HARRISBURG – The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee sent a letter today to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) disapproving a pending regulation that would limit manganese levels in waterways, Chairman Gene Yaw (R-23) said.
“The Department of Environmental Protection is way beyond its authority and is clearly attacking industry through yet another regulatory scheme,” Yaw said. “The absurdly low limit the state wants to establish serves only to punish mining operations and industrial sites, while giving itself and environmental groups a pass.”
The Environmental Quality Board recently voted 16-3 in favor of a regulation that would limit the amount of manganese discharged into streams and waterways to 0.3 mg/L, far below any existing limit placed on mining, coal and industrial operators. Not even the DEP itself comes close to meeting this standard at more than three-quarters of the reclaimed sites it oversees.
The Senate committee voted 7-4 to send a letter of disapproval to IRRC, who will consider the regulation at its upcoming meeting.
Yaw said holding industry to this illogical standard will discourage private investment into systems that limit and repair legacy water discharges and unnecessarily raise treatment costs. It doesn’t change the standards for publicly consumed water, either.
“It’s the same old story from this administration,” Yaw said. “More overreach justified by questionable science and forced through by abusing the regulatory process to cut out the legislature.”
CONTACT: Nick Troutman, 717-787-3280