Alo—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 3,1981 Who needs a water bill? Pennsylvanians, a group non-exclusive of the farm community, need a water management bill, like House Bill 1483, now. This piece of legislation would provide for the development of a sound state water plan, with the data and background needed to insure the Commonwealth’s precious resources are not depleted and that all citizens would have an equal right to their life giving, often taken for granted, water sup plies. There are many interest groups who have gone on record opposing HB 1483, including the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Association. PFA testified in Allentown, this past August and again last week in Brookville, that “while provisions of the bill which call for inventory of ground and surface water resources and planning for water emergencies are good, other provisions which require permitting of large water users by the Department of En vironmental Resources pose a threat to agriculture.” Last week PFA proposed that “water management legislation should be based on the availiability of water resources and the freedom of individuals to buy or sell their water-use rights in the marketplace.” They called for existing users of water to have their rights secured with legal enforcement to protect those rights. These proposals, except for the water-right auctioning part, are currently addressed in HB 1483 which calls for a continuing survey of the state’s surface and underground water supplies and monitors the consumption of volume users to insure they don’t dram and strain the sometimes short supply. As far as legal enforcement of individual water rights, Pennsylvania currently has no regulatory program covering the use of groundwater supplies and only oversees withdrawals from springs, lakes and streams by public water suppliers. In the case of a private citizen complaining that a large industry or housing complex has dried up his stream and lowered his well water level, cases are settled in the courts under common law and liability can only arise where the withdrawal was proven to be malicious or negligent and where it caused foreseeable harm to adjacent lands. These are not very firm guidelines for private citizens, and costly court battles against Goliath en terprises are crises not relished by most. H.B. 1483 does set up some rather stringent rules requiring permitting and record-keeping for anyone who will be using more than 10,000 gallons of water each day. This, however, is not such a great threat to the freedoms far mers and individual homeowners now take for granted. NOW IS THE TIME To Add Extra Insulation Many people keep putting off the addition of extra insulation but as winter approaches, we need to take a real good look at energy con servation. In many cases extra insulation in the side walls and in the ceiling areas will prevent the loss of heat in cold weather and reduce the Off the Sovmdmg By Sheila Miller, Editor By Jay Irwin Lancaster County Agriculture Agent Phone 717-394-6851 amount of cooling needed during hot weather. Fiberglass batts, rolls or loose pour-m pieces, can be used to add to current insulation materials. The energy problem is real, and we all need to practice con servation in all areas of our home, farm and business. The investment in insulation is a good one, and will The average dairy farm supporting 40 head of cattle and providing a home for a four member family is estimated to use 1,500 to 2.000 gallons of water per day. To reach the 10.000 gallon limit, a farm operation would have to be five times larger this would effect only a small percentage of farms in the state. And, as pointed out by D.E.R.'s Tim Weston, the large acreage holdings of farmers would be a protective buffer their increased water needs would not imping on close neighbors as readily as a large industrial plant, moving next door to a housing development. Even if more farmers go to irrigation and increase their water consumption, only those farmers in ‘‘protected areas” who are using over 10,000 gallons of water per day would have to fill out a short form and apply for a permit. Currently, the two primary protected areas are the eastern Delaware River Basin around suburban Philadelphia and the Monogahela, an industrialized western Pennsylvania watershed. Neither of these two areas con tribute a large portion of their land to agriculture. This is not to say there are no short-comings with HB 1483, There are. As expressed by York County's Rep. Carville Foster and Wyoming County’s Rep. Carmel Sirianni, the bill is “too cumbersome and all encompassing.” This, in part, is the result of, its being drafted by a D.E.R. employee who probably is used to carrying out cumbersome and all-encompassing regulations. The bill should address water conservation incentives, as pointed out by the State Grange and the Conservation Districts. And it should appoint more of its power to local officials rather than giving across-the-board decision making authority to D.E.R. Farmers in Pennsylvania stand to gain more than they’ll lose if H.B. 1483 is passed out of committee and moves its way through the halls of our state capitol building. In the future, water supplies will not be jeopardized by the ever-growing migration of large in dustry and housing into rural areas there will be a law to prevent that sort of thing. Without such a law, those Hollywood battles at the water hole depicted in late-night westerns could be played out here, or ‘water sharks' could make a killing selling water rights on the black market. In this over-regulated society, it’s hard to swallow another law governing our lives and our farming operations. But water is too precious to ignore a drought is always devastating. A law to equitably divide a short supply of water could only help agriculture. result in a saving in both heating and cooling costs. To Help Cows Adjust Glenn Shirk, Extension Dairy Agent, reminds us at this tune of the year, cows are subjected to many stresses. They need all the help they can get from you to adjust to new feeding programs, (Turn to Page Al 2) Board yeas and ‘nays’ NO “FREE LUNCH” October 4,1981 Background Scripture: Isaiah 55 Devotional Reading: Ezekiel 36:22-32. The Bible asks some tough questions and none is more disturbing than the one the prophet poses to us m Isaiah 55:2—"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor tor that which does not satisfy? ’ ’ Why, indeed? Much of our lives is spent in laboring tor “that which does not "satisfy” us. We surround our selves with things that do not satisfy us—not in the long run, that is. We spend our money on ex periences that may be exciting for the moment, but do not stay with us. We spend most of our lives workmg...for what? We want something out of life, but do we really know what it is we want? BUY WITHOUT PRICE! We lose our health before we realize that health is invaluable and cannot be bought at any price. We search tor happiness, but no price we pay can ever even put a downpayment on it. Actually, the price is more than we can ever afford. As Jesus said, “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” Yet, when we finally realize that we can never have enough to —'ll'" ivhor