I am attending a meeting Wednesday morning between the DEP and local officials for 'clarification' regarding the intiative.  I believe that many local officials (as well as more and more home owners) are more than informed on this issue and the costs involved.  And many of us are more than aware that it IS a federal mandate being passed on, not just something the state DEP cooked up.  At the same time I do feel that the DEP has completely dropped the ball on how to comply and assist local governments with this mandate.  I'll be posting more here Wednesday or Thursday after I've heard straight from the DEP.

 

THURSDAY UPDATE:  I admit that I've had concerns about how this issue is going to hit the economy, and I figured that it's going to be bad.  I was wrong.  It's going to be worse! 

 

  The meeting was hosted by DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty.  She also had two gentlemen from the EPA and several member of the Chesapeake Bay Coalition in attendance which we heard from as well.  She began by explaining to us that the Chesapeake is in danger and then went into some detail with input from the EPA over the science used to determine this.  I get that.  My issues are not with whether the Bay has problems.  Most everyone else there was on the same page as well.  Also, while the mandate does in fact come from the federal level, the EPA and the states (which includes the DEP) developed the plans to deal with this mandate together.  I find the state attempting to blame the entire issue on the federal government a bit disingenuous.

 

  That last paragraph aside, the single biggest issue at this meeting was FUNDING.  Mostly the fact that there is none.  Or that what there is doesn't come close to covering the expenses over the next 2 to 3 years.  Once again, the DEP attempted to pass this off on the federal government.  I am not particularly happy with the feds either, but funding was never discussed when this initiative was put in place.  Maryland and Virginia both added a new state-wide tax to assist in funding their programs.  (Can't say that I agree with that approach, but it has raised funds to help out.)  Because of that about half of their expenses are being covered by the state.  Pennsylvania has done nothing. I will not place all the blame at Governor Rendell's feet because he wasn't the one that signed this bill into law, but he has been in charge since 2002 and during almost the entire negotiation process.

 

  And to top off the whole morning, we asked the EPA what assurances they could give us that this would actually improve Bay quality and that they wouldn't suddenly decide to hit us with another similar un-funded mandate like this in 2013.  The answer was that they didn't know if it would help the Bay and there are no promises to not hammer every local municipality again not far down the road.  But this was still something that needed to be done, and 5 years down the road they'll have that much more information about how the Bay works.  For some reason, that doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

  All in all, I don't honestly think I learned a whole lot of new information on Wednesday morning.  I'm still very dubious that what we are being ordered to do will have any positive effect on the situation, and I am very concerned with how this issue is going to affect the entire economy here in central Pennsyvania.  There are many families (retired and not) that are getting very close to or beyond being able to pay for everything that owning a house requires.  I still stand by my original belief that this is not the time to put yet another straw on the camel's back.  Some day soon, that one is going to break it.