http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-hb1839-to-create-a-statewide-bottle-bill August 28, 2007 Dear Representative, On behalf of PennEnvironment’s citizen members, I am writing to ask you to become an original cosponsor legislation introduced by Rep. Lisa Bennington (HB 1839) that will create a statewide Bottle Bill in Pennsylvania. You should have received a co-sponsorship memo from Rep. Bennington on this subject last week. Under this proposal, uncollected deposits from bottles and cans that are purchased in the Commonwealth would be directed to fund the reauthorization of Pennsylvania’s Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund. Since the first Bottle Bill was passed in Oregon in 1971, the programs have been shown to be an effective way to divert trash away from landfills and incinerators. Currently, 1 in 4 Americans live in states that have enacted Bottle Bill legislation to promote recycling, reduce landfill trash and limit litter in their communities. Pennsylvania would garner an additional benefit from the passage of this legislation—a dedicated and sustainable funding source for the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund (HSCA). Currently, 37 counties in Pennsylvania are home to abandoned industrial waste sites that scar our landscape, pollute our environment and drag down our local economies. With the passage of Rep. Bennington’s legislation, we will be able to continue to address the cleanup of these toxic sites and guarantee that the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund will not run out of money in the near future. This legislation has broad support across the Commonwealth. Already, this proposal has gained the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, as well as many of the state’s largest environmental groups. For these reasons, I hope that you will support this important legislation. Thank you in advance for your consideration. As always, do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you have on this or other environmental issues. I look forward to continuing our work together to protect Pennsylvania’s environment. Sincerely, David Masur PennEnvironment Director http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-hb1839-to-create-a-statewide-bottle-bill Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:09:37 -0600 http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-organic-farming-in-pennsylvania February 6, 2008 Dear Representative Kessler,On behalf of PennEnvironment’s citizen members, I am writing to support your legislation to promote organic agricultural practices in Pennsylvania. As we’ve seen in study after study, organic farming offers numerous benefits for our health and environment. This includes reducing the use of chemicals and fertilizers; healthier food products for consumers; promoting more energy-efficient agricultural practices which reduce fuel consumption and reduce emissions; and reducing g through no-till practices. PennEnvironment believes that protecting and promoting the Commonwealth’s longstanding history of working family farms is also critical to preserving our environment and natural heritage. This includes PennEnvironment’s work to increase funding for agricultural preservation programs, advancing clean biofuels and supporting the increase in wind and solar energy production in Pennsylvania. At the same time, PennEnvironment believes that it is essential to promote agricultural practices that will go even further to protect our environment and public health. It is for this reason that we support your legislation to offer more opportunities for Pennsylvania’s farmers who are interested in organic farming and who want to transition into these practices. Not only are these practices good for public health and our environment, they are often economically beneficial to a farmer’s bottom line. The organic food market is the fastest growing sector of the agricultural economy, allowing farmers to get top-dollar for their product. And by reducing pesticide, chemical and fuel use our farmers can see a direct economic benefit. For these reasons, PennEnvironment supports your legislation to assist family farmers in Pennsylvania who would like to convert to organic farming but face the potential short-term economic hurdle that comes with moving from conventional to organic farming during the required thirty-six month organic certification period. Thank you in advance for your consideration. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have about this or other issues on which PennEnvironment is working. I can be reached either by phone (215-732-5897) or by email (DMasur@PennEnvironment.org). I look forward to continuing our work together to protect Pennsylvania’s environment and natural heritage. Sincerely, David Masur, Director PennEnvironment http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-organic-farming-in-pennsylvania Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:05:14 -0600 http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-hb934-to-improve-recycling October 22, 2007 Dear Representative, On behalf of PennEnvironment's citizen members, I am writing to ask you to support HB934 in tomorrow's Environmental Resources and Energy committee meeting. HB 934 is essentail to addressing recent court decisions that threaten the future of Pennsylvania's county-level recycling programs. These recycling programs are essential for reducing trash and household hazardous waste from being disposed of in state landfills and incinerators. At the same time, these programs play a critical role in promoting the most efficient reuse of recyclable materials. Unfortunately, a recent decision by the Commonwealth Court (Waste Haulers Association, et al v. County of Northumberland et al) ruled that Pennsylvania?s counties do not have the legal authority to impose fees on trash collected within the counties' borders as a method to fund their countywide recycling programs. Moreover, this same court decision also ruled that counties do not have the authority to correct this funding problem. This court decision has forced many of Pennsylvania's county-level recycling programs to close their doors since they will no longer have a funding source to pay for their important work. For this reason, it is essential for the state legislature to take steps to reinstate the ability of county officials to raise funds in order to finance their local recycling programs. For example, Crawford County generated approximately one third of its recycling funding from county administrative fees. The loss of this revenue will result in the elimination of several recycling programs including the county's Household Hazardous Waste diversion, electronic waste collection and county-wide recycling education programs. In Mercer County, lack of funding may lead county officials to maintain only four recycling depot sites and layoff of all staff except a fiscal coordinator and a driver. The county will face a deficit of over $120,000 as well as a greatly reduced recycling program, unless they are able to come up with a new source of funding. In Cumberland County, officials charged $2.50 per ton and generate roughly $500,000 per year to fund 80% of their county's recycling program -- all lost unless the state takes action. Universally, the loss of the administrative fee will force counties to reduce their recycling programs or face budget deficits. For these reasons, PennEnvironment calls upon the legislature to take immediate steps to tackle this important issue and ensure that Pennsylvania continues to have vibrant and successful recycling programs at the county-level. This can be achieved by passing HB934. Please do not hesitate to contact me by email (DMasur@PennEnvironment.org) or by phone (215-732-5897 or 267-303-8292) with any questions about this legislation or other environmental issues. I look forward to continuing our work together to protect Pennsylvania's environment. Sincerely, David Masur, Director PennEnvironment http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/support-hb934-to-improve-recycling Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:28:29 -0500 http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/testimony-supporting-the-reauthorization-of-the-hazardous-sites-cleanup-act-hsca Good morning. My name is David Masur, and I’m the Director for PennEnvironment. PennEnvironment is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization and the largest state-level, citizen-based environmental group in the Commonwealth. I’d like to start out by thanking Representative Milne and the members of the Republican Policy Committee for inviting me to speak on the important issue of reauthorizing Pennsylvania’s Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund—known as HSCA—at today’s informational hearing. I’ll make my remarks brief. HSCA is Pennsylvania’s cornerstone program for cleaning up abandoned and contaminated toxic dumpsites. This program is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection (PA-DEP), which is predicting that HSCA will run out of funding by the end of the calendar year—unless immediate steps are taken by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Gov. Rendell to reauthorize this much-needed program. As we all know, Pennsylvania’s extensive industrial history has left a legacy of toxic pollution that threatens the Commonwealth’s environment and the public health of its residents. This includes hundreds of abandoned industrial waste sites found across the Commonwealth. These sites scar our landscape, drag down our local economies, endanger the health of local communities and threaten our environment. Many of the pollutants found at these toxic dumpsites are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other health problems. Unfortunately, until these hazardous waste sites are cleaned up the toxic chemicals will continue to leach into our soil and groundwater, and evaporate into the air and into our environment. HSCA has been the state’s primary method for cleaning up these dumpsites—and it has been hugely successful. To date, the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund has cleaned up hundreds of contaminated dumpsites and created and retained thousands of jobs. Still, there are hundreds of sites—in southeastern Pennsylvania alone—that are in need of cleanup and therefore in need of a fully funded HSCA program. As you are probably well aware, HSCA has three main components: Funding Pennsylvania’s portion of the federal Superfund program. Superfund is responsible for cleaning up the worst-of-the-worst toxic dumpsites in America, of which Pennsylvania has the second highest number in the nation only behind New Jersey; Funding the cleanup of contaminated sites that don’t qualify as Superfund sites; And funding the state’s response to toxic chemical spills and accidents in our communities, on our roads and in the workplace. Unfortunately, HSCA is set to expire at the end of this month—even though hundreds of contaminated sites still require remediation and cleanup. If we don’t work aggressively—in a bipartisan manner—to reauthorize this program, the funding necessary to clean up toxic pollution will dry up and force cleanup efforts to slow down—or worse yet come to a complete standstill; our first responders and hazmat teams will not have the funding necessary to tackle accidents and threats facing their communities; and brownfield redevelopment could come to a grinding halt across the Commonwealth. PennEnvironment applauds Rep. Milne for the introduction of his legislation, HB2039 to tackle this issue. We also applaud the other legislators including Rep. Steil, Shapiro, Vereb, Taylor, Rowe and others who have introduced legislation to try and resolve this important issue. Furthermore, I would like to personally thank the members of the House who worked so tirelessly over the summer to ensure that we didn’t raid the Keystone Fund—rob Peter to pay Paul—in order to fund HSCA. PennEnvironment supports a two-tiered solution to this problem. Step one, unfortunately, is just doing the necessary triage to keep the program running. This includes passing a stop-gap funding proposal in order for HSCA to remain solvent during the remainder of the fiscal year. Step two is the more complicated and contentious piece—coming up with a dedicated, sustainable funding source for the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund. Everyone agrees on the importance of HSCA. Everyone does not agree on how to pay for it, or if it should have a long-term, dedicated funding source. First and foremost, PennEnvironment supports a dedicated, sustainable funding mechanism for HSCA. Moreover, PennEnvironment supports a funding system based upon the “Polluter Pays” concept. This would require the industrial sectors that engage in the risky business producing, transporting and distributing toxic chemicals and hazardous materials in the Commonwealth to fund the legacy of accidents and dumpsites that their industries leave in the Commonwealth. Polluters—not taxpayers—should foot the bill for the cleanup of these programs, and it should be an accepted expense of doing this type of business in Pennsylvania. Polling shows that voters in a bi-partisan fashion support making polluters pay for HSCA and toxic cleanup. An independent poll done during the summer of 2005 showed that nearly 80% of Pennsylvanians supported policies and increasing taxes for businesses that pollute in the Commonwealth. In closing, I again want to thank Rep. Milne for inviting me to today’s event. I look forward to working with you all to reauthorize HSCA and ensure its long-term success in the Commonwealth. http://www.pennenvironment.org/legislature/testimony/environmental-health/healthy-communities/testimony-supporting-the-reauthorization-of-the-hazardous-sites-cleanup-act-hsca Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:56:11 -0600