HONESDALE, PA — Saying state water-quality protection regulations are precluding private property development in the county, the Wayne County Commissioners have lent their support to legislation to amend those regulations.

The commissioners approved a letter supporting House Bill 1565 to the members of the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last Thursday.

That bill would end mandatory provisions found in the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations, 25 PA. Code Chapter 102, requiring a 150-foot buffer on the state’s protected High Quality (HQ) and Exceptional Value (EV) waterways.

Commissioners Chair Brian Smith said at the county meeting on September 11 that the bill would replace the mandated 150-foot buffer with a two-tier replacement buffer program, requiring a two-to-one land exchange in another area of the same watershed for one-acre land disturbances within 50 feet of a waterway and a one-to-one replacement for development within 100 feet of a stream.

Smith said the change allows for “flexible economic development with best-management practices in special protection watersheds.”

The letter, supported and solicited by the state County Commissioners Association, noted that 94% of privately owned land in Wayne is “classified as being in an HQ or EV watershed. In fact, 34% of all land in Pennsylvania is affected by the mandatory 150-foot buffer requirement.”

Neighboring Pike County has an even higher proportion of EV watershed land area.

The Wayne letter stated the bill “will take much needed steps toward improving Pennsylvania’s business climate while maintaining the pristine quality of our waterways.

“An arbitrary 150-foot mandatory buffer does not allow for site-specific conditions to be considered throughout Pennsylvania, prohibiting site design professionals from performing soil surveys to determine hydrological soil groups and slope variances that are appropriate, for each site.

“The mandatory buffer requirement not only decimates the economic value of the land, but it also impedes much needed job creation and economic growth throughout Pennsylvania. Residential construction, including the building of the new structures as well as the remodeling of the existing ones, has direct positive impacts on Pennsylvania’s economy…. ”

The bill, the letter concludes, “will assure the same environmental standard, keeping our streams and lakes clear and clean while allowing private landowners and local governments the opportunity to implement low-impact systems that are already approved by DEP.”

In other business, the commissioners approved a third-quarter, county Children & Youth Services state financial statement reporting spending of $3.667 million through March 30, which includes a 21% local share; as well as county Human Services reporting of 2013-14 state food purchases of $68,611, and $531,706 in Medical Assistance Transportation.

They also approved a restructuring of the county 911 center staff, promoting former shift manager Betsy Turner to manager, and reclassifying former manager James Wayman as a 2/TAC dispatcher.

Commissioners clerk Vicky Botjer said the restructuring was not punitive, but Wayman had not been comfortable with the administrative duties of the management job.

Wayman will continue to be paid at his prior salary level, she said.

They also awarded the construction of a basketball court and parking area at the Park Street Center to low-bidder, Kohrs Excavating, which bid $43,615.

Voices against changes

There are those who think changing the 150-foot buffer around high quality (HQ and exceptional value (HV) streams is a bad idea.

This statement to lawmakers comes from the League of Women Voters of the U.S. and the League of Pennsylvania:

“We strongly urge you to continue the current requirement of 150 feet of vegetated riparian buffers for HQ and EV streams and we ask that you not shorten this distance for any reason. These buffers are needed as they are now mandated, not only to protect the high quality of drinking water needed by people downstream, but also to prevent serious erosion that would add to flood-related damage. Allowing development too close to a stream removes the ecological structure that is needed to support our healthiest streams and thus, our drinking water.”

The Delaware Riverkeeper also is opposed to the change. “Streams lined by healthy forested buffers protect our communities. They protect us from flooding, pollution and drought; they protect and create jobs and a stronger housing market for our communities. That Representatives Marcia Hahn and Ron Miller would seek to remove this most basic of protections from our kids and families, allowing homebuilders to literally cut and run on their responsibility to ensure their projects do no harm to those downstream, is irresponsible and shows a true lack of character,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. “We should be strengthening stream buffer protections, not stripping them,” van Rossum added.

The statement from the Delaware Riverkeeper said buffers increase property values, protect areas from flooding, provide significant removal of pollution from runoff and provide enhanced habitat for fish and other aquatic wildlife.