Friend --
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/