Good afternoon. I am Jack Williams, Co-chair of the Environmental Committee of Pennsylvania Trout, A Council of Trout Unlimited (PA Trout). I am pleased to be here today to offer comments on behalf of Pa Trout regarding Pennsylvania's anti-degradation program.

PA Trout is the largest affiliate state council of National Trout Unlimited. PA Trout presently numbers nearly 11,000 members in 56 chapters statewide.

Trout Unlimited maintains a national office in Arlington, Virginia and employs a staff of administrative, legal and scientific professionals. National membership is near 125,000. Trout Unlimited publishes TROUT, The Journal of Coldwater Fisheries Conservation.

The most recent accounting by DEP shows Pennsylvania to have 83,161 miles of streams and rivers; second only to Alaska. Only 1,716 miles, or 2.06% of these waters have been designated Exceptional Value (EV). Pennsylvania’s rich mosaic of rural, urban and public landscapes and watersheds and their diverse land use practices all have the potential to alter the quality, quantity and biological characteristics of our water resources. We must, therefore, be mindful to objectively identify waters that are deserving of special protection and have in place an equally objective program to protect our very best waters and restore impaired waters.

The mission of Trout Unlimited and PA Trout is to protect, conserve and restore the cold water fishery resources of the United States and of course Pennsylvania. It is the position of PA Trout that water quality, water quantity and aquatic habitat issues need to be addressed statewide on a watershed basis with goals established, at minimum, to: 1) prevent further degradation of water quality and aquatic habitats in all Pennsylvania waters and to restore water quality and habitat in degraded systems and 2) prevent water withdrawals damaging to water quantity resources available for all water uses in a watershed.

PA Trout believes that a strong antidegradation program is absolutely essential for Pennsylvania because clean, available water and optimum habitat are essential for aquatic life, wildlife and for human health, enterprise and recreation. In our view a contemporary, enlightened society such as that in Pennsylvania should recognize the value of its life-sustaining resources. Water, of course, is one of the highest value.

In Pennsylvania the citizens, as well as economic and government leaders must make an uncompromising commitment to protection of the Commonwealth's waters. We must honor our responsibility to pass to future generations a place to live, work and play better than the place we inherited.

Failure to make such a commitment earlier in our history resulted in an awakening in the 1960s and 1970s which led to passage of laws and regulations designed to protect our abundant but deteriorating water resources. A result of this earlier failure is a current public liability for reclamation of water degraded by past abuse. This public liability from only one source of water pollution, mining, is some $15 billion dollars. Furthermore, the quality of life continues to suffer in the areas impacted.

The waters of Pennsylvania are a public trust. Pennsylvania has indeed recognized the value of its waters by assuring our citizens both now and for generations yet to come, the constitutional right to clean water. Further, Pennsylvania's Clean Streams Law and Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act have served as models to the nation. We have and are, however, falling short in the will to make the uncompromising commitment to achieve the goals set forth.

Agriculture, mining, drilling, timbering and development can all occur without degrading the Commonwealth's water resources. We must make that commitment and view compliance as a challenge to deploy our collective creative talents to develop new or to improve old technologies and management practices in order to in fact protect our remaining best waters and restore impaired waters. We should not use our collective creative talents in attempts to escape our constitutional obligations.

There will be costs incurred. These are investments in the future. Economies thrive where there is a healthy environment. We believe that people and enterprises benefiting from healthy environments will be willing to share the costs.

For over a quarter century PA Trout has worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) formerly combined as DER, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), the PA Game Commission (PGC), the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT), the General Assembly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and conservation groups and the private sector to develop and implement policy, laws and regulations to protect, conserve and restore Pennsylvania's water resources.

Recently, PA Trout was a stakeholder on RE-LEAF and was member of the Regulatory Negotiations (Reg Neg) team that worked on the approved amendments to 25 Pa. Code Chapters 93 and 95 Water Quality Standards-antidegradation. PA Trout also has a seat on the currently active Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) which monitored the Reg Neg process and submitted comments on it. On March 17, 1999 WRAC approved the regulation.

PA Trout supported that approval and continues to work as a member of WRAC to implement the approved, amended regulations and to assure compliance with the Clean Water Act mandate. Trout Unlimited is widely recognized as one of the Nation's most respected voices for conservation. The appointment of PA Trout to RE-LEAF, Reg Neg and WRAC speaks to the reputation of Trout Unlimited in Pennsylvania as an advocate for common sense, science-based environmental protection.

Some may ask, what is common sense about advocating an uncompromising commitment to clean water? The answer: clean water is essential for all life. Pollution tainted and abused water resources threaten our aquatic and upland wildlife resources, our quality of life and our economic vitality and must not be tolerated.

This is no longer the world of the 1800's when individuals could do as they pleased without appreciable impact upon their community. Population density is now much higher and the amount of good water has been drastically reduced by past abuse and neglect. We are now living in a new century with new awareness, improved science and technology and a vision and goals for the future.

To quote the Report of The Pennsylvania 21^st Century Environmental Commission, "A healthy environment, a dynamic economy and the well-being of our communities are directly linked". And in a goal statement……"Reduce, toward the ultimate goal of eliminating the exposure of people and other organism's to harmful levels of environmental contaminants". We are fully supportive of this vision and goal.

These hearings were prompted by your Committee’s vote on Senate Resolution 181 in which you agreed with the Independent Regulatory Review Committee’s (IRRC) decision to disapprove the Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) final rulemaking for redesignating a 4.6 mile segment of Trout Run in Westmoreland County to EV status, Pennsylvania’s highest water quality designation. Both your Committee and the IRRC expressed concern and reservations about the criteria and methods used to make special protection water decisions, especially on private lands.

Environmental decisions today and in the future must be based on the best available science, not on social and economic justification. Methodologies and public policy of the past have resulted in the degradation of the environment that we find today and that we are trying to remedy with public monies in programs such as "Growing Greener".

We must place the good of the Commonwealth community above that of the individual. We can no longer place our environment at risk to increase the level of personal gain. PA Trout, along with stakeholders from business and industry, other conservation groups, PFBC, DCNR, USFWS and others were involved in the development of the currently adopted criteria and methods for assessing and recommending for designation or redesignation those waters of Pennsylvania deserving of special protection.

The task has not been easy but we have reached satisfaction with the way DEP applies the process. PA Trout believes that the recently approved antidegradation regulation should meet the Clean Water Act mandate, provide an adequate opportunity for the participation of all affected parties and represents a significant step toward providing the protection Pennsylvania's best quality water resources require.

The criteria and methods for assessing and recommending waters for special protection designation (HQ or EV) were developed using the most recent and scientifically defensible information. The DEP professionals who will implement the regulation and the PFBC professionals who advise them have our confidence.

PA Trout proposes without reservation that these decisions remain with Pennsylvania's competent natural resource management agencies until the adequacy of the new regulations are demonstrated in practice. In our view, this is not the time for legislative intervention in the process.

For the good of all of Pennsylvania’s citizens we need to allow these decisions to be made on the basis of the best available science. This will ensure that our common resources, such as water, will have the most consistent protection for generations to come.

In closing, I would like to thank the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee for the opportunity to present PA Trout's thoughts and opinions on Pennsylvania's antidegradation program and welcome any questions from Committee members about this testimony.

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