DEP Submits Final Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Watershed Plan pennwatch.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pennwatch.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Targeting polluted streams, a proposed program could set up a framework to provide needed money to farms in Lancaster County and across the state, where pressure is high to make environmental improvements.
That was the message shared by Republican state Sen. Gene Yaw of Lycoming County, who spoke Monday in York County to promote his Senate Bill 465, which has support among farmers and conservation stewards.
But even with that support, Yaw acknowledged there is an obstacle. Specifically, no dedicated funding source yet exists to get the proposed program off the ground.
âFunding is an issue,â Yaw said, speaking Monday at the Flinchbaughâs Orchard & Farm in Hellam.
Pollution reduction work on Lancaster County farms could get boost in proposed bill lancasteronline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lancasteronline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
April 12, 2021
HARRISBURG, Pa. Farmers and conservationists are praising a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate that would bring funding to stop agricultural runoff from polluting rivers and streams.
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Senate Bill 465, called the Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program, would provide targeted funding for conservation projects on local farms through their county conservation districts.
The Keystone State has more than 25,000 miles of impaired waterways, and farm runoff is a major contributor of sediment and nutrient pollution.
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Bill Chain, senior agriculture program manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Pennsylvania, said farmers want to make sustainability and conservation improvements on their land, but in an economy devastated by COVID-19, many lack the capital they need to make those investments.