Update

December 27, 2015

Only 17 counties in the U.S. have worse air quality than Delco* And pollution would get worse if Marple’s commissioners approve Goodman’s rezoning proposal

A recent report by the American Lung Association (ALA) contained some very bad

news for Delco residents who care about their health. According to the ALA, Delaware County ranks 17th from the bottom among U.S. counties for its poor air quality. That is, out of 3,143 counties nationwide, Delco came in 3,126th place in the category of fine particulate pollution (very nasty stuff as it lodges deep in the lungs*). We also have more than our fair share of gaseous pollution like nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Some of this pollution is brought by prevailing winds from a large and very dirty coal power plant called “Brunner Island” in York County (a few of See page 15 of the full report here. Delco’s state politicians have blocked action on this pollution: see footnote**), but 60 years of letting developers pave over most of the county is the prime cause of our serious air quality problem. In the process of becoming the second 13,000 children and 42,000 adults in Delco most densely populated county in the state, we have lost most of that which would suffer from asthma, a direct result of our have offered us substantial protection from pollution: forests. county’s polluted air

Would you remove your car’s air filter? How about your children’s air filter?

Trees filter the air, so forests act like enormous atmospheric “scrubbers”

which remove pollutants from the air on an industrial scale. Ever increasingly since the 50s, the ability of Delco’s environment to absorb gaseous/particulate pollution has been steadily diminished by the loss of many hundreds of thousands of trees. Six decades of unchecked development later, most of Delco’s original forests are gone (especially in eastern Delco), and now one of the last big ones in Marple Township – 213 acres – would be completely clear cut by Bruce Goodman if the Marple Commissioners grant his rezoning request. Destroying this forest, which has provided Delco with enormous pollution-mitigation benefits, would have a seriously harmful effect on air quality and your health, your children’s health, your grandchildren’s health. If Marple’s commissioners approve this, they would not only be flouting their constituents’ intense opposition to this development. They’d be endangering them as well. And all the while, County Council has said nothing in defense of this heavily subsidized forest even though county taxpayers paid higher tax bills for 110 years to cover what the Archdiocese was not paying.

<--- The lack of forests in eastern Delaware County contributes to hotter summer days and minimal pollution absorption. If Goodman clear cuts these 213 acres, this health threat would get even worse.

County Council’s silence

County Council’s silence regarding the substantial environmental and health impacts of Goodman’s proposal is not surprising

considering their 60 year avoidance of open space conservation. Even so, their unwillingness in this case to use their office to block the destruction of one of the last forests in an already highly dense county is bewildering, especially when other county governments have even gone so far as to use eminent domain to protect their constituents’ health. To understand this lack of concern, we should look to a precedent set in 1957 when Delaware County officials used their influence in the state legislature to interfere with a citizen led effort to preserve the marshlands now known as The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Act 347 of 1957 was an excellent piece of legislation for 66 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. It allowed for the creation of wildlife refuges in Pennsylvania by the Federal Government and for accessing Land and Water Conservation Fund monies to do so. Act 347 applied to every county in the state except Delaware County. Delco politicians literally excluded their own county from provisions of the law as a way of blocking a growing eastern Delaware County movement trying to preserve “Tinicum Marsh.” It’s not clear how the citizens group got around this law, but this original sin of running interference for developers instead of constituents has become de facto county policy. “Consent of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is given to the acquisition by the United States by purchase, gift, devise or lease, of such areas of land or water, or of land and water anywhere in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, except in the County of Delaware, as the United States, with the consent of the executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Governor, may deem necessary for the establishment of migratory bird reservations in accordance with the Act of Congress…” Act 347 of 1957. Emphasis added. Read full text here.

Getting left behind

As the decades rolled by and other area counties created well-funded open space programs preserving hundreds of thousands

of acres in the Philadelphia suburbs, Delaware County (and most of its townships) continued to do nothing as forest after forest was replaced with so many super-dense developments and shopping centers. Nine counties in the Philadelphia region have spent well in excess of a billion dollars saving open space and protecting their counties from overdevelopment. What has Delaware County spent? According to Delco’s planning department: nothing. Zero dollars have been spent acquiring open space over the past four or five decades (see also this Inquirer article from 2007). Meanwhile, most counties have made remarkable progress. The top four, Montgomery, Burlington, Bucks, and Chester Counties together have invested close to a billion dollars. Chester County alone has directly saved 50,000 acres of open space out of the 127,000 total acres of preserved land in that county (more total land than Delaware County’s 122,000 acres). Farsighted Chesco officials not only persuaded voters on several occasions to approve open space bonds, they’ve even created an Open Space Department. The expense of this investment to taxpayers has been so minimal that their overall county tax bills are lower than ours. Delco’s taxes are 36% higher than Chesco’s: 5.6 mills versus 4.1 mills, a difference of a few hundred dollars for the average home, and Chester County’s tax bill includes debt service on open space acquisitions.

It’s a public health issue Two million acres of open space are lost each year in our finite United States. Goodman’s proposal and the silence from our

elected officials are a stark reminder of the lack of concern in many quarters for this crisis. But what’s at stake here goes beyond the aesthetics of open space, traffic congestion, flood control, quality of life, property values, and stream quality. This is also a public health issue. “Cardinal Crossing” would replace tens of thousands of trees and would greatly reduce our local environment’s ability to absorb pollution. It would at the same time contribute massive quantities of additional pollution by, among other things, adding 37,000 car trips to county roads already choked with hundreds of thousands of vehicles. What will Delaware County’s air quality ranking be in two years if Goodman is given this huge handout and if business as usual in Delco continues? How many more thousands of children will suffer from lung ailments then? A reasonable person could be forgiven for thinking that County Council is indifferent to our health. After all, we’re the only county among our peers without a health department. Every other PA suburban county has one, of course, and all have vibrant open space programs with lower taxes to boot. What does Delco have? It has more than 560,000 residents packed into 191 square miles. You’d think, at long last, county and township officials would see this as the crisis it is and actually take action to save our remaining open space. The 213 acre taxpayer-subsidized forest in Marple would be a great place to start.

Open Space Comparison by County

What’s wrong with Delaware County?

-- in the last 40 years --

County Council would say that their hands are tied because county residents voted down a 1996 open space referendum. What they won’t tell you is that certain council members at the time actively lobbied against the referendum and that county government spent no money or time endorsing a yes vote. It’s hardly surprising, then, that county voters didn’t get behind it. Yet County Council points to this failed referendum as the reason they can’t save open space. They put the people’s eyes out and then blamed them for their blindness, to paraphrase John Milton.

County money spent on direct open space acquisition*** Notes: * In the category of fine particulate pollution measuring 2.5 microns. This is particularly dangerous because it lodges deep in the lungs and can cause all sorts of respiratory maladies like COPD, asthma, and cancer. 2.5 microns is about 1/3 the size of a red blood cell. ** Several Delaware County state legislators have had a role in Delaware County’s terrible air quality. State Representatives Micarelli, Killion, Adolph, and Donatucci, and Senator Pileggi have voted in some cases multiple times to block reasonable legislation that would place common sense limits on power plant emissions. Instead of the Brunner Island power plant in York county being shuttered for endangering the health of their constituents and millions of others in southeastern Pennsylvania, politicians in Delco took sides with polluters. (See the link below to an environmental scorecard for PA) Naturally, too, a more heavily forested Delaware County would have been able to better mitigate the effects of this pollution had it not been for Act 347 in 1957 which set a terrible precendent and made conservation a dirty word in Delco. *** This information was provided by county planning departments. Delco has spent a few thousand facilitating the purchase of some open space by a third party (like Mineral Hill outside of Media), but there is no evidence that the county has spent any money acquiring open space directly.

Does this explain the pollution problem in Delco and why no officials have worked save open space? -------------->

sign up for our email at:

www.savemarple.com www.facebook.com/SaveMarpleGreenspace Destroying this forest in Marple would be like removing an air filter for our children and grandchildren.

This forest can’t save itself. It will need your help. If other county and township officials can use their office to protect their constituents’ environment, then Delco’s and Marple’s can, too. • • • • • •

Come to meetings! Show your opposition to this threat to your health. Call Bill Adolph’s office at 610-544-9879. Ask him to speak up for open space. “Cardinal Crossing” is not in his constituents’ interest. Call Senator McGarrigle at 610-853-4100. Ask him to speak up for open space in his district. Call county council members at 610-891-4264 and ask them to protect this land. Call the township commissioners and ask them to say no to “Cardinal Crossing.” Circulate our petition to the Vatican around your parish. The Vatican must be made aware of the Archdiocese’s plan to destroy this taxpayer subsidized forest despite Pope Francis’ recent environmental encyclical. • Call/email the Archdiocese and tell them to pursue a conservation option for this forest that they never paid taxes on. You might hear officials say that this is a local matter and that it’s outside their purview. Remind them other state legislators like Nick Micozzie helped save open space (Little Flower) in his district. Senator Andy Dinniman of Chester County is currently actively assisting two preservation movements. State Representative Greg Vitali of Haverford was directly involved in the substantial preservation of 170 acres on the former site of Haverford Hospital. If these legislators of both parties can get involved, so can Bill Adolph and Tom McGarrigle. A Petition to His Holiness, Pope Francis, and The Most Reverend Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia His Holiness’ recent encyclical ​Laudato Si’ ​calling on Catholics and people of the world to see our environment – our common home – as something to be protected, not exploited, has  resonated loudly for Catholics in Marple Township, PA and its surrounding areas. Residents in this largely Catholic town are facing the destruction of a 213 acre mature forest  belonging to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which has recently entered into a contract with Goodman Properties of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania for the purpose of building a high  density commercial and residential development on land that represents the last piece of environmentally pristine open space in Marple Township, Pennsylvania. Given his Holiness’  call for the protection of our natural environment, we sincerely hope that the Archdiocese and Vatican reconsider this decision. If and when a window of opportunity arises, we ask  that opportunities be explored to sell this rare suburban forest of mature trees, pristine streams, and historic ruins to a conservation group for the benefit of future generations. This is  not some disposable patch of developable land, but as ​Laudato Si’ ​notes, an integral part of our common home.     NAME 

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Click to see larger downloadable image. Please circulate this petitition at your parish and contact us by responding to our email (or through facebook) when they’re ready for pickup.

Please circulate our petition around your parish. We will be sending these to Rome when we reach 1,000 signatures. sign up for our email at:

www.savemarple.com www.facebook.com/SaveMarpleGreenspace

In case you missed our last article. KJH 4 SMG