Positive Growth Alliance members & interested parties:
DNREC has announced how they will comply with EPA'a demands in regards to the Chesapeake Bay Initiative. We're told the EPA Initiative is designed to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. In reality, it is another spike through the heart of the economy and will cause massive new controls on people's ability to live where and how they want.
The freedom of American citizens to do most of the things that really define freedom, like choosing where and how to live, where and how to work, where and how to travel, and having the money to do so, is being stolen through regulation and government-mandated drags on the economy. In the past, these things happened slowly. Now, they are being rushed through at a breakneck pace.
The list below was created by a highly qualified professional engineer who has analyzed the DNREC plan. Our understanding is that these are promises from DNREC to EPA. Under the Regulatory Procedures Act, DNREC currently has the power to enact most of the items below. In as little as about 90 days, many of these new restrictions could be enacted.
This is the most draconian list of freedom-robbing initiatives we have ever seen. Barring action by the Congress (in regards to EPA) and the General Assembly (regarding DNREC), most of it will likely be enacted.
Much of the list is highly technical and hard to understand for those who are not engineers. These are the proposals that will likely have the biggest long term impact on citizens and are hardest to fight. Easy to understand is a proposal for new limitations on living or working within 1000 feet of tidal waters and wetlands. That is nearly 2/10s of a mile. Given the amount of water and wetlands, the impact on your freedom will be incalculable.
Important! The Chesapeake Bay drainage basin is only about a third of the state, and mostly rural. DNREC has decided, however, that everyone in the state should suffer and will impose their plan statewide!
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Promised New Regulations: (page numbers in the Delaware WIP are included)
Only a portion of Delaware (approximately 34%) drains to the Chesapeake Bay. Estimates of this contributing area vary but it is approximately 450,000 acres, or one percent (1%) of the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Delaware WIP committed to new regulations with implementation timeframes. Accordingly, a listing with approximate timeframes as reported in the WIP is provided below:
A new statewide septic pump-out and inspection program proposed for 2011 (Pages 42, 51, and 61) including mandatory requirements prior to sale of individual homes;
New technical considerations and performance standards for onsite wastewater treatment and disposal systems (Page 42) including individual septic instituted in 2011 and advanced treatment requirements by 2017 (Page 63);
New regulations for land within 1,000 feet of tidal waters and tidal wetlands (Pages 61 and 63);
Expansion of Pollution Control Strategies and Buffers (Page 96);
New aquatic pesticide regulations to be promulgated in April 2011 (Page 46);
Revised industrial stormwater and biosolids regulations starting in 2011 (Pages 77 and 80);
New state stormwater regulations in 2011 (Pages 69 and 76);
Establishment of “Conservation Opportunity Areas” in 2011 (Page 100);
New construction and post-construction requirements (Page 37);
New construction effluent limitations, once established by the EPA (Page 79);
New water quality offset trading program (Pages 79 and 93) in 2011 to be followed by additional offset program for “all land use changes within the Chesapeake” by 2013;
New and revised technical guidance for the Nutrient Management Program (Section 9.3.3, Page 127);
Although the state modified existing CAFO regulations, additional changes will be instituted by 2011 (Page 131);
Regulations governing lawn care and applied fertilizers, testing and reporting in 2012 (Page 90);
Additional inspections, tracking and reporting for General Permit and individual NPDES permits, and stormwater facilities (MudTracker) (Pages 70, 81 and 87); and
Expansion of eligible MS4 permits coverage, including new considerations for presently unregulated lands. Currently, only 25% of Delaware is covered by an MS4 permit (Page 70). Accordingly, Page 37 states “…a much smaller land area in the Chesapeake, is subject to an MS4 permit program requirement. However, Delaware has statewide requirements for water quality. These regulations are currently being revised to reflect the need to meet the TMDL load reductions whether in an MS4 or not.” Additional coverage for urbanized areas is reiterated on Page 77.
Promised New Initiatives:
In addition to creating new regulatory, inspection, monitoring and reporting programs, DNREC and the DDA (Delaware Department of Agriculture) have promised to implement/expand initiatives in an effort to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Accordingly, the new initiatives include:
· More robust Transferable Development Rights (TDR) program (Page 100);
· Expand the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program to permanently retire development rights (Pages 101 and 150);
· Expand wetland banking (Page 101);
· Expanding stormwater utilities (Page 101);
· Incorporate the Chesapeake Bay TMDL’s into the State Strategies for Spending Map and revising policy (Page 97);
· Requiring local Comprehensive Plans include TMDL compliance as a prerequisite for their next Plan submission to the Office of State Planning (Page 98);
· Prepare a Master Plan for Bridgeville, Seaford and Laurel corridor (Page 98)
· Implement a ban on P in residential fertilizer or impose a fee or tax for its use by 2017 (Page 103);
· Obtain 44% compliance of an Urban Nutrient Management Plan for of Urbanized Lands by 2017 with 95% compliance by 2025 (Page 101);
· Acquire easements to permit an expansion of the existing Urban Tree Planting program (to be developed during Phase II of the WIP) (Page 102);
· Encourage Urban Growth Reduction by tracking a reduction of impervious surfaces in urban areas and by increasing forest conservation efforts in existing urbanized areas (Page 102);
