The ongoing heavy-handed tactics being employed by the state Department of Environmental Protection against the Butler Area Sewer Authority are unacceptable.

It is time that the county's legislative contingent become more actively involved in the situation, to the point of meetings with the Secretary of Environmental Protection and Gov. Ed Rendell.

State Rep. Brian Ellis personally attended a BASA-DEP meeting held in Meadville, Crawford County, on April 18 over DEP's ban on new tap-ins in the authority's service area and the effort to assemble a new consent agreement toward the worthy goal of alleviating stormwater infiltration into the BASA system.

The authority's failure to meet a Dec. 31, 2005, deadline for correcting the infiltration problem prompted DEP to impose the tap-in moratorium.

While there can be no dispute that BASA didn't meet terms of the prior consent agreement — albeit in part because of some problems beyond the authority's control — DEP has opted for a dictatorial stance that is unreasonable and demands giving up rights that should never be confiscated by any government agency.

If the DEP goal is indeed to become an environmental dictator — and it is beginning to look that way — officials with power over it need to examine the department's tactics with the intent of making the department reasonable, while still remaining dedicated to its mission.

The department can accomplish its goals without resorting to unreasonable demands, as is currently being attempted against BASA.

Thus, under no circumstances should BASA accede to the DEP demand that the authority give up its right to appeal DEP decisions. DEP is not all-perfect and should be subject to challenge in a court of law.

Meanwhile, the authority should be cautious about DEP stipulations that would result in imposition of another moratorium on April 1, 2007, even if a new consent order is implemented in the coming days without a glitch.

DEP should not hold Butler County's housing-construction industry hostage when the additional sewage from that construction would be negligible when factored into the stormwater-infiltration issue.

The proposed consent order would allow 160 sewage permits up to March 31, 2007, which might or might not be enough, considering this county's healthy growth rate.

On the one hand, Rendell is promoting economic development and touting his accomplishments on that front over the past three-plus years. On the other hand, at least in terms of the BASA service area, his DEP is working against development, negatively impacting not only the service area, but suppliers beyond that area that sell to the Butler County construction industry.

Therefore, the negative impact is far-reaching.

John Schon, BASA director, is right in expressing fear of what DEP is attempting to thrust on the authority and its seven municipalities. It's time that the state lawmakers who couldn't — or chose not to — attend the April 18 meeting in Meadville become more actively involved now in trying to defuse a situation that could be extremely harmful.

DEP has set a deadline of June 9 for BASA and the seven municipalities to adopt the proposed 29-page consent agreement. There isn't much time for the legislative delegation to implement a strategy that will better serve the BASA area's best interests.

Eliminating infiltration is in the best interests of the authority and its customers. So is DEP's respect for the area's economy.