For immediate
release: For
more information contact:
September 17,
2007 Jan
Jarrett 717-214-7924 or
Brian
Hill 771-230-8044 ext. 16
Hails Introduction of Bill to Fund Hazardous
Sites Cleanup
Groups Welcome Plan for
Temporary Funding Fix
Members of the
Pennsylvania Alliance for Restoration and Conservation (PARC) said that they
were pleased by today’s introduction of HB 1810 which would use $30 million of
the state’s budget surplus to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program (HSCA)
for this fiscal year. The bill was introduced by Rep. Rick Taylor
(D-Montgomery) and Rep. Mike Vereb (R-Montgomery) with 76 bi-partisan
co-sponsors.
“We are extremely
glad to see strong bipartisan support for HSCA,” said Jan Jarrett, PARC
co-chair and Vice President of Citizens for
The HSCA program
is charged with cleaning up sites that are contaminated by toxic wastes,
investigating toxic spills and releases, and responding to emergency toxic
incidents. HSCA lost its original source of funding when the state legislature
decided to phase out the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax by 2010. Without new
funding, HSCA is expected to run out of money at the end of the current
calendar year.
The Senate passed
legislation in June (Senate Bill 913) that would have funded HSCA by raiding
money from the Keystone Fund. PARC and other groups opposed diverting money
earmarked for land conservation and watershed restoration for HSCA, and the
bill failed to pass the House. As a result, HSCA was omitted from funding in
the 2008-09 state budget passed in July.
“This is a
commonsense approach to funding HSCA this year while not harming other
important environmental programs,” said Brian Hill, PARC co-chair and President
of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. “This gives us time to work on
finding a permanent solution to funding HSCA. It’s vitally important to ensure
that HSCA can reliably continue to respond to threats to public health posed by
toxic contamination without having to fight each and every year for an
appropriation from the budget process. PARC looks forward to working with the
General Assembly to come up with the right funding plan.”
PARC is an
alliance of conservation, sporting and parks organizations that work to ensure
adequate funding for conservation and restoration projects around the state.
PARC was instrumental in the passage of the Growing Greener II legislation and
ballot initiative. In addition to PennFuture and the
Pennsylvania Environmental Council, PARC groups include Audubon