State Rep. Jonathan Fritz has concocted an efficient but dangerous plan to hasten Department of Environmental Protection permit reviews.
On a mostly party-line vote, the state House on Monday passed the Wayne County Republican’s bill, which would allow applicants to decide if they had filed complete, compliant applications.
The bill holds that if an engineer includes an affidavit with a permit application attesting that the application is complete, the application will be deemed approved.
As noted by former DEP Secretary David Hess, the director of the Cumberland County Conservation District testified in May 2021 that more than 50% of 112 sediment and erosion control permit applications filed in the district in 2017 and 2018 were incomplete.
”Consultants and engineers often do not provide plans and drawings that contain sufficient information to perform a technical review of the application,” director Vincent McCollum testified.
Republicans claim an unduly long approval process requires such a remedy. Yet the DEP reported that, in the past week, it processed 98% of pending permit applications within the statutory deadlines, and has been on time with 95% of permit decisions since Jan. 1.
Although the bill is not limited to drilling permits, it helps illustrate the degree to which the drilling industry’s interests continue to supersede, within the Legislature, the public’s interest in a safe environment.
Other bills would require an end to a drilling moratorium in the Delaware River watershed that was established by the Delaware River Basin Commission. And it would change the commission’s makeup, based on the amount of each state’s land within the watershed, to give Pennsylvania a majority vote. It wouldn’t make any difference if those bills pass, since the provisions also would have to be approved by the other DRBC members — New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and the federal government.
If the Senate also decides to cede environmental regulation, Gov. Tom Wolf should veto it.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
