Experts
discuss state environmental issues
By George Mattar,
Intelligencer, February 26, 2009
About 75 people met at the George School.
Most agree that next to the economic situation in our country,
one of the next biggest issues facing us is the environment.
With that in mind, about 75 people met at the George School
in Middletown Wednesday for an environmental seminar and heard the polar ice caps are melting at an abnormally fast rate,
ground water is being depleted almost as quickly in Upper Bucks and 98 percent of the American public have heard of global
warming, but most believe it is far away from really happening.
Not so, said one expert, Bill Mettler, an aerospace engineer
and environmentalist, who said that the ice melt in Antarctica is happening quickly.
"There is a satellite roving above the polar ice cap and
it shows that millions of gallons of water are pooling beneath the ice sheet and fear the water itself is acting as a lubricant
and moving the ice sheet around and this has scientists concerned," he said.
Other speakers included Christine Knapp of PennFuture, a
statewide environmental advocacy group. She said Gov. Ed Rendell is committed to environmental issues and two bills recently
passed in Pennsylvania address those concerns.
The first earmarked $650 million for alternative energy.
Specifically, the bill also requires that utility companies cut energy use one percent by 2011 and three percent by 2013.
The other bill provides funding to develop solar power,
green buildings, a home energy loan program and wind energy development, Knapp said. One portion of the bill requires that
0.5 percent of all electricity sold must come from solar energy by 2019. Of the funding, $30 million will expand the state's
wind energy industry, which produces zero air pollution, requires no water and now generates enough wind power for 95,000
Pennsylvania households, according to the bill.
In Upper Bucks, Robert Stanfield, an MIT-trained chemical
engineer, said groundwater levels are quickly being depleted.
He said a well in Palisades has dropped to its lowest level in 10 years due to expanding housing and commercial development, continued quarry
production continued. Future natural gas drilling in Nockamixon could exacerbate the situation.
Stanfield, who volunteers as vice chairman of the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum
Groundwater Management Committee, said a year-long study from 2007 to 2008, show a 25-foot drop in the water level, during
a normal rainfall season.
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