For Immediate Release
May 15, 2008
Contact:  Nathan Flood
Chief of Staff
 717-787-4420 or
 717-627-0036
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Senator Brubaker Moderates Forum at PSATS Annual Conference

Panel addresses Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy

HERSHEY – State Senator Mike Brubaker (R-Lancaster) spoke to more than 3,000 township officials and their guests as part of the 86th Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) on May 14. 

The Conference was held at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey. 

Brubaker served as moderator to an open discussion on the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy with several state and federal officials.

"The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure whose resources are of worldwide significance," Brubaker said in his opening remarks. "However, our use – and abuse – of those resources have taken a toll on the Bay's ecosystem and, as a result, the very future of the Bay is in jeopardy." 

Brubaker explained that the purpose of Pennsylvania's Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy is to help the state meet its federally mandated obligation to reduce the nutrients and sediments it sends to the Bay by 2010. That means that farmers have to reduce the nutrients entering the Bay through agricultural runoff and municipalities and municipal authorities will need to reduce the nutrients discharged by sewage treatment systems. 

"Townships and municipalities have raised a lot of questions about this issue, which is why we are here today," Brubaker said. "Although two-thirds of the state lies within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, though, water quality is also important for all of the Commonwealth's watersheds." 

Following Brubaker's introduction, the panel, consisting of John Brosious, Deputy Director of the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association; John Hines, Executive Director of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Water Planning Office; and Robert Koroncai, Associate Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Standards, Assessment, and Information Management, offered comments and answered questions. 

"As a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission representing the Commonwealth, I have been working and will continue to work very closely with senior officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Protection, as well as legislative leaders in Harrisburg and Washington, in an effort to best understand the challenges that lie ahead for the Bay and Pennsylvania," Brubaker said.