Ariel Hegedus
Clean Water Associate, PennEnvironment
My name is Ariel Hegedus,
and I am the Clean Water Associate with PennEnvironment. We appreciate the opportunity
to submit comments before the Committee today regarding the Commonwealth's water
and wastewater infrastructure needs. PennEnvironment is a statewide environmental
advocacy organization with over 13,000 citizen members, working to protect Pennsylvania's
water, air and open spaces.
Water quality and wastewater
management are vitally important to the economy, environment and public health
of the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has a significant number of
aging water treatment systems that are near the end of their effective lives,
and pose a serious threat. Every year, billions of gallons of sewage escape
from overflowing sewers and malfunctioning systems, entering our streams, rivers,
lakes and groundwater. The people of Pennsylvania have acted to remedy these
problems, and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $250 million bond to improve
water and wastewater infrastructure. PennEnvironment encourages the General
Assembly to enforce the public's vote and apply the funding where it is most
needed, in improving existing failing infrastructures.
In addressing this issue,
the General Assembly can look to its own past findings for reference. In November,
2001, the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation
Committee released a Report on Combined Sewer Overflows in Pennsylvania. Also,
Pennsylvania joined the EPA and other states in 1983, 1987, and 2000, in signing
agreements to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem, specifically
requiring Pennsylvania to significantly decrease the Commonwealth's nutrient
loads flowing into the Chesapeake watershed. These documents show that allocation
of current funds is most urgently needed to repair existing, failing water treatment
systems.
Contained in the 2001 report
were findings that Pennsylvania is home to a significant number of aging, deteriorating
water treatment systems that pose a serious threat to the environment, public
health and local economies. Currently, because of unreliable and polluted water
supplies and inadequate wastewater systems, 500,000 residents in Southwestern
Pennsylvania alone are at risk for gastrointestinal illnesses; particularly
at risk are the young, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.
The 2001 report found that Pennsylvania actually ranks first in the country
in the number of combined sewer overflow (CSO) outfalls, which contain a mix
of toxic materials, storm water, and untreated human and industrial waste. In
2001, the estimated cost to remedy the CSO problem and to repair additional
wastewater and drinking systems statewide was $11 billion.
The Joint Committee recommended
that the Commonwealth fund the upgrades and capital improvements for CSOs through
the issuance of state secured bonds. It also recommended that CSO discharges
are inventoried and prioritized based on water quality impact, in order to target
those areas most damaged for priority funding.
Although Pennsylvania committed
to significantly reducing nutrient loads that flow into the Chesapeake Bay watershed,
the Chesapeake Bay Commission estimated in 2003 that Pennsylvania has only committed
8 percent of the funds needed to meet its nutrient reduction obligations. Not
surprisingly, the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program found in 2002 that 92 percent
of the wastewater load of nitrogen from Pennsylvania sewage treatment plants
in the Bay watershed is discharged at unacceptable levels; this excess nitrogen
and phosphorous impairs local water quality, endangering public health and creating
a "dead zone" that stretches for hundreds of miles.
Voting to remedy these problems,
on April 27, 2004, Pennsylvania voters approved (by a 67-33 percent margin)
a $250 million water/sewer bond to improve water and wastewater management facilities.
The Pennsylvania public did not vote to use the funding from the bond towards
subsidizing new development in areas that were previously undeveloped. The referendum
question did not limit nor prioritize funding to projects of economic development.
The House has unanimously
passed an amended version of S. B. 1102. This legislation prudently and effectively
allocates the $250 million in funding to remedy urgent, existing problems. PennEnvironment
applauds the House for these amendments which are consistent with the ballot
question that was approved by Pennsylvania voters, and we urge you to work with
your colleagues in the Senate to continue this excellent progress on this issue.
The General Assembly should
build upon the work that has already been done, and honor its commitments and
the public's ballot question vote in support of the $250 million water/sewer
bond. The funding should go towards fixing urgent, critical upgrades and meeting
existing commitments to the Chesapeake watershed, and should not go to subsidizing
new infrastructure in previously undeveloped areas.
Specifically, the current
and future funding should be used for critical upgrades of existing sewer and
water systems that threaten public health and water quality. This includes repairing
CSO and SSO (Sanitary Sewer Overflow) problems. All combined and sanitary sewage
discharges should receive treatment. This also includes the construction of
sewer or water systems where public health issues can only be resolved by providing
such systems, and should not include development on greenfields. This should
also include alternative approaches to addressing CSO and SSO issues, such as
decentralized treatment of wastewater. And finally, in order to help meet commitments
to the Chesapeake watershed, the Commonwealth should install Nutrient Reduction
Technology (NRT) at municipal sewage treatment plants.
We also recommend that the most prudent system for distributing the funds would
be through PennVest's already established procedures and systems, including
the existing policies discouraging funding of projects that promote greenfield
development.
In conclusion, PennEnvironment
urges the General Assembly to facilitate the most prudent and positive investment
in the Commonwealth's environment, public health and economy, through meeting
the urgent need of upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure in a manner consistent
with the ballot question approved by Pennsylvania voters.
Thank you, and please do
not hesitate to contact me at (215) 732-5897 with any follow-up questions to
this testimony.
