HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by state Sen. Gene Yaw (R-23), today held a voting meeting to consider and report three measures to the full Senate, including bills to promote stream cleaning, increasing the cap on grants for household hazardous waste collection events and requiring DEP to forward notices of noncompliance.
In his opening comments, Senator Yaw highlighted the bills on the agenda, starting with Senate Bill 679, which directs the Environmental Quality Board to develop regulations that authorize counties to adopt a program for “stream cleaning” and maintenance and the removal of obstructions and flood-related hazards from local waterways.
“Maintaining our streams and waterways has been an issue across my Senate District for years,” Sen. Yaw said. “Just like we take care of roads, we need to have a program that takes care of our streams. In recent years, there have been a number of instances where microbursts have created all kinds of issues, a lot of which are created due to obstructions in the streams. We need to have them properly maintained and this bill will provide a framework.”
During the meeting, the Committee also considered Senate Bill 766, a measure updating the state’s household hazardous waste collection program. The bill increases the cap on grants for household hazardous waste collection events during each fiscal year from $100,000 to $250,000.
Additionally, House Bill 476, which requires DEP to forward notices of noncompliance from the US EPA under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to the municipality where the violation occurred, was also considered.
All three measures were approved and reported to the full Senate for consideration.
For more committee-related news and information visit https://environmental.pasenategop.com/, Senator Yaw’s website at www.SenatorGeneYaw.com or on Facebook and Twitter @SenatorGeneYaw.
CONTACT: Nick Troutman, Executive Director
(717) 787-3280