CDRW Partners join Lawmakers and DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn to Bring Attention to Generational Funding for Clean Water in Pennsylvania
By High Garst, State Policy Advocate, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed
Budget season in Harrisburg, PA is often marked by the busy hustle and bustle of the Capitol Building filled with advocates, lawmakers, citizens, and staff. Significant budget surplus in this year’s budget has left room to ensure funding of a number of projects in the state, but on June 8, people in Harrisburg turned their attention to the necessity of clean water funding in this year’s budget.
CDRW’s State Policy Advocate, High Garst, delivered opening remarks.
Members of the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed and partners throughout Pennsylvania met at the Pennsylvania Capital to attend a cross-coalition press event with the Choose Clean Water Coalition on June 8. The event highlighted the importance of clean water across the Commonwealth as the legislature considers authorizing generational funding for Growing Greener III and a Clean Streams Fund in Pennsylvania.
Clean water, which benefits all people in the watershed, has long been a bipartisan issue in Pennsylvania. Through the press event, a bipartisan group of legislators cycled through the rotunda to demonstrate their support for clean water funding on both programs, showing their commitment to fighting for clean water funding in the state’s budget making process.
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn.
Speakers at the event, which took place in the Capitol Rotunda included, the Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources Cindy Adams Dunn, Rep. Lynda Schlegel-Culver, Sen. Carolyn Comitta and representatives from the Growing Greener Coalition, PA Farm Bureau, and many other partners who came to support clean water action in Pennsylvania. Kristen Reilly of the Choose Clean Water Coalition and CDRW State Policy Advocate High Garst delivered opening remarks, noting the benefits of both programs to communities across Pennsylvania and the importance of cross-coalition work.
Growing Greener III
Rep. Lynda Schlegel-Culver
Funding for Growing Greener III would support a program that has been lifting up community-based projects since 1999 to improve local and downstream water quality. The program supports projects across the Commonwealth that benefit water quality through flood protections, stream improvements, abandoned mine cleanups, farmland preservation, and park and recreation opportunities. In addition to providing funding for state agencies to support agricultural best management practices, stormwater management programs, and repair public land facilities.
Sen. Carolyn Comitta
The Clean Streams Fund
The Clean Streams Fund would create Pennsylvania’s first program dedicated solely to water protection and improvements. The Fund would address the main causes of water pollution in the state including acid mine drainage, agricultural runoff, and stormwater runoff by securing funding for remediation work and cost sharing programs that will work with local farmers, community members, and municipalities to improve water quality at all levels of the watershed.
CDRW’s Pennsylvania state lead, PennFuture, organized the event which was attended by several members of the press and a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania legislators who are supportive of clean water funding.
The Coalition’s priority to secure funding for clean water in Pennsylvania has been at the core of its mission in the state. With over half of the land area in the watershed in PA, policies that support water quality work both up and down stream have an undeniable impact on the wellbeing of the Delaware River Watershed and those who rely on it. The goal of this press event was to secure generational funding for Growing Greener and the Clean Streams fund in this year’s budget, however, the Coalition will continue to advocate for a dedicated source of funding for clean water which will support projects that focus on water quality at all levels in the watershed, benefitting downstream urban communities and rural areas upstream.
To engage on this issue, contact Pennsylvania legislators asking for funding of the Clean Streams Fund and Growing Greener in this year’s budget and continue following CDRW’s social media and blog posts where the Coalition will update followers on the outcomes of this year’s budget.
Read the official press release here.