The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has been under resourced for years. This is due primarily to a Republican controlled legislature which has starved it of funding. The DEP must be provided with adequate money and staffing in the upcoming Commonwealth budget.
The DEP is Pennsylvaniaâs environmental âcop on the beatâ. Its job is to enforce Pennsylvaniaâs environmental laws and regulations.
The best (although imperfect) measure of DEPâs strength over time is its number of filled positions, i.e., the number of people paid to come to work each day. In 2003, the DEP had 3,311 filled positions. This January it had 917 less positions. That is about a 28 per cent reduction in staff over the last 18 years.