It is a symbol of the American Revolution. Now the Delaware is the nation's most endangered riverAround 17 million people get their water from the Upper Delaware River, which snakes through the boundaries between New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
But it is being threatened by energy companies who believe that the Marcellus Shale -- 95,000 square miles of dense, 400-million-year-old marine sedimentary rock that lies beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio -- contains enough natural gas to power the entire East coast region for the next 50 years.
The method used to extract all this gas is called hydraulic fracturing (or simply, "fracking"), which creates fractures in the rock to get to the sweet stuff. In 2005, Congress deemed that it was not necessary for the government to regulate this process, which environmentalists say is extremely dangerous, citing potential air quality degradation, groundwater contamination, unintended gas migration and even seismic events.
On June 3, a well in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, experienced a blowout, sending 35,000 gallons of fracking fluids into the air and the surrounding forested landscape. Some of the ingredients in this fluid can be toxic and include gels, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and in some cases, radioactive material. These fluids can also enter the groundwater, turning it into untreatable toxic wastewater.
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secretary John Hanger declared the June 3 blowout a "serious incident," saying, "The event at the well site could have been a catastrophic incident that endangered life and property."
In their 2010 report on America's endangered rivers, the non-profit river conservation group American Rivers declared that the Upper Delaware River was the nation's most endangered, citing the threat from natural gas extraction.
"Until a thorough study of these critical impacts is completed, the Delaware River Basin Commission must not issue permits that will allow gas drilling in this watershed," the group urges on their website.
"In addition, Congress must pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 to help protect all rivers within the Marcellus Shale region."
The EPA recently announced a $1.9 million study to re-examine hydraulic fracturing. But the oil and gas industry has been vigorously defending the safety of the process. Studies have "consistently shown that the risks are managed, it's safe, it's a technology that's essential ... it's also a technology that's well-regulated," said Lee Fuller, director of the industry coalition Energy In Depth, in an AP story.
But since the BP oil spill in the Gulf, the drilling companies have lost quite a bit of credibility with the public. "People no longer trust the oil and gas industry to say, 'Trust us, we're not cutting corners,'" said Cathy Carlson, a policy adviser for Earthworks, which supports federal regulation and a moratorium on fracking in the Marcellus Shale, in the AP article.
On the evening of Christmas Day in 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, George Washington famously led his troops across the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in a planned surprise attack against the Hessian forces in Trenton.
As regulators and environmentalists consider the future of both fracking and the Delaware River, they would do well to note the password to get past the sentry that Washington's troops set up along the New Jersey landing line: "Victory or Death."
And as the members of Congress consider the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act -- in the face of intense pressure from the energy industry lobbying groups -- they should remember something else Washington said: "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
image: "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze, 1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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