A letter to the Delaware River Basin Commission
The Natural Resources Portfolio of the LWVDE Advocacy Corps is asking for your support to call upon the Delaware River Basin Commission to stop fracking in the area around the Delaware River Basin. (This Commission is made up of the Governors of Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. They have the authority to make rules governing the way the Delaware River Basin is used.)
Scroll down near the bottom of this email for a link to sign LWV's copy of a letter which originated with the Delaware Riverkeepers. This coalition, of which we are a part, is dedicated to protecting the Delaware River Basin, and LWVDE wants to throw the weight of its members behind the effort.
The letter asks the commission to expand the ban to not only prohibit direct fracking, but also ban the disposal of fracking byproducts created elsewhere, in the Delaware River Basin.
Signatures must be recorded or received by September 18, 2022.
Why is this important?
The dangers of fracking to both human and nonhuman life around the Delaware River are spelled out in the letter, which begins as follows:
To: Commissioners, Delaware River Basin Commission
You adopted a permanent ban on fracking throughout the Delaware River Watershed last year, a historic and righteous decision by the DRBC. The public has been clamoring since then for you to complete the job and prohibit the pollution and depletion caused by fracking taking place elsewhere by revising the pending fracking regulations and voting for a full ban.
This will protect both the Watershed’s communities – human and nonhuman – and its irreplaceable water supplies for up to 17 million people by prohibiting the fracking industry’s effort to dump its toxic and radioactive wastewater in the Basin and preventing their use of Delaware River water for water-intense, wasteful and destructive fracking processes. In 2018, the fracking industry produced 2.9 billion gallons of wastewater[1] in Pennsylvania alone, and the longer well bores being drilled since 2018 mean even higher volumes of both water use and resulting toxic wastewater.[2] The industry is searching for new places to exploit, which is why they are knocking on the Delaware River Basin’s door.
A full ban will also ensure that the DRBC’s regulations do not enable the industry to emit considerable greenhouse gasses by continuing to frack without restraint. DRBC must do its part to restrain the polluting fracking industry and the spewing of methane, the most powerful of greenhouse gasses on the all-important 10- and 20-year time scale.[3] In other words, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today! And this is part of DRBC’s mission.
Etc. (please click the link under "Signing the Letter" below to read the full text of the letter)
Signing the Letter
If you wish to sign on to this letter, please click this link and submit your signature:
If you prefer, you may send an email indicating your desire to have your name added to the letter. Send your name, state of residence and zipcode to advocacylwvde [at] gmail.com. Either way, a list of supporters' names and area of residence will be forwarded to the Delaware Riverkeepers, which is managing this initiative. The goal is to include signers from the four states surrounding the Delaware River Basin.
[Note: your email address will remain private to LWVDE; it will not be provided to other coalition members.]
