Calling on the Pennsylvania State Legislature to make achieving clean water a greater priority in the year 2015 by increasing state investments to be made by the General Assembly and the Governor with dedicated, sustainable and long-term funding sources.

WHEREAS, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, constitutes the chief governing body of Philadelphia County, with legislative and policy-making powers that affect each resident's quality of life; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia County has the responsibility to assure the fiscal health and integrity of Philadelphia County; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia County has the responsibility of planning for and implementing projects that accomplish and bring forth safe water resource management; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania is estimated to have more than 83,000 miles of streams, nearly 4,000 lakes and 80 trillion gallons of groundwater; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania's ability to attract growing businesses and to provide the quality of life this governing body seeks for its residents depends on the Commonwealth properly prioritizing clean water infrastructure and funding for stormwater management; without such an increase in prioritization and funding to address these issues, our rivers and streams will continue to be susceptible to pollution and the degradation of the Commonwealth's precious resource—water; and

WHEREAS, Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states that, “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”; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia County realizes that the Commonwealth is losing more forest, wildlife habitat, farmland and other open spaces to development than it is able to preserve; and that the Commonwealth has more than 19,000 miles of rivers and streams that do not meet basic water quality standards, and of those, 5,800 come from agriculture, 5,500 from abandoned mine drainage and 4,300 from urban and suburban runoff; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia County wishes to encourage and support a greater investment of resources to clean Pennsylvania's rivers and streams before irreversible damage occurs to the places we live, work, and raise our families. Clean water provides for greater health, stronger communities and thriving economies within our region; now, therefore

RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby calls on the Pennsylvania State Legislature to make achieving clean water a greater priority for Pennsylvania in the year 2015 by increasing state investments to be made by the General Assembly and the Governor with dedicated, sustainable and long-term funding sources.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That this signed Resolution be forwarded to the Governor of Pennsylvania and our respective state legislators.

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