Bureaucracy to Blame for Bay’s Lack of Progress

Editor:

In the Sept. 19 edition of Lancaster Farming, comments made by Captain Barry Simns (“Maryland’s Leading Waterman Praises Farmers, Hits Sewage Plants,” page A10) left me wondering where he gets his information on water waste treatment plants not doing their share of limiting their contribution to the levels of phosphorous and nitrogen to the Chesapeake Bay. Since I am a member of an authority in Pennsylvania that is about to spend tens of millions of dollars to upgrade our treatment plant at great cost to the rate payers, the captain may not be informed on what is taking place by municipalities facing similar expenses to upgrade their plant.

These costs are driven by an out of control bureaucracy called the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC).

The public rate paying treatment plants are the primary targets of the SRBC and have been from the beginning precisely because they are easy pickings. A semi-government mandate from the SRBC to another government agency and who is going to resist? That was the thinking from the beginning, and that is where the pressure has been applied. It was so easy. The farmers were given a pass at first because they would have to bear the costs, which could put many of them out of business.

Since the bay is not changing for the better at a rate some would like it to, they have decided now is the time to beat up on the farmers. The SRBC is the problem. Trying to get their approval is long, expensive, laborious task that makes one wonder how so many bureaucrats got together in one place in order to screw things up. The answer, of course, is obvious, and the question has been asked over and over.

— Joseph V. Capuano
Carlisle, Pa.