An Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) serves as an official public forum and mechanism for advancing environmental considerations within the municipal decision-making and policy process.

Summary

An Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) is a group of 3-7 people, appointed by a municipality’s elected officials, that advises the elected officials, as well as the planning commission and park and recreation board, on the protection, conservation, management, promotion and use of natural resources within the municipality. Pennsylvania municipalities are authorized to establish EACs through Pennsylvania’s Act 177 of 1996 (originally Act 148 of 1973). Since EACs are established through local ordinance and are not mandated, the support of elected officials is necessary for the formation of an EAC.

Track Record

As of 2008, local governments have established approximately 150 EACs in the Commonwealth, most of them operating in southeastern and northeastern Pennsylvania. New EACs are continuously being formed.

Typical End Users

Local government: Townships, boroughs and cities can establish EACs. Residents can organize and petition their municipal governing body (e.g., Board of Supervisors) to create the EAC.

Conservation Impact

High impact if nurtured. The EAC advises on municipal land use planning and other policy decisions. Because natural resource conservation/environmental matters are important and sometimes contentious, an EAC’s well-deliberated input is often a valuable perspective that the local elected officials respect and consider. Occasionally, EAC members will run for public office and become elected officials, ensuring natural resource conservation considerations are well represented along with public safety and engineering considerations. EACs can raise money for municipal environmental projects. EACs also save municipalities money through free professional advice and assessments (e.g. energy audits). An EAC can help preserve the institutional knowledge within a municipality that has a change in elected officials. EACs are about service. The EAC members are volunteers with a unique blend of education and experience who share a common desire to improve their communities.

What You'll Need

An EAC is established by local ordinance; therefore, the formation of an EAC must be supported by a municipality’s elected officials, and preferably, other municipal officials as well. A model EAC ordinance and model by-laws, can be found in the appendix of the EAC Handbook published by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

Obstacles and Challenges

Elected officials may fear that if they establish an EAC, it could be taken over by “tree huggers.” In this case it is helpful to remind the elected officials that they have the power to appoint EAC members, and that as an advisory body, the EAC only works if its recommendations achieve the respect and support of municipal officials. Once the EAC is established: (1) maintaining strong communications with other municipal officials and ensuring that EAC recommendations are considered and (2) sustaining diverse and committed members.

Contents of Main Description

What Don’t EACs Do?
The Impetus for EACs
EAC Environmental Projects and Topics
   Education
   Government Body Enacts Ordinance
   EAC Members
Enabling Act

What Do EACs Do?

While the EAC is only advisory, it can have strong influence. When the EAC functions properly and is appreciated by the municipality it serves, an EAC can have a significant and lasting effect on how natural resources can and should be a part of the infrastructure and decision-making of each municipality.

Act 177b of 2002 authorizes EACs to:

Identify environmental problems and recommend plans and programs to protect and improve the quality of the environment;
Make recommendations about the use of open land;
Promote a community environmental program;
Keep an index of all open space areas to determine the proper use of such areas;
Review plans, conduct site visits, and prepare reports for municipal officials; and
Advise local government agencies about the acquisition of property.

What Don’t EACs Do?

EACs do not regulate; they are advisory only.
EACs do not take the place of or compete with planning commissions or park and recreation boards; they augment and work closely with them.
EACs are not independent environmental advocacy groups. They are part of the local government and accomplish the most when they maintain positive and productive working relationships with other municipal officials.

The Impetus for EACs

The reasons for establishing an EAC vary by community. Sometimes a citizen or group of citizens may be concerned about an environmental matter in the community and approach municipal officials about creating an EAC to remedy the situation. Or an elected official, planning commission, manager, or engineer recommends that an EAC be formed to address open space, water, sustainability, or other types of matters which need attention, especially in regions under high growth pressure.

Elected officials, planning commissions, and other boards are stretched for time, so it can be difficult to attend to natural resource conservation and environmental issues, much less consider them at the front end of decision-making. Elected officials may turn to the EAC as a vehicle for helping them maintain their local quality of life and character.

Once an EAC is formed, it becomes part of the municipality’s local government structure, much like a planning commission, park and recreation board or other appointed volunteer body. Each EAC works with elected and other officials to define its role. This presents an almost unlimited opportunity to contribute to any decision related to natural resource conservation.

EACs and their members can help the local government by:

Focusing their energies on environmental concerns and helping municipal officials make environmentally sound decisions.
Serving as liaisons to both the community and decision makers.
Raising money for projects.
Engaging residents, community volunteers, and the private sector in natural resource protection.
When established as a multi-municipal EAC, working on a multi-municipal level.

The established EAC will set up regular meetings and decide upon projects. The elected officials may provide a list of projects to the EAC – or the EAC may suggest projects to the elected officials. Regardless, it is critical that the elected and other municipal officials support the EAC and that the EAC maintains positive and productive working relationships with other municipal officials.

EAC Environmental Projects and Topics

Examples of community environmental projects that could be spearheaded or topics that could be addressed by an EAC include:

Open space conversation
Greenways
Open space bonds and earned income taxes
Environmental resource inventories
Site plan review
Conservation ordinances
Rivers conservation plans
Riparian buffer plantings
Stream clean-ups
Water quality testing and monitoring
Air quality testing and monitoring
Brownfield remediation
Superfund site clean-ups
Community Supported Agriculture
Recycling
Green purchasing
Green buildings
Alternative energy
Stormwater management plans, ordinances, and public education
Habitat conservation and restoration
Greenhouse gas inventories
Climate change strategies and public education
Invasive species removal
Starting an EAC

Education

First, an appropriate level of understanding needs to be established within the municipality. The degree to which elected and other officials as well as community leaders and residents need to be educated will vary by municipality and circumstances.

While information can readily be gathered from a variety of sources, interested citizens or municipal officials can contact the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) for assistance with establishing EACs. Typically, upon invitation, PEC staff will visit the interested community and give a brief EAC presentation at a regular meeting of the elected officials. The presentation describes what an EAC is, how it is formed and typical EAC activities. PEC staff will subsequently follow up with the municipality to determine their interest in forming an EAC and provide technical assistance.

Government Body Enacts Ordinance

Once agreed that an EAC would be wise to create, the municipality’s governing body establishes the EAC by local ordinance. A model ordinance, and model by-laws, can be found in the appendix of the EAC Handbook.

EAC Members

Once the ordinance is passed, elected officials can select and approve members for the EAC as well as the EAC chair. The municipality can advertise for EAC members through a newsletter, website, posted notice, etc, and accept applications. Members are not required by law to have any particular expertise, but strong candidates for membership might include hydrologists, biologists, landscape architects, engineers, attorneys, professors, teachers, and other knowledgeable residents who are willing to volunteer to improve their community. EAC members must be residents of the municipality, and Act 177 states that “whenever possible, one member of the EAC shall also be a member of the municipal planning commission.”

Enabling Act

The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 148 in 1973 (amended in 1996 as P.L. 1158, No. 177) authorizing any municipality or group of municipalities to establish, by ordinance, an EAC.

Conservation Tools

Environmental Advisory Council

Experts

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