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Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Meeting Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 7<\/strong><\/p>\n \n HARRISBURG \u2013 The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee will convene on\u00a0Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 9:30 a.m.<\/strong>\u00a0to consider sending a letter of disapproval to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission regarding a pending regulation on\u00a0manganese<\/a>\u00a0levels in streams.<\/p>\n \n \u201cThis onerous rule goes above and beyond any known standard for treating manganese, a naturally occurring substance that not even the federal government considers toxic,\u201d said Chairman Gene Yaw (R-23). \u201cCoupled with the absurdly low limit the state wants to establish, this rule serves only to punish mining operations and industrial sites, while giving itself and environmental groups a pass.\u201d<\/p>\n \n The Environmental Quality Board voted 16-3 last month in favor of a regulation that would limit the amount of manganese discharged into streams and waterways to 0.3 mg\/L, far below any existing limit placed on mining, coal and industrial operators. Not even the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) itself comes close to meeting this standard at more than three-quarters of the reclaimed sites it oversees.<\/p>\n \n \u201cNo other state in this country has set a toxicity standard for manganese, let alone one that DEP only applies to industry but does not hold itself or environmental and conservation groups that also manage water pollution to the same standard,\u201d Yaw said. \u201cThis is yet another example of the DEP\u2019s politically motivated attacks against industry, aided and abetted by an administration that routinely underrepresents the true impact of these regulatory schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n