Politics

PA DEP budget: halved in a decade

Enviro groups tally the decline

4 comments

PA DEP budget: halved in a decade

POSTED: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 6:22 PM

Sandy Bauers, Inquirer GreenSpace Columnist

A five percent hit for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's budget this year is one thing.

A chopping in half over the last decade is quite another.

A group of legislators and environmental organizations have taken a look at the DEP budget and tallied the losses.

It has suffered cuts in each of the last five years. Current funding is 59 percent of what it was in 2000-2001, under Gov. Ridge, they said.

Meanwhile, with the responsibilities of monitoring natural gas drilling, the workload has only increased.

"To fail to restore DEP’s budget is to establish a deliberate policy of weakening protection for clean water and clean air in our state," said Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director for Clean Water Action, one of the groups doing the analysis.

Others participating in a press conference opposing the cuts included the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, PennEnvironment and Conservation Voters.

4 comments

Comments (4)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:52 AM, 03/25/2011

Could it be that DEP took on too many non-regulatory roles, and now the department is coming back in line with its mission?

— Mirror

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:18 PM, 03/25/2011

Wow - who'da thunk Tom Ridge would have been the HIGH POINT in funding DEP? Amazing, especially considering the MS-4 permitting process that DEP has to manage and fund statewide among the various other EPA regulations that DEP is (finally) trying to enforce ... you know, little ones, like the Clean Air Act.

— citylumberjack

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:09 PM, 03/26/2011

Those numbers aren't accurate--but only represent DEP's funding from General Fund (state taxes). But most of DEP's money comes from federal dollars and from other funds (which is about the same funding as 10 years ago: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/imageserver/budget2011/GBD_2011.html).

The funding for natural gas inspections doesn't come from taxes at all, but from fees paid by gas drillers, which is why DEP has been able to hire many more well inspectors even while facing cuts elsewhere.

— NathanBenefield

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:24 PM, 03/28/2011

So, are you saying that inspectors are hired after the wells are drilled? If so, does that mean that drilling inspection is mostly done after the fact?

— srelf

Councilwoman's hubby laid off from city job
Why Benghazi keeps returning
Christie revenues off by nearly $1B?
Boehner's daughter weds Rastafarian
Smokers, drinkers fume at idea of taxes
Sequester? Bonuses going to elite Federal employees
GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law
City's Democratic machine to flex its political muscle
Union money funds attacks on Corbett
Revisiting, revising the Benghazi attack

About this blog

Sandy Bauers is the environment reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she has worked for more than 20 years as a reporter and editor. She lives in northern Chester County with her husband, two cats, a large vegetable garden and a flock of pet chickens.

GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science. Reach Sandy at sbauers@phillynews.com.