Acristickid
Well-known member
I guess somehow when you incorporate the "commission" into the title of an article it garners more interest because when I read the article the commission faces no delimma really accourding to John Arway. Seems cut and dry.
Here is the article:
Talk about ironies.
Roughly two years ago, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission initiated an "unassessed" waters program to look at streams -- never before surveyed -- around the state to figure out which, if any, had wild trout and in what numbers.
The move was sparked by the exponential growth of the Marcellus gas industry. Commissioners wanted information they could use to protect those waters from the impacts of drillers.
But when they moved to add 99 waters to the state's wild trout stream list last month, they ran into a different foe.
Representatives of the bituminous coal industry wrote letters and showed up at the commission meeting to protest those additions. They cited a litany of concerns, from the short amount of time provided for public comment to the qualifications of the university professors and students monitoring some streams.
The industry's biggest worry, though, is that designating the streams -- 68 of which lie in the coal fields of Armstrong, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset and Washington counties, among others -- as wild trout waters could potentially have "traumatic permitting repercussions," said George Ellis, president of the Pennsylvania Coal Association.
When a stream is declared a wild trout water, the entire surrounding watershed is declared to be of "exceptional value," he said.
"Once that happens, for us to get a permit in that area becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible," Ellis said.
That could threaten jobs, said state Rep. Jeff Pyle, a Republican from Armstrong and Indiana counties. That's why he was one of 45 state representatives and seven state senators to sign letters to Fish and Boat Commissioners, asking that they slow down and consider the bigger picture of "economic opportunities."
"This is going to have a really bad effect, I feel, on those employment sectors," Pyle said.
Commissioners agreed to delay adding the 99 streams to the wild trout list until they meet again May 24, to give the coal industry more time to review the proposal. But the commission has not promised to forgo acting then, nor will it without any factual evidence suggesting it should, said executive director John Arway.
"I made it very clear to them that we weren't going to debate our definitions of a wild trout stream or the designations we use to decide what is a wild trout stream," Arway said. "It's factually based. We believe that if we go out there and find wild trout, and what we find meets our designations, it's pretty simple."
Which means May 24 could be the end of the debate, or the beginning of yet another battle between the commission and coal.Read more: Commission faces dilemma with coal industry regarding wild trout waters - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_[/i]735970.html#ixzz1LlwL7IRK
Here is the article:
Talk about ironies.
Roughly two years ago, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission initiated an "unassessed" waters program to look at streams -- never before surveyed -- around the state to figure out which, if any, had wild trout and in what numbers.
The move was sparked by the exponential growth of the Marcellus gas industry. Commissioners wanted information they could use to protect those waters from the impacts of drillers.
But when they moved to add 99 waters to the state's wild trout stream list last month, they ran into a different foe.
Representatives of the bituminous coal industry wrote letters and showed up at the commission meeting to protest those additions. They cited a litany of concerns, from the short amount of time provided for public comment to the qualifications of the university professors and students monitoring some streams.
The industry's biggest worry, though, is that designating the streams -- 68 of which lie in the coal fields of Armstrong, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset and Washington counties, among others -- as wild trout waters could potentially have "traumatic permitting repercussions," said George Ellis, president of the Pennsylvania Coal Association.
When a stream is declared a wild trout water, the entire surrounding watershed is declared to be of "exceptional value," he said.
"Once that happens, for us to get a permit in that area becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible," Ellis said.
That could threaten jobs, said state Rep. Jeff Pyle, a Republican from Armstrong and Indiana counties. That's why he was one of 45 state representatives and seven state senators to sign letters to Fish and Boat Commissioners, asking that they slow down and consider the bigger picture of "economic opportunities."
"This is going to have a really bad effect, I feel, on those employment sectors," Pyle said.
Commissioners agreed to delay adding the 99 streams to the wild trout list until they meet again May 24, to give the coal industry more time to review the proposal. But the commission has not promised to forgo acting then, nor will it without any factual evidence suggesting it should, said executive director John Arway.
"I made it very clear to them that we weren't going to debate our definitions of a wild trout stream or the designations we use to decide what is a wild trout stream," Arway said. "It's factually based. We believe that if we go out there and find wild trout, and what we find meets our designations, it's pretty simple."
Which means May 24 could be the end of the debate, or the beginning of yet another battle between the commission and coal.Read more: Commission faces dilemma with coal industry regarding wild trout waters - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_[/i]735970.html#ixzz1LlwL7IRK
