On May 18, 1971, Pennsylvania's voters by a four-to-one margin ratified what is now Article I, Section 27, of our state constitution, the Environmental Rights
Amendment:
The people have a right to clean air, pure
water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic
values of the environment.
Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people,
including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them
for the benefit of all the people.
