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Environmentalists cite natural gas drilling as a pollution threat to water supplies

American Rivers, a national environmental advocacy group, Wednesday named the upper Delaware River as the nation's most endangered.

The selection is not getting any argument from New Jersey environmentalists.

American Rivers said the Delaware is threatened by plans to drill for natural gas. Energy companies have leased thousands of acres of land in the Delaware watershed in New York and Pennsylvania in hope of finding gas in the Marcellus shale rock formations.

The organization said a drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking'' is a threat to water supplies. The gas industry argues that fracking is safe.

The Delaware River Basin Commission last month announced it is drafting regulations for gas drilling in shale formations and will not approve any projects until the guidelines are created.

The upper Delaware provides drinking water for 15 million people in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Phillipsburg, Trenton and a number of South Jersey towns depend on the river for water.

The Sierra Club of New Jersey agrees with American Rivers' rating of the upper Delaware.

"The potential for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale will have a detrimental impact on the environment as a result of the process of fracking and its effect on the water supply,'' Jeff Tittel, the director, said. "New Jersey is downstream from all the possible pollution that results from fracking in the upper Delaware, affecting the drinking water for one third of its residents. The state would also see more floods impacting communities from the clearing of tens of thousands of acres of forests for drilling.''

Tittel said the American Rivers' report shows that New Jersey needs to lead the opposition against shale drilling in the Delaware.

"The Sierra Club applauds the Delaware River Basin Commission for instituting a moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale but the moratorium has to be expanded to include exploratory wells as well as drilling wells,'' Tittel said. "This report should be a wakeup call for the political leaders that what happens in the Upper Delaware affects the water supply for the people of New Jersey.

"The lessons of the Gulf show that government must have strict oversight when it comes to drilling as well as preventing drilling in environmentally sensitive areas,'' Tittel said. "If we had major spills of fracking chemicals or other environmental disasters in the Delaware River, it could destroy one of them most beautiful rivers in the country as well as the drinking water for so many people in the state.''

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM