Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

I will fight to protect the natural beauty of our region and to preserve our beautiful open spaces and waterways. Our region is filled with beautiful open spaces and farmland, state and federal parks, and pristine waterways.

I will fight against any downgrading of the quality levels of our waterways to approve construction projects that impact the water quality. We must have strict controls over development and ensure that our waterways are not impacted.

Our region is faced with the significant environmental threat of biosolids fertilizer (AKA "sludge") being used on farm fields. This treated sewage poses many health and environmental threats due to bacterial and chemical toxins and contaminants. I will fight to end the use of biosolids and end the associated health and environmental threats that come with its use.

We also have a serious concern with the dumping of so-called clean fill, and the associated truck traffic that comes with it. Pennsylvania has lower environmental standards than New York and New Jersey for the dumping of construction debris, and therefore a great deal of their construction debris is hauled in to several dumping sites in our region. There is very little oversight and monitoring over what is being dumped and we have had recent toxin violations with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels over 3 times the allowable limits. I will fight for more stringent standards, regulation and monitoring from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

I will work to expand investment in renewable energy to build a strong industry and to lessen our dependency on fossil fuels. We need to be leaders on environmental issues.

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