses.
The balances in these funds are not just sitting there.  When grants are awarded, the amount of the grants are reserved so funds are available when the reimbursement requests come in from communities.
If House Republicans succeed in emptying those accounts, that money will be gone and communities will get no reimbursements leaving them stuck with the entire cost of a local project, even though they relied on being approved for a state grant to move ahead.
At a minimum, there are 900 grants at risk now from just these three funds alone--
-- Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund
   -- May 2016: 114 Growing Greener Grants
   -- January 2015: 109 Growing Greener Grants
-- Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund
   -- Another 438 applications are pending for the next round of DCNR Community Conservation Partnership Grants
-- Recycling Fund
Also on the Commonwealth Foundation’s list are--
-- Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Fund - $66.9 million
-- Resource Enhancement and Production (Farm Conservation) Tax Credit - $10 million
One interesting note, each grant to a community or nonprofit is a contract with the state for the money.  If this House Republican plan is enacted, there will no doubt be lots of lawsuits filed to get the state to honor their end of the contract.
Rep. Moul is the same legislator who is leading an effort to all but abolish the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Grey Towers Forests & American History Conversation With Eric Rutkow Sept. 17 In Pike County

Eric Rutkow, author of American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation (Scribner, 2012) will have a conversation with Nancy Pinchot on September 17 at 11 a.m., at Grey Towers National Historic Site, Milford, Pike County, as part of the Milford Readers and Writers Festival.
The event is free and open to the public. Grey Towers is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, founder and first chief of the US Forest Service and twice Governor of Pennsylvania.
Rutkow, a writer, lawyer, and professor who teaches U.S. history at Yale University, earned the Association of American Publisher’s PROSE award for U.S. history.
He routinely speaks on trees and U.S. history before environmental, academic, and general interest groups, including appearances at Harvard, Yale, the National Arboretum, the Society of American Foresters annual convention, the New York Public Library, and NPR.
His second book, The Longest Line on the Map: The United States and the Quest to Link the Americas, will be published by Scribner in 2018. He earned his BA and PhD from Yale and his JD from Harvard.
The Milford Readers and Writers Festival aims to inspire conversations between people who love to read books and people who write them. Building on the timeless tradition of storytelling and the participatory energy of book clubs, their focus is on the readers by inviting them to share their insights, queries, and responses directly with the authors.
The next festival takes place in the historic Milford Theater and at several landmark sites around town, including Grey Towers National Historic Site, the Pike County Historical Society’s Columns Museum and the Pike County Public Library.
For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Grey Towers Heritage Association.  Click Here to sign up for updates from the Association, Like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, visit their YouTube Channel, become part of their Google+ Circle and follow them on Instagram.
  Also visit the Grey Towers Historic Site website and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation website for information on its conservation research and policy programs.  Click Here to sign up for the Institute’s regular updates.
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