Exceptional Value Waters Program
Penn Future, Clean Water Action, Sierra Club joint press release

March 1, 2002

Dear Friends:


 In recent weeks, rumors have begun to circulate in Harrisburg of a new effort to weaken the Exceptional Value waters program, the state program that protects our best rivers and streams.  We need your help to stop this effort, telling the General Assembly to oppose any changes to the EV program.
A number of sources have told us lately that polluting interests are working with legislators to offer amendments to the Water Resources bill that would weaken the EV program.  While we are not sure of the exact specifics of the amendments, we expect that they will be designed to make it more difficult for streams to qualify for EV protection and/or to reduce the protection that EV streams receive.

In addition, we recently learned of an amendment to the Water Resources bill that DEP is proposing that would seriously weaken the data-collection provisions of the bill.  One of the major new features of the bill is the requirement that users who withdraw 10,000 gallons per day register with the state and report how much water they withdraw each year.  This would give DEP additional data, helping it get a fuller picture of water use in the state.  But the new amendment that is being discussed would undercut this effort by allowing DEP to exempt entire sectors (like agriculture, for example) or to raise the threshold at which users have to report.  

Clean Water Action, Penn Future and Sierra Club met recently and agreed that we need to take action on these amendments before they are offered.  We have decided to circulate a letter to members of the state House and Senate urging them to oppose any amendments to the Water Resources bill that would weaken the EV program or the requirement that water users register and report their withdrawals.  In addition, the letter would urge legislators to oppose the overall Water Resources bill if either or both of these amendments pass and are added to the bill.

In order to have the maximum impact on legislators, we would like to get as many environmental, conservation and watershed groups as possible to sign on the letter.  We have attached a copy of the draft letter for your information.  If your group is willing to be listed as a co-signer, please send an email to Bob Wendelgass at bwendelgass@cleanwater.org with the name of the person to be listed and the official organizational name.  

We hope that you will be able to join us in sending this letter to our legislators.  While we believe that the Water Resources bill can be a step forward in addressing water quantity problems in our state, it cannot be used as a vehicle to weaken existing water quality protections.  If you have any questions, please feel free to call any of us; and we hope to hear from you soon, joining in support of this united effort to protect our state's best waterways.

Sincerely,

Bob Wendelgass
Clean Water Action

Jan Jarrett
Penn Future

Jeff Schmidt
Sierra Club