History of Growing Greener
"Our Constitution gives Pennsylvanians the right to clean air, to pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. We have a constitutional obligation to leave ‘Penn’s Woods’ better than we found them—and today we act decisively to fulfill it." -- Governor Tom Ridge at the signing of the original Growing Greener act, 12/15/99
Growing Greener began in 1999 when Governor Tom Ridge and legislative leaders agreed to commit $650 million over five years for investments in farmland preservation, conservation of open space, restoring and protecting Pennsylvania’s streams and rivers, improving and expanding state and local parks, and developing new trails and greenways.
In 2002, the General Assembly and Governor Mark Schweiker created the Environmental Stewardship Fund to help fulfill the original Growing Greener commitment and to establish a permanent funding mechanism to carry the program’s success into the future. They provided the Environmental Stewardship Fund with a dedicated revenue source by increasing the fee charged for dumping trash in Pennsylvania landfills.
Governor Ed Rendell and the General Assembly, recognizing the need to accelerate the work of Growing Greener, decided to put a $625 million bond referendum question to the voters. In the 2005 primary election, 60% of voters approved the bond and Growing Greener II was established.*
For over a decade, legislators, Governors and voters from both parties have recognized the value of investing in Pennsylvania’s land, water and communities. The success of the Growing Greener initiative proves that sustained funding enables our communities to make major improvements in our quality of life, environment and economy.
Helping Communities Help Themselves
“As Secretary of DEP I had the unique opportunity to see the results of the Growing Greener Program first-hand in all 67 counties. I saw the power local partnerships had to achieve more than any rule or regulation could ever do with volunteers, working side by side with local officials, businesses, state and federal agency staff. I saw people who looked at a stream polluted for 125 years who said, "I can fix this," all because of Growing Greener.” -- David Hess, Former Secretary, DEP, Harrisburg, 4/15/09
Growing Greener fundamentally changed the state's approach to cleaning up our rivers and streams by empowering community-based watershed groups to take their own initiatives to clean up their own watersheds using local partners. Instead of depending on solutions developed in Harrisburg, Growing Greener enabled local communities to design and implement ways of improving their local waterways.
Empowering communities to address their problems was sensible because the mix of pollution sources hurting our streams had changed. Ninety-six percent of the streams in Pennsylvania did not meet water quality standards because of abandoned mine land, farmland and stormwater runoff, not wastewater pipes discharging into our rivers. You could not attack these non-point sources of pollution the same old way. A new grassroots approach was needed and Growing Greener provided the tools to do it.
*Diversion of Environmental Stewardship Fund Monies
Following the voters’ approval of the Growing Greener II bonds in 2005, the General Assembly and Governor enacted implementing legislation that contained a provision providing an option for Growing Greener II debt service to be paid out of the Environmental Stewardship Fund, contrary to the normal practice of paying debt service out of general funds. In subsequent years, Governor Rendell proposed and signed budgets tapping the Environmental Stewardship Fund to pay debt service, diverting tens of millions of dollars each year from environmental conservation and restoration work that the Fund would have otherwise supported.