But these new programs are only tools. A tool alone doesn t produce a thing until it is picked up and used. People like Brooks Robinson, from Pittsburgh, and Hank Barnette of Bethlehem Steel, who made the Land Recycling Program a success. People like Scott Zeckman from Wilton Armetale who developed a progressive environmental management system that recently earned their organization a Governor s Environmental Excellence Award. Over the next five years we will need to dig deeper in our creative toolbox to deal with the next set of issues we face.
Water is fundamental to the existence of all living things human, as well as plant and animal.
Without it, the environment around us dies and our economy fails to grow. In 1900, we had six million people living in Pennsylvania and they used about five gallons of water per day. Farmers suffered billions in losses. Communities and private well owners had to ration water or do without. Between 1982 and 1997, Pennsylvania s developed land area increased by 56 percent, while the population increased by only 1.4 percent.