"Law would protect drinking water"

By Gary Weckselblatt, Intelligencer, April 23, 2009:

The legislation was introduced by Bucks Republican Chuck McIlhinney.

A lawmaker, government agency and environmental group have teamed up to craft a bill to protect the state's drinking water.

State Sen. Chuck McIlhinney introduced the legislation Wednesday that requires special protection of the groundwater, rivers and aquifers that supply drinking water.


"Most of us take clean water for granted, but we cannot ignore the threat of pollution and contamination of our drinking water supplies," said McIlhinney, a Bucks County Republican. "We need to take action to protect our drinking water supplies to ensure the future health of our citizens."

Senate Bill 777 amends the Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Act of 1984 and requires the Department of Environmental Protection to establish statewide minimum standards upstream of drinking water intakes along rivers and around public drinking water wells. Certain polluting activities would be restricted in these critical zones.

"Pennsylvania currently provides no special protection for rivers or aquifers that supply groundwater to a community," said state Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Chester County Democrat, one of the bill's co-sponsors. "This is very logical, and something that hadn't been done."

Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania State Director for Clean Water Action, said "This bill will for the first time put the focus on preventing contamination rather than counting on treatment plants to take pollution out of our water. The main idea is to create critical zones. Then you can restrict polluting activities from taking place."

According to the bill, a critical zone "extends from one-quarter mile downstream of a drinking water intake for a community water system to 25 miles upstream from the intake."

"You just can't do certain things (near these critical areas)," McIlhinney said. "We think it's reasonable."

The bill will require municipalities to create zoning to protect those areas, Arnowitt said.

"The basic idea is you don't want a gas station near a public drinking water well," he said. "Let's not store giant tanks of hazardous chemicals near a river."

McIlhinney, the bill's sponsor, said he's been formulating the legislation for three years with the help of the DEP and Clean Water Action.

"The days of dumping raw trash are gone," said McIlhinney. But, he added, runoff pollution, industrial discharges and various land uses can also pollute the water supply.

Violators would be subject to fines of up to $2,500 and up to 90 days in jail, McIlhinney said. Willful or negligent violations of the law could lead to fines of up to $50,000 and up to two years in jail for each offense.

"There's no question we need to protect these areas," Dinniman said. "Sen. McIlhinney had the foresight to do it as one of the senate's leaders on environmental concerns."

Locally, state Sens. Stewart Greenleaf, Tommy Tomlinson and Rob Wonderling all co-sponsored the bill.