Pollution UpDate
20 March 98
"Pollution UpDate" is a publication dedicated to the reporting of timely environmental news. Environmental activists with story ideas or comments can e-mail gateway@rayproffitt.org. I'd like to thank the readers of Pollution UpDate for their comments and suggestions, and DEP for giving us plenty to write about.
DEP Two-Faced on Citizen Monitoring
DEP's David Hess has been spreading the word that "House Democrats" want to end DEP's spending money on citizen monitoring. Let me say that I think citizen monitoring is a good idea, and Rep. Italo Cappabianca's (D-Erie) amendment is a bad idea. And before Mr. Hess gets on here and tries to divert attention by accusing me once again of being non-appreciative of citizens' efforts, I want to extend my gratitude to all the citizens that care enough to give up their free time to monitor the environmental health of Pennsylvania.
Let's examine how DEP treats citizens' monitoring groups. Last September, DEP sent out a questionaire about the "303(d)" list. That's a list of the impaired waters of the state. The list must be compiled every two years, and the 1998 list is due to EPA on April 1, 1998, a very fitting date. DEP was looking for data last fall, and sent out the questionaire to a number of other agencies, watershed groups, citizens' monitoring groups and others. Once the list is approved, DEP must conduct "Total Maximum Daily Load" determinations, or an assessment of how much pollution can be dumped into our waters. That load, the "TMDL," then gets divvied up between all the pollution sources. DEP ignored doing those TMDLs for years, and EPA let them get away with it (sounds like antidegradation!). EPA got sued and settled, and as a result, DEP has completed a couple of TMDLs (they are hardly the watershed assessment they ought to do, but that's another story).
DEP put out their list for public comment at the end of February, and comments on the list are due to them by March 30, 1998 (they have to get the list to EPA on April 1, so that gives them one (1) day to assess the comments they receive, there's that date again. Remember how Mr. Hess always tells you how much they value public comments? How carefully do you think they will read the comments in one day?.
Anyway, DEP also published a list of all the respondents and how DEP treated their data. You'd think TMDL stood for "The Monitoring Data Loses" because DEP refused to use the data of almost all the groups that sent in information. DEP used a number of different excuses why the information was no good. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission, a quasi-government agency, did not use the right format (no word on whether DEP asked them to resubmit using the right forms). Some citizens' groups failed to determine the "cause" of the impairment. I guess DEP was too busy to go out and take a look themselves--the citizens are supposed to not only monitor, but establish the reasons why the streams are polluted. That frees up more DEP employees to monitor more important things, like the actions of the House Democrats.
The best excuse, however, was reserved for ALLARM (ALLiance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring), a statewide group that has been around for a long time. They are interested in documenting the effects of acid rain. The dedicated volunteers of ALLARM sent in information on over 200 streams! What was wrong with their information?
Came in too late, according to DEP. The deadline on the forms was November 15, 1997. ALLARM's information was received on November 17, 1997. Two days late. Well, you might say, deadlines are deadlines, rules are rules. However, November 15, 1997 was a Saturday, and November 17 was a Monday. Do you think that DEP employees worked over the weekend, poring over data and getting the list ready? I don't either. They got it in time to use it. DEP just didn't want to use it.
Attorneys tell me that when a deadline falls on a non- business day that the next business day is the actual deadline, and ALLARM's information was legally received on time. They might be right, I don't know. DEP certainly didn't care.
One thing I do know: When David Hess gets on the internet with his politically- oriented action alert about citizens' monitoring being threatened, you should respond to your representative. But you should also send a message to DEP and Mr. Hess himself, asking why DEP pays only lip service to citzens' monitoring when it comes time to actually use the information.
Comments on the 303(d) list are due to DEP by March 30, 1998. That's a Monday. DEP won't accept faxed comments. They might get too many, and they only have one day to make up the excuses and send the list down to EPA.
Send comments to:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Bureau of Watershed Conservation
P.O. Box - 8555
Harrisburg, Pa. 17105-8555.
e-mail:
hepp.joseph@a1.dep.state.pa.us
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