Greening Pennsylvania's Economy - PennFuture

Protecting Pennsylvania’s wetlands, streams, rivers and drinking water is a
full time job, one that is vital to a growing economy. It’s not enough to
repair the damage of the past, we must ensure that no more damage is
done now and in the future.
When the people of the Petrolia area discovered that their entire water supply had
been contaminated, they turned to PennFuture for help. Not only were they fearful of
serious health problems for the children of the community, homeowners discovered
that their homes had been rendered practically worthless, since no one wanted to
move into a community without safe water. Thanks to our legal intervention, the state
agreed to replace all water supplies and build a new water system for the community.
As the Brookings Institution Report, Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for
Renewing Pennsylvania starkly proved, Pennsylvania’s continued reliance of old economic
development models has resulted in abandoned and decaying cities and the nation’s
six largest rate of sprawl and loss of green spaces, while having one of the nation’s
slowest rate of population growth. And everytime we move more and more development
into green space, we endanger wetlands, streams and our water supply.
PennFuture has assisted local groups on several fronts to stop this march of
sprawl and environmental destruction. We represented citizens opposed to new
big box developments on wetlands and raised questions about why local and
state governments were subsidizing these developments. We launched an
unprecedented campaign against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s plans
to build new toll roads into rural southwestern Pennsylvania – roads which will
serve only to further destroy the urban centers and rural areas as building
expands with the road. We sued industrial facilities who polluted the waterways with
the sewage from their plants, and got both clean up and ongoing surveillance to
prevent recurrences. Through litigation and public policy changes, we’ve slowed
Pennsylvania’s importation of garbage, and helped local citizens prevent landfill expansions
which risk their drinking water and destroy the quality of life for local citizens.
PennFuture has also provided legal and organizing
expertise to small community and watershed
groups throughout the state, helping these
groups navigate the legal and funding systems
to protect and upgrade their local water ways.
In fact, we wrote the book on it – PennFuture’s
Steam Redesignation Handbook: A Step-by-Step
Guild for Petitioning to Upgrade your Stream to
High Quality or Exceptional Value Special
Protection in Pennsylvania.