The Upper Delaware River, the drinking water source for 17 million people across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania is the most endangered river in the US, due to risks from shale fracking for natural gas, according to the latest rankings by American Rivers.
The environmental group says the natural gas extraction process poisons groundwater and creates toxic pollution.
American Rivers called on the Delaware River Basin Commission to ban any shale fracking in the Upper Delaware watershed until a thorough study of impacts is completed and the pollution potential of shale fracking is fully documented and assessed.
EPA announced in March that it will conduct a comprehensive research study to investigate the potential adverse impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water quality and public health.
American Rivers also urged Congress to pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 and to resist special interest pressures to include federal subsidies of shale fracking for natural gas in upcoming energy legislation.
“It is now up to the Delaware River Basin Commission to aggressively carry out its mandate to protect the waters of the Delaware for if it doesn’t, New York and Pennsylvania will have an economic, social, and public health disaster of unprecedented dimension,” said Albert Appleton, former Commissioner of the New York City
Department of Environmental Protection
The entire Upper Delaware River and its watershed are located over a
geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale. In order to access
the reserves of natural gas in the shale, multinational energy
corporations have acquired drilling rights to large tracts of land in
the watershed. Two companies alone, Chesapeake Appalachia (NYSE: CHK) and Statoil (NYSE: STO),
have a stated goal of developing 13,500 to 17,000 gas wells in the
region in next twenty years.
“This is an intrinsically contaminating process; wherever gas drilling has occurred, environmental destruction has occurred. The total cumulative impact of this industrial activity results in water pollution, air pollution, and soil contamination. Once these precious resources are destroyed, they are gone forever,” said Barbara Arrindell, Executive Director of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.
American Rivers said energy companies have requested permits to take clean water from the river to mix with over 250 chemicals (some toxic, undisclosed, and proprietary), to make hydraulic fracturing fluid for injection into wells to release the gas. Each well requires between three and five million gallons of water for fracturing.
In 1978, Congress designated roughly 73 miles of the Upper Delaware River between Hancock, NY and Mill Rift, PA as one of the original National Wild and Scenic Rivers, and made it a unit of the National Park System. The river is a popular destination for sightseeing, boating, camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, and bird watching. Additionally, several endangered, at-risk, or rare species live in the river and along its banks.
The entire report of endangered rivers is available at the link below.
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