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,
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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 <vp want out of life.
Farm Calendar
Today, Oct. 3
KILE competition continues
through Tuesday.
Woodcarving & decoy show, 11
a.m. - 5 p.m., York College
Gym, York. Continues
tomorrow.
Sunday, Oct. 4
4-H Week begins and continues
through next Saturday.
Fun Horse Show sponsored by
Boots & Saddles, held tor
therapeutic riding school, 1
p.m., Fellenbaum farm,
Fruitville Pike, Lancaster.
Monday, Oct. 5
Holidaysburg Community Fair,
continues until Thursday.
Manheim Community Fair,
HAV HAWS
"and now
IN
A FINAL WORD TO THOSE FARMERS
THE LOWER VALLEY — RUN!"
we are also ready to discover that
it was never intended to be bought,
but given: "...he who has no
money, come, buy and eat! Come,
buy wine and milk without money
and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). It
is a gift, but it is not a giveaway. It
is intended to be given to ail, not
just a few deserving; "Ho,
everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters.”
Actually, the emphasis is on the
Giver, not the gift. That doesn’t
mean that the gift is not important,
but that if we focus only on the gift,
we will miss both it and the'Giver.
The key, then, is not in our
"spending” our in our "labor
which does not satisfy,” but in the
Source of what it is we are looking
tor: "Hearken dilhgently to me
and eat what is good...lncline your
ear, and come to me; hear that
your soul may live” (5:2b,3).
WHILE HE IS NEAR
Thus, our task is not to work and
strive for happiness or even to
attempt to "nail down” our
salvation, but to “Seek the Lord
while he may be found, call upon a
him while he is near” (55:6).°
Pursue God, not happiness, and
happiness will be throw in. “Seek
first the kingdom of God” and all
the other things will be added to
our lives by his grace. But it’s not a
"tree lunch,” tor it costs God
enormously.
It sounds as it the prophet
believes that sometimes God is
"near” and other tunes tar away,
sometimes to be "found,” and
sometimes not. That’s a very
human perspective, but the truth is
that God is always near us, always
ready to be found by us—or better
to tmd us—but there are times m
our lives when we are more aware
ot and responsive to the great
banquet ot eternal lite which he
wants to give us. It is particularly
at those times that we need to
"return to the Lord.” .
continues until Friday.
Tuesday, Oct. 6
Bradford Dairy Feeding &
Management School, 8-9:30
p.m., Troy High School Ag
Room, continues Oct. 13, 20, 27
& Nov. 5.
House Ag and Rural Attairs
Committee, 9:30 a.m., Room
104, Capitol.
Woodlot Management tour,
Chester County, 1:30-3:30 p.m„
Buck & Doe Farm, off Rt. 82
near Doe Run.
York Co. Agn-Women, 10 a.m.,
home of Cecil McPherson, New
Park.
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Iwce w WEATHER