In December, the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association (PMA) reported that through the first 10 months of 2005, the commonwealth had lost 12,300 manufacturing jobs. That statistic was included in data received from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to PMA, with the 12,300 jobs included, the state had lost 59,800 manufacturing jobs since January 2003, and the prospects for a reversal of the state's manufacturing fortunes didn't appear optimistic.

On the gubernatorial campaign trail this year, Gov. Ed Rendell has been touting his accomplishments in terms of bringing new jobs to the state and making money available for economic and community development projects. But the governor apparently doesn't have the time to become personally involved in the issue of why business opportunities in the Butler Area Sewer Authority's service area must remain on hold because of the state Department of Environmental Protection's hard-line stance against BASA.

DEP imposed a new-sewer-tap-ins moratorium earlier this year in response to BASA's failure to meet the terms of a 2001 consent agreement dealing with keeping stormwater out of the authority's sewer lines. The consent agreement expired Dec. 31.

Not only has the moratorium shut down new housing construction, but it also is affecting businesses, including potential manufacturing operations.

Wednesday's Butler Eagle included a front-page article about the frustration the new owner of the former Castle Rubber building in East Butler is experiencing because of the sewer-tap ban. Businesses that want to open in the building are in a holding pattern until a new BASA-DEP agreement is forthcoming, under which DEP initially will allow 160 new connections to the BASA system.

The moratorium is prohibiting creation of about 100 new jobs — at least some of them in manufacturing — in a building in which about 130 workers were employed prior to Castle Rubber's closing in 2003.

The building had sewer service prior to Castle Rubber's closing, but now the building has to wait for new service because service to the structure was interrupted.

Perhaps the next PMA report on the commonwealth's state of manufacturing should include an asterisk pointing to DEP's negative impact on manufacturing this spring and summer.

People of the BASA service area should pay attention to what their lawmakers have been doing while the tap-in ban has dragged on. Obviously, they haven't done enough to try to mediate a settlement that would bring a quicker end to the tap-ins moratorium.

State Rep. Brian Ellis was the only one of the BASA service area's state lawmakers to personally attend a DEP-BASA meeting in Meadville, Crawford County, dealing with the consent-order problem. But lawmakers' silence about the BASA issue has predominated while Kelly Burch, DEP's Northwest Region director, stated in a June 1 letter to the editor in the Butler Eagle that DEP's stance against BASA is based on DEP's goal of helping BASA.

Area housing contractors and developers, materials suppliers and companies like those wanting to open in the former Castle Rubber building obviously don't agree with DEP's way of "helping," based on comments made to this newspaper.

Regarding lawmakers: It is interesting that most members of the county's state House delegation were present for what was described as three hours of emotional debate on a proposed constitutional amendment on a gay-marriage ban Tuesday but seem less eager to formidably tackle a serious issue at home.

Of course, they're part of a legislative body that can't produce an acceptable plan for property-tax reform, either.

In his June 1 letter to the editor, DEP's Burch said, "The fact is that our department has worked aggressively to help BASA achieve compliance so investors will continue to recognize the region as an attractive place to do business."

But the success of that "work" can be disputed when DEP is stymieing business entities' efforts to start up due to an unbending stance that need not be.

Does the Rendell administration really condone DEP's handling of the BASA situation? Are Rendell and area lawmakers really so powerless against DEP heavy-handedness?

The impact on the BASA system from any new building that could be accomplished during this year's construction season would be minuscule, and the former Castle Rubber building's impact also would be negligible when factored into the total BASA operation.

The state has lost about 60,000 manufacturing jobs over the last 41 months. DEP should be factoring the state's jobs picture — manufacturing and otherwise — in with its mission on behalf of a clean environment.

The situation surrounding the former Castle Rubber building is clear evidence that it has plenty of work to do in that regard.