River Under Attack from Natural Gas

Jackie Shutack | Reporte
One advocacy group says the Delaware River is in danger!

In fact on a new list of endangered rivers the Delaware is at the very top.

And the group "American Rivers" is pointing the finger at companies drilling for natural gas.

Much of the areas approved for natural gas drilling are along the northern part of the Delaware.

But environmentalists say that the people living in Easton and Phillipsburg could easily feel the effects of natural gas drilling. That's why one group singled out the Upper Delaware River as the most threatened river in the country.

The Delaware River provides us with recreation and an essential resource, drinking water.

Soon, the land surrounding the upper portions of the river will likely be used for natural gas drilling.

The process of extracting natural gas is known as fracking, and it involves basically taking a soup of chemicals, mixing it with water, a large amount of water, and injecting it into the ground, where it breaks the ground open to release the gas, said Andrew Fahlund of America Rivers.

That's why the environmental group American Rivers has designated the Delaware as number one on its list of America's Most Endangered Rivers this year. Across the state, Pittsburgh's Monongahela River is ranked ninth.

We would like to see the process halted until there are adequate guarantees, said Fahlund.

An employee of a natural gas drilling company told 69 News anonymously that if we did think it was going to be harmful, we wouldn't do it.

The State Department of Environmental Protection does oversee environmental and public safety concerns. But to many environmentalists, that's not enough.

Maya van Rossum/Delaware Riverkeeper Network: "The threats range from loss of important freshwater flows to introduction of toxins and other poisonous pollution to the devastation of the landscape as a result of massive development that will come in with natural gas drilling, said Maya van Rossum with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

Two companies, Chesapeake Appalachia and Statoil, are listed in the report. We were unsuccessful in reaching out to both companies.

American Rivers has been compiling this list for 25 years.