{"id":12392,"date":"2012-11-09T08:38:44","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T13:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12392"},"modified":"2012-11-09T08:38:44","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T13:38:44","slug":"birmingham-supervisors-blast-stormwater-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12392","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham supervisors blast stormwater rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Again criticize new DEP\/EPA rules that could cost taxpayers $400,000<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Liz Brown<\/strong>, Correspondent, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>BIRMINGHAM \u2014 The township’s Board of Supervisors\u00a0 continue to lament the mandates being handed down by the PA State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding pollutants being discharged into the local waterways.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor William Kirkpatrick shared with fellow supervisors John Conklin and Scott Boorse his report from the latest DEP meeting he attended.\u00a0 He explained that according to the latest EPA requirements, nitrogen levels must be \u201csignificantly reduced\u201d in the Radley Run waterway by 2015.\u00a0 Although the township is currently well within the previously established limits, the new requirements will result in the township making costly changes.<\/p>\n

Conklin observed the cost of these efforts to the municipalities, and ultimately the residents, result in no clear benefit to anyone. However, given that these are state mandates, the townships have no choice but to comply.\u00a0 Boorse inquired as to the possibility of seeking a waiver, but receiving a positive reply was seen as unlikely.<\/p>\n

A preliminary by township engineer Jim Hatfield \u2014 who is also helping to manage the issue in neighboring Pocopson and East Marlborough \u2014 suggests that the necessary changes can be made for about $400,000.\u00a0 Kirkpatrick urged that engineering be started right away due to the imminent deadline. Discussion ensued regarding pursuing possible state or federal funds to help defray these costs. Conklin expressed disappointment that the \u201cacademic modeling\u201d the DEP engages in hoping to \u201cresurrect the planet,\u201d results in little measurable improvement and spreads the cost to the citizens of each township.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully a grassroots movement among municipalities will stop this before the townships go bankrupt,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In other township business, the supervisors upheld the township ordinance requiring homeowners to seek a permit for any work being done to the structure of a home in the township and imposing a penalty fee for beginning work before acquiring said permit.\u00a0 Louis Yalisove of General Weedon Drive requested that the penalty fee be waived in the case of his roof work, as he did not realize that roof repair would require a permit.\u00a0 He pointed out that he sought the permit as soon as his error was brought to his attention.<\/p>\n

Although Kirkpatrick said he was sympathetic to Yalisove\u2019s case, the supervisors agreed that the ordinance was there for a reason and that an exception could not be made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Again criticize new DEP\/EPA rules that could cost taxpayers $400,000 By Liz Brown, Correspondent, The Times BIRMINGHAM \u2014 The township’s Board of Supervisors\u00a0 continue to lament the mandates being handed down by the PA State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding pollutants being discharged into the local waterways. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[15,51,102,1685,1804],"class_list":["post-12392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-birmingham","tag-dep","tag-epa","tag-ms4","tag-stormwater-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}