Joint letter to PA General Assembly opposing stripping of municipal drilling authority

Signed by 30 organizations detailing the reasons why they oppose SB 1100.
PETITION: Do Not Let Corporate Gas Drillers Trump Local Rights of Pennsylvanians - Say No to SB 1100.

Delaware Riverkeeper's petition to the DRBC

Download the Delaware Riverkeeper's petition to the Delaware River Basin Commission, then press Ctrl+P to print.

"Commission needs to keep moratorium"

Madeline Rawley's letter to the editor of the Intelligencer, June 12, 2011:

As your Tuesday editorial on natural gas fracking rightly said, "if something goes wrong, the result can be catastrophic."

Our elected officials in the Delaware River Basin, influenced by a perhaps illusory promise of economic development and a new source of energy, may soon decide to lift the moratorium they have placed on fracking here, and risk a catastrophe, just as the Japanese government officials did when they responded to a Tokyo energy company and placed nuclear energy plants on an earthquake fault that had a tsunami danger as well. The result was a short-term gain for very long term pain.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, created to protect the waters of the Delaware River, which runs past Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, hearing about the environmental, drinking water and public health problems that natural gas fracking can cause, wisely put a moratorium on drilling. Now, however, the commission, composed of the four governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and the general who heads the Army Corps of Engineers, says they will vote soon on whether to lift the moratorium and permit the drilling to begin.

Unbelievably, the commission is planning to vote before a research study, being conducted by the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency about the effects of fracking on drinking water, is completed, thus risking the drinking water of more than 15 million people, among whom are the residents of Philadelphia, New York City, four Bucks County towns and a portion of Doylestown Township. Other Pennsylvania rivers, like the Susquehanna and the Monongahela, have already been affected by the toxic chemicals, salt and radioactivity that result from breaking Marcellus shale to release the gas. The EPA will not be issuing its preliminary report until next year, with the final report due in 2012.

Why is the Delaware River Basin Commission considering lifting the moratorium before the EPA study is released? Shouldn't they learn before permitting drilling whether it is safe to do so? Why the rush? Why is the commission already considering an invalid application from a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil to draw water from a trout creek in upstate New York? Is it because Exxon Mobil, knowing that millions and millions of gallons of water are needed to drill wells if the moratorium is lifted, believes the moratorium will be lifted soon?

Please google "Delaware River Basin Commission" for contact information. Tell the DRBC to keep the moratorium in place until the EPA study says gas drilling will not destroy our clean Delaware River water, our most basic need.

Madeline Rawley
Doylestown Township