Fears that the Trump administration may move to lift the Delaware River Basin’s fracking ban have prompted environmental groups to launch a public pledge to defend the watershed from drilling.
In short:
- The Delaware River Basin Commission banned fracking in 2021, citing risks to drinking water for about 15 million people; activists say new federal and congressional actions threaten that protection.
- A Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania introduced legislation calling for a federal review of the commission, while the Army Corps of Engineers recently ended federal funding for its climate and equity programs.
- The gas industry argues the ban violates landowners’ rights and ignores decades of regulated shale development, but studies show the region’s drinking water and forests are far more valuable than its gas reserves.
Key quote:
“The value, not just economic but civic and ecological, is many times more than the small amount of gas that’s up there.”
— Jerry Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center
Why this matters:
The Delaware River Basin supplies drinking water to major cities including Philadelphia and Trenton, making it one of the East Coast’s most vital watersheds. Fracking brings high-volume water use, toxic chemical mixtures, and wastewater disposal challenges that have been linked to groundwater and air contamination in other shale regions. Even small leaks can spread across interconnected aquifers and rivers, threatening fish, farms, and downstream communities. Beyond local pollution, expanded gas drilling adds methane to the atmosphere, a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates climate change. The basin’s forests and wetlands also buffer floods and filter pollutants, meaning any degradation could ripple through public health, ecosystems and regional economies for generations.
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