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Statement from Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann

County executive Rehrmann is  former Chair of The Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Financing Alternatives for Major Tributary Strategies.

          I support HB 599 and oppose SB 178.

          Governor Parris Glendening's Water Quality Improvement Act, introduced as Senate Bill 178, ignores the fact that a voluntary cleanup program is already in place and is succeeding.  The Governor's action is unnecessarily divisive and serves only to isolate and penalize our farmers who have been working in cooperation with the state to restore the Bay's health.

          Delegate Ron Guns' Nutrient Management Practices Improvement Act, HB 599, is a more effective approach, because it builds on the successes of the past and provides a framework for future improvements in the program.

          Maryland, at this time, is well within reach of the State's Tributary Strategy goal of implementing nutrient management plans on 1.2 million acres of crop-land by the year 2000.  This has been done voluntarily without coercion from the state, and despite cutbacks in staff support for these programs.

          There have been significant budget and staff reductions in the Maryland Department of Agriculture.  The current fiscal year budget for the State Nutrient Management program is 23 percent less than in 1995, and the Soil Conservation staff has been reduced by 40 percent.

          At the same time, large reductions have taken place within the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service.   Current state appropriations are 27 percent lower than in 1991 and the program has lost over 20 percent of its nutrient management consultants since 1995.

          If our agriculture community is expected to do even more than what it has in the past, it needs the resources to get the job done.  HB 599 bill adds those increased resources by calling for 31 additional technical assistance positions and the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service.

          The farming community has been successful in voluntarily managing nitrogen-based nutrients.  Now, they are being asked to manage phosphorous-based nutrients, which had not previously been identified as a significant problem.  To allow the Governor to impose a coercive mandate rather that a cooperative effort would be unfair to our farmers, would create unnecessary bureaucracy, and would be less effective.

          SB 178 would change the entire tenor of our restoration efforts.  Maryland should showcase worldwide the great progress we have made in controlling nutrients through positive public education and participation.  All citizens now participate and no one is unduly financially impacted.  Tens of millions of dollars have been committed to upgrading wastewater treatment plants all across the state since the early 90's to remove nitrogen.  This is a voluntary program, a partnership between local governments and the state.  We did it because we knew the science was right, the solution well thought out, it is part of our tributary strategies to meet our 40% goal, and it is the right thing to do.

          SB 178 basically ignores all the hard work of MD's tributary teams which have labored for over three years to prepare strategies for reducing nutrients in each of our 10 major watersheds.  Over 300 citizens have struggled to use the best science available to identify specific clean-up actions tailored to the conditions in each watershed.  That work is jeopardized by SB 178, but would be strengthened by HB 599.

          We still have much to learn about how phosphorus acts under certain soil conditions and we need to address these problems in a methodical way with well thought-out programs and projects.  We need a comprehensive, inclusive approach, not the divisiveness that is the hallmark of the Glendening administration.

Authority: James E. Haupt III, Treasurer