Please sign our petition to tell the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to ban fracking in one of the most critical water resources in our country.
The Delaware River runs through five states, including 42 counties and 838 municipalities. It provides drinking water to over 17 million people, including two of the nation's largest cities -- New York City and Philadelphia.
For years, the oil and gas industry has had their eyes on the Delaware River Basin, in hopes to drill. We stopped them once, six years ago, and we will do it again now, once and for all. Since 2011, scientists and public health officials have published over 1,000 scientific and medical articles in peer-reviewed journals, documenting a wide range of adverse impacts to air, water, and individual and community health from unconventional shale gas development. Fracking activities should never take place near drinking water supplies.
We need your help to Ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin. If you’ve already signed on, please ask your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Why does your signature make a difference? Because New York holds one of five votes on the Delaware River Basin Commission. If Governor Cuomo and his authorities agree that a ban on fracking in New York State is needed to protect our communities, it makes sense to protect the entirety of the upper Delaware basin and for all who depend on this important river and region.
The DRBC is a multi-state authority, put into place in 1961 to protect and manage the resources of The Delaware – they therefore have the authority to act and to ban fracking. Those participating states are New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, along with the federal government, through the Army Corps of Engineers.
In addition to signing the petition, we will be testifying at a meeting this week on this issue to let the Commission know that fracking will cause irreparable damage to this beautiful area and threaten the drinking water of millions. Protecting this land is critical, as it supports numerous ecosystems and is home to the bald eagle, is the longest free flowing river in the eastern United States, and is the only river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean that has multiple sections designated for Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protection.
The number of testimonies allowed are limited, and that has reached capacity, but that doesn’t stop us from showing up in number outside to rally and demand the ban! You can join us at 10 AM on June 14th at Washington Crossing State Park Visitors Center, PA. Hope to see you there!
To learn more about the Delaware River Basin and some background on this issue, CLICK here.
Thank you for your time and continuing to support Catskill Mountainkeeper.
Sincerely,
Wes Gillingham, Associate Director
Catskill Mountainkeeper
http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/
