The Alliance For Sustainable Communities

Submit Statement to DRBC

On Jul 16, 2010, at 10:58 PM, Faith Zerbe of Delaware Riverkeeper Network wrote:

Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Meeting –THANK YOU to all who came out to the July 14 DRBC meeting; good news and bad news; and what ACTION you can take now

THANK YOU to all who came out to the DRBC meeting on Wednesday July 14 and to the thousands of you who submitted letters to the DRBC in support of a complete and total moratorium on all natural gas related projects in the Delaware River Watershed. About 750 people attended the meeting from every corner of the Watershed, the majority of who were there to seek a Moratorium. Your comments were informed, passionate, and had an impact. We do not have a final count yet on letters that have been submitted in the past weeks calling for a total moratorium and against the Stone Energy water withdrawal for fracking their gas wells, but we know there were several thousand more than the 2000 already submitted by through April! Our public voice was loud and clear!

Good News:

Those who wanted to overturn the current moratorium did not get what they wanted. The partial moratorium on all natural gas well drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shale formations in the Delaware River Watershed (except for some exploratory gas wells) is still in full force.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s Request for an adjudicatory Hearing to challenge the DRBC’s grandfathering of exploratory wells already permitted by the states was granted; other entities requested this too and the Hearing will be consolidated into one administrative legal proceeding before a Hearing Officer, date to be announced. We will fight at this evidentiary Hearing to have all natural gas wells included in the review and moratorium to prevent the risk of pollution and degradation.

Bad News:

The Stone Energy application for .70 million gallons of water per day from the West Branch of the Lackawaxen River, a vibrant trout stream in Wayne County, was approved; thank you to the State of Delaware, represented by DRBC chair Dr. Katherine Bunting-Howarth, who did not support the approval. Even though they cannot withdraw any water until they get a DRBC gas well permitted, it was wrong to allow this approval to go forward when natural gas regulations have not been developed and no comprehensive study has been completed yet. We argued this in our comments we submitted on the draft permit; this will have to be challenged in the legal arena now.

In a shocking turn of events, Executive Director Carol Collier announced that the Supplemental Executive Director Determination will be amended to allow TWO MORE SO-CALLED EXPLORATORY gas wells to be drilled in Wayne County at the request of Hess Corporation, the owner of the gas leases. The DRBC has authorized the Hess Loophole that allows so-called exploratory wells to get drilled without any DRBC review to get even bigger -- so big two more drill rigs can drive through it. These wells, known as Davidson IV and Hammond IV, seem to not have their PADEP drilling permits yet! Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed a formal request with DRBC to include these 2 additional wells in the upcoming adjudicatory Hearing.

WHAT YOU CAN DO. Of the several hundred people who came to the meeting, some from 5 hours away, only a couple hundred were able to say their two minute comment before the meeting was shut down at 6:00 pm. About 150-250 people were put outside of the building – essentially locked out from the proceedings -- by the fire marshal who said the crowd exceeded the occupancy limit; they had to wait for someone to leave in order to come inside. Those who wanted to speak and could not were invited by Director Collier to submit their comment in writing. If you did not get to speak and you have a comment to submit, please address it to Executive Director Carol Collier and email to: Paula.Schmitt@drbc.state.nj.us

Attached are also talking points that can help you with your letter.

Thank you for fighting for clean water and the living communities of the Delaware River Watershed, human and nonhuman. We cannot sacrifice our water for gas!

For more information on gas drilling go to: www.delawareriverkeeper.org

		-- Faith Zerbe 
Delaware Riverkeeper Network
300 Pond Street, Second Floor
Bristol PA 19007
Phone: 215.369.1188 x110
Cell: 610-291-1403