Our River. Our Livelihood.
- cetherid11
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
We have an opportunity to make an impact today! The Lehigh River which flows through our county is a vital part of the Delaware River Watershed. On Monday, April 7th Pennsylvania House Bill 109, known as the Cumulative Impacts Bill, is coming up for vote. This bill is critical for protecting our overburdened communities from the harmful effects of cumulative environmental pollution and its serious impacts on our health.
Why This Matters:
Communities along the Lehigh River are dependent on the continued clean flow of water to power our eco-tourism based economy and to ensure our health and well-being. The Lehigh River is already overwhelmed with pollution from multiple sources: the abandoned mine drainage flowing from the Lausanne Tunnel, run-off from land-applied sewage sludge and industrial operations that poison tributaries like Lizard Creek and the Aquashicola.
Current federal air, water and soil quality standards regulate the pollution releases of each site individually. They do not consider their combined effects. As a result, we residents are
experiencing numerous damaging impacts -- impacts that we can literally smell, taste, and hear in our everyday lives.
The adult annual crude incidence rates of nearly two dozen different types of cancer are very highly elevated in our region as compared to the US National average rates and cancer incidence rates are significantly higher than the US averages as reported by https://pedp-ejscreen.azurewebsites.net/ and https://gis.dep.pa.gov/PennEnviroScreen/.
HB 109 – the Cumulative Impacts Bill -- is very important. By regulating toxic pollution, it will reduce the incidence of the diseases that are damaging our lives and killing us. It will do this by giving the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the authority to consider permits for new or expanding industrial facilities in terms of existing levels of pollution in our communities. Currently, existing pollution levels are not considered!
It will allow residents to have a voice, and policymakers to fully understand how any new polluting facility will further impact residents’ health.
It will create a more transparent and fair permitting process to protect the health of us all, including workers at these facilities.
It upholds our rights in Article 1, Section 27 of the PA Constitution, which declares that all PA residents have a right to clean air, clean water and the preservation of our health and lives.
What Can We Do:
Please call the members of the Committee to support the bill and tell them you want comprehensive protection for the environmental justice communities that are overburdened and unprotected under current DEP regulations. You can leave a voicemail. Here are the members of the committee, click on their names to get their phone numbers. GO here: https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/70/environmental-and-natural-resource-protection?sessyr=2025
For More Information:
Our communities, our county, and our river thank you!
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