A report was issues yesterday by an national environmental group, American Rivers, announcing its list of ten of “America’s Most Endangered Rivers,” endangered from factors such as over-development, contamination by chemicals or mining waste, dams, etc.
On the top of that list this year is the Upper Delaware River, the portion of the Delaware that creates the border of Pennsylvania and New York, way before the River comes to New Jersey. The section on the Delaware is here. The report is limited to the impact to the PA-NY region; however, on the principle that problems upstream eventually flow down to our neck of the woods, this may is definitely something to pay attention to.
The danger to the Upper Delaware is apparently coming from the effort to develop natural gas from deposits upriver. To access the natural gas, it is being proposed by several energy corporations (no, BP is not among the ones listed) to take significant amounts of water from the Delaware, inject chemicals, and use that water to flush out the natural gas. Of course, the water used will be contaminated, and is likely to seek back into the water table and eventually back into the Delaware.
Again, no impact to our region is described. But the report does state [my emphasis]
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has designated the Delaware River Basin from its headwaters to Trenton as “special protection waters,” to protect the quality and quantity of the region’s water. All test wells and other gas drilling must only be done with reviews and permits issued by the DRBC, a regional body composed of the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and the Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. DRBC has received many gas drilling permit applications, several for surface water and three for gas wells, and is currently acting on these applications. The DRBC must refuse to issue all permits to facilitate gas drilling until a thorough Programmatic Environmental Impact Study is completed.
If you saw the Tuesday screening of “Blue Gold” hosted by Stop the Sale. you know how precious fresh water resources are, and how they are being endangered and squandered worldwide for commercial and industrial purposes. And it you haven’t seen the movie, you only have to read the name “Deepwater Horizon” to realize how much damage the search for energy can cause. We don’t need to see that kind of disaster replicated in the Upper Delaware, and we don’t want any problems floating downstream.
I will continue to pay attention to this. However, it’s also worth asking all of your officials in the City, State and Federal governments what they will do to ensure that the Delaware – for all of its length – stays clean.