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PENNSYLVANIA HAS A NEW STATE WATER PLAN by Todd Giddings, Education Committee Chairman The new Pennsylvania State Water Plan will be presented at six public meetings throughout the state in September. Oral testimony on the Plan will be taken immediately following each of the six public meetings. The new State Water Plan is available for your review on the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Web site at www.depweb.state.pa.us . Under the heading WATER, click on “Water Topics” and select “Act 220” from the drop-down list. 4½ million people (37%) of Pennsylvania’s population use ground water as their potable water source, and yet Pennsylvania has no standards for the construction of residential water wells. Construction standards are needed to protect the quality of the ground water produced from residential wells and to protect the quality of the ground water in Pennsylvania’s aquifers. The Pennsylvania Ground Water Association (PGWA) is asking for your testimony at the State Water Plan hearing nearest to you. We want you to tell the DEP why Pennsylvania needs residential water well construction standards from your own perspective as a ground-water professional. We have prepared some “talking points” for you to consider using in your oral testimony. You may modify or skip any of the 10 talking points to tailor your oral testimony to your area of expertise and your experiences with Pennsylvania’s ground-water resources. To open the "Talking Points" pdf document so you can download it, click this link. A Comment-and-Response document will be prepared from the transcripts of the testimony at the six public hearings so your testimony will be both heard and considered. Pennsylvania’s legislators need to be told that new legislation to create residential water well construction standards should be enacted to protect Pennsylvania’s ground-water resources. The Water Plan meetings and hearings will be located in each of the six major watersheds in the state. Meeting/hearing dates, times, and locations are on the DEP Web site. The meeting/hearing dates are: Ohio – Sept 8, Great Lakes – Sept 9, Delaware – Sept 11, Lower Susquehanna – Sept 15, Upper Susquehanna – Sept 17, and Potomac – Sept 18.
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