ENVIRONMENT
Recent events at Motiva, Metachem, General Chemical and
other sites have proven we need to be much more aggressive about making sure we
are protected from environmental disaster as well as from the insidious long
term effects of pollution of our land, water, and air.
First of all, let it be clear that as much as we want
good, high paying jobs for Delawareans, there are some businesses we don’t want
to attract to Delaware. We need to be careful and seek to attract only those
businesses which have inherent and specific value to our state and its
citizens, bringing us both quality jobs and the security of a healthy
environment for the people of our state.
We
will need to make sure that the environmental standards we have in place impose
no significant risk to our citizens or to Delaware's land, water, air, and
natural areas. These regulations need to be strict, clear, concise, coherent
and consistent, and their enforcement must be as well.
Equally important, the penalty for the violation of our
environmental laws must be strict and tough enough that the polluters feel the
overwhelming pressure to make sure that our environmental laws and regulations
are followed. The day of the slap on the wrist for violation of environmental
law is over and the day of the substantial penalty and criminal liability for
those who pollute is at hand.
There are other issues with respect to our environment.
The conservation and protection of water resources is of vital importance. Our
recent water shortages have clearly demonstrated the need for a statewide water
resources plan. We should never again allow ourselves to be put in a situation
in which we are reliant upon sporadic sources of potable water. It's time to
implement solutions proposed some years ago to supply water, solutions Governor
Carper rejected as too costly and too politically sensitive to complete. The
City of Newark concluded it could wait no longer and I was able to secure State
support, a total of $3.4 million, for the new Newark Reservoir. While this will
be a big help to residents of Newark, those in the rest of the State have no
assurance of continued water availability. It's important to think of and
implement long term solutions rather than quick fixes. Also important is the quality
of our water. That it must be healthful goes without saying. But also
important (and quite different), it must be aesthetically pleasing. Water which
is safe to drink but which tastes, smells, or looks bad is not
satisfactory. I helped to enact the State's first standards for such factors
for drinking water and the result has been a marked improvement in many parts
of the state. These standards also must be enforced if our drinking water is to
be considered acceptable for the citizens of our state.