| "Even if each participant only picks up one or two violations per flight, they're still looking at 20 or 30 sites in total. It's cost effective and we're getting a lot of information out of it." | |
| Larry Toth, Pennsylvania's Coastal Zone Management Program |
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Environmental enforcement officers in Pennsylvania are taking to the sky to detect violations and monitor permitted projects. Getting this bird's-eye view, coastal managers say, can be more effective than on-the-ground monitoring, and saves time and money.
"It's really been quite successful for me," says Alex Page, solid waste specialist for Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection. "I've found things that I never would have found in a car."
Pennsylvania's Coastal Zone Management Program has been conducting the overflight program since the early 80s. "We're a networked program, so we don't have any enforcement authority. The next best thing is to provide enforcement tools to the different enforcement agencies on which we rely," notes Larry Toth, a coastal planner for the coastal program.
Over several days in the spring and fall, the coastal program takes enforcement staff from local, state, and federal agencies up in a helicopter where they can take photographs. The flights alternate annually between Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary coastal zones.
During the flights, enforcement staff are trying to detect violations that might impact wetlands or water quality, as well as the processing and disposing of solid waste. They also monitor wetlands mitigation, the cleanup of brownfield industrial sites, and adherence to permit conditions.
Unexpected problems are often detected. Page recalls being startled one flight to see a large plume in the Delaware River that turned out to be raw sewage from a malfunctioning treatment plant. "If we had been standing on the ground looking at the water surface, we would never have seen it."
The participants also use the overflights to develop a photographic history of problem sites. The photos are "very valuable tools in court," Page notes. "They are extremely effective at showing the true conditions of a site that is hard to rebut."
Before an overflight, Toth sends participants a map to mark specific sites they want to fly over. A general flight path is created from the combined information. The timing of the overflights takes into account potential interference, such as leaf cover and tide levels. Three or four enforcement officers go up at a time, and flights may last anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours. About eight flights are flown over two to three days.
After the flights, the coastal program requests that participants give them a listing of all the sites that were looked at, and the violations that were found. Six months later, participants send the coastal program a brief update on what has been done to resolve the violations.
Toth uses the information to develop a chart and report, which are sent to all the participants and their supervisors, as well as the secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Toth says the program is working. "Even if each participant only picks up one or two violations per flight, they're still looking at 20 or 30 sites in total. It's cost effective and we're getting a lot of information out of it." He notes that it allows enforcement officers to monitor many sites in a short period of time and to see sites that are normally inaccessible to them. It also promotes interagency cooperation and communication.
"It does make a difference," he says. "It's a unique tool for the enforcement people to use."
For more information on Pennsylvania's overflight program, contact Larry Toth at (717) 772-5622 or latoth@state.pa.us.
