A Senate committee approved Gov. Parris N. Glendening's bill to improve water quality yesterday as a House panel prepared to act on a rival measure backed by agricultural interests.
The Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee voted 7-4 to send the bill, Glendening's response to last year's Pfiesteria outbreak, to the Senate floor.
The Senate measure would require farmers to adopt runoff control plans, as the governor wants, but the committee adopted amendments that would significantly reduce the penalties for noncompliance.
The alternative bill, sponsored by Del. Ron Guns, chairman of the House Environmental Matters Committee, calls for a voluntary approach to the runoff plans.
Guns, a Cecil County Democrat, said his committee will meet this morning to take up the water quality legislation.
The Senate committee passed its bill with the expectation that any final product would look much different after going to the floor and an eventual conference with the House.
Pub Date: 2/25/98
