By Paul Tuthill
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Springfield, MA – Officials and activists say the Massachusetts state agency in charge of protecting the environment may not be able to carry out its basic functions if budget cuts approved up to now become final. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports .
The state budget working its way through the Massachusetts house would cut funding for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by 13 percent according to the agency's commissioner, Kenneth Kimmell
Such a drastic budget cut he says would force him to lay off 25 percent of the staff responsible for issuing permits for projects that must adhere to some of the strongest environmental regulations in the country.
Kimmell says the budget for his agency approved this week by the Massachusetts House would also affect such things as recycling programs, hazardous waste clean ups, and technical assistance to municipalities.
Erik Balsbaugh, the legislative director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters says the proposed budget would leave the DEP at its lowest staffing levels in decades.
Environment activists are not the only ones alarmed by the cuts, so are builders and commercial real estate developers, who fear the permitting process for their projects could slow to a crawl. Balsbaugh says the focus now will be on the state senate..
Governor Patrick proposed a budget for the Department of Environmental Protection that he said was essentially level funded. But revenue for the agency was to come from an expanded bottle deposit bill. The expanded bottle bill was not included in the budget proposed by the Mass. House Ways and Means Committee.
DEP Commissioner Kimmell was in Springfield Wednesday to present a 100 thousand dollar grant to help support the city's two year old single-stream recycling program. Kimmell says the administration is encouraging all the state's cities and towns to adopt single stream recycling. So far, about 70 have the program
Officials say Springfield has increased the amount of waste it recycles by 60 percent since switching to the single stream program