At the end of last week, state Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Wysox, came out in favor of a proposal submitted by one of her fellow legislators that would, if approved, make $300 million available to local municipalities having to deal with the federally mandated clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay.
    The proposal is being submitted by state Rep. Scott Perry, R-York/Cumberland counties, who has been extremely critical of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s handling of this debacle.
     “It is important to help limit pollution to the Chesapeake Bay, but the improvements cannot be shouldered by our residents solely,” Pickett said when putting her support behind Perry’s proposal. “This legislation will keep the bay environmentally healthy while providing financial assistance to help communities make the needed upgrades.”
    This funding, if it ever becomes available, will be good news for the Valley Joint Sewer Authority, which is moving forward with a mandated upgrade of the Valley Joint Sewage Treatment Facility. That upgrade is estimated, at this time, to cost between $12 and $14 million, and the cost of it — since there is currently no state funding available — would be solely borne by the sewer users within Athens Borough, Athens Township, Sayre and South Waverly.
    However, we do not believe that $300 million in state funding will be enough to prevent small rural municipalities from having to bankrupt their citizens in an attempt to meet some inflated mandates that come out of Washington, D.C.
    According to VJSA Chairman Pat Musto, the total cost to upgrade all 184 sewage treatment plants that discharge into the Susquehanna River or any of the river’s tributaries is estimated to cost $1 billion.
    The $300 million being proposed doesn’t even cover one-third of the total cost to local taxpayers who are impacted by this mandate. Take into account that the state of Maryland was able to fund 70 percent of the total project within that state, which was valued at $1.5 billion. Maryland was able to do this through a flush tax.
    We’re also very curious as to why the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and its legislators, were not more prepared for this mandate, since the state knew this was coming back in 1985, when the state became a signatory to the Chesapeake Bay agreement. There was ample time for the state to make adequate funding available for municipalities to meet these federal mandates.
    Even with that said, we do appreciate the efforts taken by Pickett and Perry to at least make some funding available for these projects.
    However, we believe the state can and should do more so as to not bankrupt a vast majority of commonwealth residents.