Delaware River Voice - the Delaware Riverkeeper's blog

Army Corps Cooks Books Again on Delaware River Deepening

2012-01-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

Economically, ecologically, for jobs and/or protection of the public Deepening the Delaware River is not a good idea. And now there is a new report which, using the Army Corps’ own findings, demonstrates that this project is a big loser for the taxpayers – just as was found based on GAO findings years ago, every dollar invested in deepening brings less than a dollar back. Environmentally the project is a major threat to our River and region, economically it is a worse than a wasted investment.

The Government Accountability Office has three times challenged the claims of economic benefit from deepening – with the most recent report issuing just this past year, April 2010. In its most recent report, the GAO documented once again that the Army Corps failed to provide Congress or the public with accurate, up-to-date, complete information regarding the economic ramifications of deepening and in so doing failed to provide the objective assessment Congress needs to make an informed choice about continuing to fund the project. This GAO report followed a 2002 Report and 2006 Congressional testimony provided by the GAO characterizing similar concerns. Each report was followed by a quick “upgrade” by the Army Corps, and each “upgrade” was soundly refuted by experts and followed up by subsequent GAO actions mentioned.

In apparent response to the GAO 2010 report the Army Corps conducted and released its 8^th economic analysis of deepening. It is noteworthy that the Army Corps never made this document publicly available until the Delaware Riverkeeper Network learned of its existence and requested it via the Freedom of Information Act. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has had the nationally recognized expert, Dr. Robert Stearns, review the report and based on the information it contains it is clear that deepening the Delaware is unnecessary to serve the ports and a detriment to the taxpayers that would be expected to pay for it.

Dr. Stearns found basic, fundamental flaws in the analysis done by the Army Corps which prove their positive economic claims for the project are severely over-inflated. In short, merely correcting for a fundamental and basic economic analysis claim identified by Dr. Stearns, the benefit cost ratio for the project falls to a mere 1.1 to 1, i.e. at best one can claim 10 cents of net taxpayer benefit for every dollar invested in the Delaware River deepening project. When additional errors are taken into consideration, this figure will fall even further, supporting a conclusion that when accurately assessed the Delaware Deepening project yields less than $1 of benefit for taxpayers for every $1 spent on it – i.e. it is a net loss for the taxpayers and therefore cannot warrant the nearly $300 million it requires for construction. And this is without even considering the wealth of environmental harm and damage to river-dependent jobs that will result if this project is allowed to move forward.

In addition to Dr. Stearns findings, there are additional findings documented in a supplemental report which further demonstrate the economic failings of the project and document why it must be soundly rejected by fiscally-minded elected officials seeking to ensure the proper use and investment of tax dollars during these hard economic times.

In the supplemental report we point out:

· That the Army Corps continues to fail to acknowledge all of the oil facility closings in its calculations;

· That the Corps claims benefits from the broadkill beach spoil disposal portion of the project and yet Delaware and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have documented the project is a harm;

· That when the Army Corps dredged the 12 miles known as reach C they found they had underestimated the spoils to be disposed of by 38% -- apply that to the project as a whole and we have a lot more spoils which means more cost and harm, none of which the Corps includes in its analysis;

· That the Army Corps’ analysis claims to update the benefits of the project but does not attempt to update the costs – thus giving a skewed picture using a mixture of time frames.

When all of these are included, the case against this project gets even more rock solid.

Considering the lack of benefits, there can be no argument for accepting the level of environmental harm deepening brings.

What is at risk?

Oysters, horseshoe crabs, shorebirds and the hundreds of millions of dollars economic benefit dependent upon them. Including in the biomedical industry that needs healthy and growing horseshoe crab populations for testing that protects us from poisonous vaccines.

Even with the Army Corp’s false analysis, at most for this nearly $300 million dollar expenditure, the Corps is talk about just over $13 million of benefit a year.

The jobs and income associated with the River that are put on the line by this project are valued at far more, for example:

$80 million of economic benefit a year associated with oysters,

$34 million with birding,

$150 million with the biomedical industry

Also at risk are:

Endangered species including the atlantic and shortnose sturgeon which need protection from extinction but also, who if allowed to rebound would themselves supports hundreds of millions in jobs and economic benefits as they did in our region’s not so distant past.

The marshlands that protect our coasts and coastal communities.

The quality of the river from both contaminants and increased salt water intrusion to unnatural levels that put at risk drinking water, fish and other important communities.

The Army Corps has misled congress and the public about this project time and time again.

When it comes to the fact that the Army Corps has tried to deceive us once again you don’t’ need to take our word for that – just take the word of the army corps – Bob stearns found it right in their own reports – again!

The project is a proven loser.

Assertions that deepening will inject millions of dollars into the region’s economies and create tens of thousands of jobs have not been the subject of any reports or reviews made available to the public or the experts for considered review. Even the Army Corps estimates only $13.65 million of net annual economic benefit—a rather small sum when one considers the associated harms and that these benefits are the result of economic efficiencies, not increased goods or jobs.

The fact is that there is nothing on the record to demonstrate or document that deepening will lead to the immense economic benefits claimed by project supporters; even the Corps refutes their claims:

The Army Corps has stated that the “mix and volume of cargoes coming to the benefiting terminals will be equivalent for the current 40 foot or the proposed 45 foot channel depths. There is no induced tonnage as a result of the deepening project. … The future volume of cargo passing through the Delaware River port system is determined by … factors that are not affected in any measurable way by the channel depth.”

Don't Deepen the Delaware -- Write your Congressman today!

Public Service or Public Sacrifice?

2011-12-16T15:23:00.000-05:00

Photo by Amy Roe

I’ve often heard that being elected to public office is about sacrifice. Naively, I thought that meant personal sacrifice on the part of the elected official to ensure they did the very best job they could for their constituents. Unfortunately, it seems that the “sacrifice” that many public officials are willing to make these days is sacrificing the public, the environment and the health of future generations in order to serve their own personal and political agendas, including those of their political friends and donors.

I didn’t think the sacrifices of public service would include the 19 families in Dimock, PA who have lost their clean and healthy drinking water because it was contaminated by Marcellus shale gas drilling. The State is choosing not to ensure the long-term replacement or restoration of the water by the drillers – instead the State has allowed the drilling company responsible to stop their delivery and pursuit of a suitable and long-term water supply for these families. I also didn’t think the sacrifices of public service would include the growing volume of families, environments and kids-yet-to-be-born, to the shale gas drillers who are wreaking such havoc wherever they seem to go.

I didn’t think the sacrifices of public service would include the oystermen, the fishermen, the bed and breakfasts, the entire population of Delaware River Atlantic Sturgeon, and much more that will be harmed by deepening the Delaware River – a project that Pennsylvania is going to use taxpayer dollars to pay for. The Government Accountability Office has three times challenged the Army Corps’ assertions of the economic benefits of the project and so the federal government isn’t putting forth the money – nor are the businesses who claim they support the project.

I didn’t think the sacrifices of public service included the families who live downstream from major development and gas drilling projects and will suffer the resulting dangers and pollution because Pennsylvania legislators would rather make life easier for the developers and drillers rather than require basic safety measures like ensuring protection of the floodplains, buffers and woodlands that prevent growing and future flooding problems, water pollution and air pollution.

And now we have the Pennsylvania Legislators willing to strip communities of their legal authorities to protect themselves from damaging community and environmental projects like gas drilling, to learn more and get active on this one see: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=97

I think it is about time that public service be about serving the public, protecting the health, safety, future and needs of the public.

A Defining Moment – What Comes First, Your Water and Air or a False Promise of Cheap Energy

2011-11-10T12:14:00.001-05:00

One of the defining moments of our time and for our region is here today. Will we trade the water, air, food and health of thousands of communities and millions of people to smash gas from the ancient rocks that are part of our earth’s foundation?

Many are rightfully raising their voices up against this injustice, which is happening in many parts of the country but not yet in the Delaware River basin. They are pointing to the tyranny that would allow private profits of big business like Hess and Exxon and Chesapeake to once again be built upon the forced sacrifice of hard-working people, communities and environments.

But raising our voices isn’t enough.

In 2000, when the Supreme Court decided who would become the next President of the United States many people spoke out in anger and demanded change but in the end nothing really happened.

When we learned conclusively that this country’s leaders deliberately lied in order to take this country into war many spoke up in outrage and shame but in the end nothing changed.

When the opportunity to provide genuine health care for all people in this country -- including those so desperately in need due to the misfortune of illness, or accident or corporate malfeasance – was dashed because of the “Don’t’ Kill Granny” marketing scheme, many rose up and spoke out, but when all was said and done the path of the politicians didn’t really change.

In 2009, when the Army Corps exempted itself out of its obligation to comply with federal and state laws before instituting a $277 million dollar deepening project that puts at risk the safety, ecology, economy, beauty and health of our Delaware Estuary many spoke up but the arrogance of the Army Corps won out and the project began its slow stumble forward.[1]

And then we had the government bailouts. Bailouts for corporations and banks who had run scams and questionable businesses practices that robbed people of their retirements and lost them their jobs, while at the same time providing record salaries for the very corporate leaders who had engaged in these bad practices. And the very government leaders that were happy to bailout their rich corporate buddies are now working against unemployment benefits, social security, medicare and the unions that were created to protect and serve our citizens when in times of need. And so now the voices are once again building against the injustices. And yet the media and the politicians don’t seem to be listening – trying to mischaracterize or minimize the very legitimate and deeply held concerns of the communities who are speaking out.

With drilling we have so many well-informed, passionate, convincing, credible, well-spoken and well intentioned voices speaking out and taking action to spread the word about the dangers of gas drilling – and this time, we must continue to strive until something does in fact change!

We are now coming to a moment of truth – if the Governors of the four states and the President of the United States, through the Army Corps, convenes on 11/21 to vote to begin drilling and fracking in the Delaware Watershed, we must send a message loud and clear that these votes against our rights to clean water and air will not be tolerated. We must make sure our politicians at all levels know – if you hand over our water, our air, our lands and our health to the drillers on 11/21, the voices will not quiet, they will grow louder, and the political consequences will be swift, resilient, and ongoing.

The protests around fossil fuels are growing in this nation and a strong diverse movement has formed. On November 6^th,over ten thousand citizens encircled the White House to say no to tar sands mining. On 11/21, we need thousands to again stand up in solidarity to draw a line of protection for our River and to say no drilling in the Delaware River Basin.

What action can you take now?

ü Come to the Trenton War Memorial on 11/21 and legally exercise your first amendment rights to help show our politicians that their decision on that day does matter and, if wrong, will have political and legal consequences.

ü Bring everyone in your community you can come in contact with into the fold on this issue.

ü Help us counter the false television advertising that right now is going unchallenged across the airwaves – www.frackattack.org gives one path to help us raise the funds needed for our message of truth and hope.

ü Between now and 11/21 take every action you learn about that is being crafted and carried out to get the Governors and the President to make the right choice. Start by calling each of the Governors and tell them to vote on 11/21 – Don’t Drill the Delaware - Gov Christie - 609-292-6000; Governor Cuomo -518-474-8390; Gov Corbett – 717-787-2500; Gov Markell-302-577-3210; And the white house 202-456-1111

[1] The Delaware Riverkeeper Network along, with environmental colleagues National Wildlife Federation, NJ Environmental Federation, Delaware Nature Society and Clean Water Action, have filed legal action against the Army Corps in order to try to stop their violations of law and the dangerous precedent they are seeking to set – oral argument will be held in January before the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

November 21 -- Speak Up For Your Community; Stand Against Gas Drilling

2011-10-27T17:43:00.000-04:00

November 21 is an important day for Delaware River communities, for the citizens/families of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware, and for the future of our country. Wow, that’s a big day? you might be saying. What could possibly be happening? you might be asking.

November 21, in Trenton, NJ, the Governors of the four states and a representative for the President will decide how much they value life – or whether they value corporations and political contributions more. On November 21 they will be voting whether to open the Delaware River watershed up to gas drilling or not.

Contrary to the slick marketing campaigns of the shale gas companies, drilling makes communities sick.

The drilling and blasting used to get the gas, consumes, permanently, billions of gallons of our finite freshwater, locking it underground and poisoning it with dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene, m,p-Xylene, barium, chromium, radium, and strontium.. The drilling, blasting and fracking release benzene, toluene, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, lung-irritating particulates, volatile organics and more into the air we breathe.

My Kids -- Along with the River, I will be
Standing to Protect
Them From Gas Drilling --
For Their Present and Future

In just a three month period this year Pennsylvania papers reported an explosion in a water well that forced a family from their home because of nearby drilling; drinking water wells for three homes in one community and 7 homes in another community contaminated because of drilling, as well as methane bubbling up through the Susquehanna River; a driller fined for an hydraulic oil spill that polluted the soil, and another company fined for discharging drilling poisons into two high quality creeks; two workers injured in an explosion at a gas drilling site; a blowout at a well site dumping thousands of gallons of drilling waste on farm lands, into creeks and forcing 7 families to evacuate. During this same period Cornell University published areport documenting that fracking contributes to global warming as much, or even more, than coal and Duke University published a paper analyzing the increased contamination found in groundwater of homes located near drilling rigs.

Mothers, fathers, doctors are coming out talking about their children that have been harmed by drilling– children suffering nose bleeds, headaches, high levels of dangerous substances in their blood. The stories are heart wrenching.

Government is supposed to protect the people. On November 21 there is an opportunity to protect from gas drilling the 15 million people who drink Delaware River water, and the millions who breathe the air, eat the fish, and feed from the lands in the River’s watershed.

Learn more at http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=93

Why 11/21 Is So Important For Prevent Drilling & Fracking

2011-10-03T10:34:00.001-04:00

For over 3 years the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and our whole watershed community has been fighting to protect our River and communities from the ravages of gas drilling and fracking and all of the deforestation, development, and devastation they bring.

For over 3 years we have attended public meetings and along with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of others; we have submitted tens of thousands of pages of comment; we have provided thousands of pages of expert opinion; and delivered hundreds of hours of testimony on why gas drilling should not be allowed in our watershed.

And now we are at the final moment. The Governors and the Army Corps Colonel that are the real commissioners of the Delaware River Basin Commission who have the authority to give drilling a thumbs up or a thumbs down, are in the final stages of making the decision about whether or not to allow drilling.

Overall, the representatives for New York and Delaware have been much more open minded and stood stronger for protection than New Jersey, Pennsylvania or the Army Corps (representing the President) have been. But, there is still a chance to convince New Jersey and the Corps to make the right choice. Pennsylvania is likely a lost cause, but we are ever hopeful if we can give a clear show of opposition from the region that even Pennsylvania might recognize the important qualities that warrant protecting our watershed from drilling -- and even if we don't, as long as we have the other Commissioners we will be able to secure the votes for protection we need. (DRBC is a majority rules system at the Commissioner level.)

Over these past three years it is quite unbelievable that drilling in our watershed is even still an option. At DRBC public meetings and hearings we have learned:

Poignant stories of incredible sickness caused by drilling -- barium levels in the blood of a mother and son many times over what is deemed safe; nose bleeds, headaches, confusion, asthma and and exposure to toxins that can lead to cancer, developmental problems, autism and more;
Documented cases of water pollution, air pollution, and deforestation that has devastated special fishing and hunting spots and destroyed dependent businesses;
Plummeting market values of homes located near drilling pads -- so much so that realtors won't sell them and banks won't provide the loans needed by would-be buyers -- locking homeowners forever into homes where they are vexed by polluted drinking water, air pollution, sickness, and the constant noise and lights of drilling sites;
Livestock becoming ill, dying and/or unable to reproduce healthy offspring because of drilling contamination;

On November 21, the DRBC Commissioners are set to cast a vote that could open up our Delaware River watershed to drilling.

Unfortunately, on November 21 there is no opportunity for the public to testify and to try once again to convince the DRBC Commissioners to hear us about why drilling should not be allowed. So the only way to send our message is by sheer volume of numbers -- if we can fill the theater with our presence and the signs that contain our message -- Don't Drill the Delaware -- then we can send a strong message about how we need them to vote.

We are dealing with a public health, water and air emergency of catastrophic proportions and we must be heard. This may be the last chance to protect ourselves from drilling before having to resort to the courts -- which is never a guaranteed option of hope or help.

And so, we are gathering on 11/21 to engage in lawful, peaceful, first amendment activity so as to make sure the Governors, the Colonel, and the President know that we don't want drilling in our watershed and communities. This is our last chance to be heard before they decide and to force them to hear our message by the sheer volume of our presence:

Don't Drill the Delaware!

Come Stand with Us on November 21 to Take This Last Chance to Be Heard.
And to enjoy our right to engage in this exercise of lawful, peaceful, first amendment activity.
For training to ensure a safe and lawful day join us for our scheduled training:
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=160

Gas Tax Not the Ultimate Solution

2011-04-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

Looks eerily like a cigarette.
A gas tax will be as effective as a cigarette tax on
preventing harm ... It won't!

Anyone focused on the tax of gas drilling as their only or primary goal, has succeeded in becoming the pawns of the gas drilling industry. Those who include discuss of tax in their repertoire of discussion are doing the right thing; those using it as their repertoire are either using it as political cover or are allowing themselves to be used by industry.

The gas industry, like so many others in big business, is a master of spin, deception and diversion. They fight the gas tax as though it would be a big burden. And in so doing, keep the debate focused on whether or not they should be taxed, rather than the question of whether or not they should be allowed to drill in the first instance, and if so, how, when and where regulation should limit that drilling. Being the subject of a gas tax rather than future limits on drilling (whether by moratorium, strong regulation or strong legislation) would be a big win for the gas drillers – not the loss they are trying to make you believe.

Smart legislators, environmental organizations, and gas drilling opponents might include the question of a tax in their advocacy and efforts regarding drilling for natural gas, but they don’t allow it to become the message.

When it comes to gas drilling the first question that has to be answered is whether or not we should allow drilling at all using the devastating tactics and technologies the drillers are seeking – i.e. sprawling wells, roads and pipelines coupled with horizontal drilling, hydrofracturing and the massive volumes of water withdraw and chemical contamination that result in a permanent loss of fresh water of massive and unsustainable proportions.

The second question is, to the extent we do allow some drilling, where will we allow that drilling to take place, using what technologies, subject to what limitations, and with what safeguards for shut down.

The final question to be answered is, to the extent we do allow drilling, how much will we tax it and how will those funds be used to protect and restore the environments and communities harmed.

Beginning and ending the conversation with the question of a gas tax is foolish and plays right into the hands of the drillers.

While a tax may raise some money, and is an easy political position for those politicians who actually support drilling to take, it will not prevent the poisoning of water, air and people that drilling brings; nor will it stop the industrialization of our most beautiful communities, changing them from rural havens of beauty to industrial landscapes that can never be repaired; and it will not prevent the permanent loss of fresh water (through underground injection and industrial poisoning) or protection from global climate change our children, family, friends and ancestors of the future will need and have a right to expect from us.

There are some very good legislators and environmental organizations who oppose drilling in whole or part who have the gas tax as part of their repertoire of positions – that makes sense. But to have the gas tax as an only focus? Those folks are clearly looking for the easy out.

A gas tax raises money but it doesn’t prevent harm or protect communities.

When cigarette smoking was taxed by Pennsylvania it may have raised (and still does raise) lots of money, but since then over 1.2 million have died as the result of smoking (and that figure doesn’t include the indirect deaths or excruciating health impacts). Taxing gas may raise money – but as with a cigarette tax it won’t stop people from dying or the environment from being ravaged.

First we must ask ourselves – should we drill at all.
Then we must ask, if so, to what extent? Where? When? How? And under what regulatory requirements?
Then we can decide how much to tax! Not should we tax but how much!

On another note about buying into the strategy of the drillers: We are suddenly hearing a lot about areas that are no longer targets for drilling due to bad geology or low concentrations of gas. The timing of these revelations seem awfully suspicious and convenient — they come at the same time that there is an outpouring of demand to protect the Delaware River from gas drilling. Could it be that the "sudden" revelations that drilling doesn't make sense in some of the areas of greatest concern to communities and politicians, including the Upper Delaware River watershed, is merely a smokescreen to deflate the outpouring of citizen and political action on the issue?

Water is Essential -- Gas Drilling is Not

2011-02-27T13:26:00.002-05:00

There are alternative sources of energy that don’t require shale drilling or hydrofracking.

There is no alternative for water.

Gas and profits may be inviting to some.

Water is essential to us all.

The amount of freshwater on Earth, in our watershed and in our region, is finite.

And yet the DRBC is proposing, with its draft gas drilling regulations, to give hundreds of billions of gallons of our fresh water to the drillers – not in the form of a temporary use that will eventually return to our water systems – but a permanent taking.

The damage is from the combination of drilling, hydrofracking and massive land development that combine to rob our watershed and our people of clean fresh water and the healthy habitats we need to thrive.

Only 2.53% of the water on earth is freshwater and so usable for nourishing humans. Of this, about 2/3 is locked up in glaciers and permanent snow cover. That leaves less than 1% for our use.

Water is often characterized as cyclical or renewable. But that is absolutely not so when we are talking about horizontal fracturing, hydrofracking and shale gas drilling.

Either the drillers are making up to 9 million gallons of water per well (over average 5 million) so toxic we can’t use it again, except for more drilling, and we have made it loose in the environment to pollute other clean waters and healthy environments.
Or they are locking our River’s water under ground, in its toxic condition, never to be available for human or animal use ever again.

Either way it is untenable and wholly unacceptable.

According to the UN, the world is already facing a water crisis.

“This crisis is one of water governance, [] caused by the ways in which we mismanage water.”

That is exactly what the DRBC is proposing here.

According to the United Nations, 4,400 children under the age of 5 die every day because of polluted water. And 1 in every 6 humans on this earth have no access to clean water within a kilometer of their homes.

There are many stories of communities denied access to abundant and clean water – children walking miles to fetch water, suffering skin lesions and extreme illness due to water pollution, farmers struggling for the quantity of water they need to grow food for their communities. We are more fortunate than these communities, and yet we are poised to squander our good fortune.

Today our Delaware River is healthy in its upper reaches – because of the hard work of many who cared enough to fight for its protection.

But the quality of the water is fragile, and our lower reaches already struggle from pollution.

And we already have water battles in our basin.

And yet the DRBC dares put the quality and available quantity of our precious Delaware at risk for drilling.

DRBC does not have the knowledge needed to craft a set of regulations that would protect our water, air, land and communities from shale gas drilling. Not until a scientific and cumulative assessment of the process and its affects has been completed.

We are talking about:

Toxic pollution,
Sprawling industrial development and waste,
Increased flooding from the development,
A permanent loss of fresh drinking water,

And more.

And yet the DRBC is inexcusably refusing to secure the needed scientific work before it pushes out its regulations and opens the doors wide for the gas drillers.

The claim of jobs that the Pennsylvania Governor and the Army Corps cling to doesn’t hold.

Drilling is going to do harm to the billions in economic benefit and the jobs provided by a healthy Delaware River and its healthy, forested watershed.

And it’s not just the River jobs those who support this drilling are so willing to sacrifice.

It’s also the health and safety of our communities that get sacrificed if this drilling moves forward as is being proposed with the DRBC regulations.

Drilling must not happen, not now, and maybe not ever. Either way DRBC doesn't have the science or knowledge to know the answers to “if?” or “how”.

UN Source: United Nations World Water Development Report

Investment & Care in Roads for Our Cars but Not Water for Our Bodies?

2011-02-13T18:53:00.002-05:00

I was headed to the Darby Creek to unstress from a difficult day.

As I walked to the Creek I noticed a number of potholes on the side of the road that will be quickly addressed when the warmer weather comes.

As I stood by the creek appreciating the beauty of the gently flowing waters I saw a bridge being carefully reconstructed to protect it from damage.

And then it hit me -- we invest billions in carefully caring for our roadways to make them easier to drive and to prevent damage to our cars. We plan for their care, we save for their care, we regulate their use, we invest every year in massive road restoration and reconstruction projects, we charge tolls and taxes to pay for it all.

But when it comes to regulating for, protecting for, paying for the care and restoration of our waterways, the water that we put into our bodies, that we eat fish from, that we swim in and swallow, get way short shrift -- the battles over regulations and investment to protect our waters wage furious. Much of the time, if not most of the time, those that want to pollute and damage these waters we need to sustain our lives, win. The drillers, dredgers, dischargers and developers only have to claim the creation of a few jobs -- whether sustainable or not, whether true or not -- and they get to prevent the regulation and restoration sought and needed for the rest of us.

Clean water is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Without healthy water to sustain us, all the money in the world makes not one wit of difference.

So we need to tell the drillers, dredgers, dischargers and developers - and all the politicians they contribute to -- that our water comes first.

When we protect our water we protect ourselves -- and at the same time we protect jobs, we create jobs, and we ensure a healthy future for ourselves and our children. We can't afford to put our healthy rivers and waters anywhere on our priority list but at number one, along with our air and forests which are also vital and irreplaceable to our healthy selves, kids and future.

When it comes down to it:
When We Best Protect our River -- We Best Protect Ourselves!

Deepening is an Earmark that Contributes to the Deficit - Responsible Legislators Must Dump It

2010-12-16T19:30:00.000-05:00

Congress is promising fiscal restraint – they promise no more earmarks and no more wasted investments that won’t generate real economic benefits for our country.

Delivering on this promise mandates cancelling the earmark that is the Delaware Deepening.

The Deepening is an earmark:

it is an earmark that is not defensible fiscally;
it is an earmark that has pitted the federal government against state governments and communities;
it is an earmark that will cause community and environmental harms that could cost hundreds of millions in the future, especially if it decimates oysters, pollutes drinking, and extirpates endangered species all of which are very real possible outcomes.

Democrats and Republicans need to act responsibility and to ensure that every federal tax dollar spent will yield healthy communities and economies, not fulfill the political whims of some while damaging and threatening the good health and jobs of others as the deepening does.

No federal tax dollars have yet been spent on construction, only Pennsylvania has ponied up the money to serve the personal political needs of Governor Rendell.

Deepening Robs The Budget for a Failed Investment

The Government Accountability Office has three times challenged the claims of economic benefit from deepening – with the most recent report issuing just this past year, April 2010. In this most recent report the GAO documented once again that the Army Corps has failed to provide Congress or the public with accurate, up-to-date, complete information regarding the economic ramifications of deepening and in so doing has failed to provide the objective assessment Congress needs to make an informed choice about continuing to fund the project. This is in addition to a 2002 Report and 2006 Congressional testimony provided by the GAO characterizing similar concerns.

Assertions that deepening will inject millions of dollars into the region’s economies are peculiar claims considering that the Government Accountability Office has estimated the annual benefits of the project to be only $13.3 million. Even the Army Corps of Engineers is only claiming $32,645,000 of annual economic benefit (this according to their 2008 economic update.).

The fact is that there is nothing on the record to demonstrate or document that deepening will lead to the economic benefits claimed by project supporters.

The Army Corps has stated that the “mix and volume of cargoes coming to the benefiting terminals will be equivalent for the current 40 foot or the proposed 45 foot channel depths. There is no induced tonnage as a result of the deepening project. … The future volume of cargo passing through the Delaware River port system is determined by … factors that are not affected in any measurable way by the channel depth.
The Army Corps further makes clear: “with the deeper channel, fewer total vessel calls will be required ….”
According to the Army Corps, the few economic benefits claimed for the deepening would be enjoyed mostly by six oil facilities — one of which recently shut down. None of these facilities has invested in the project, and some even oppose the deepening, or have stated that it would provide them with no benefit.

It is also important to recognize that while at best the Army Corps is asserting $32 million of annual economic benefit from deepening, what is put at risk is economically worth far greater including, but certainly not limited to, $80 million a year from the oyster industry, $34 million a year from ecotourism associated with horseshoe crabs and migrating shorebirds, and the Delaware River portion of the region’s recreational fishing industries including New Jersey’s $630 million of annual economic benefit (a statewide figure but much of which can be attributed to the Delaware River).

Deepening Strips States Rights.

The project is the subject of major litigation in two federal district courts, being challenged by the State of New Jersey, the State of Delaware and 5 environmental and community organizations for failure to comply with 6 federal environmental laws as well as state legal obligations and permits. Considering the depth and breadth of the legal challenges at issue it is most appropriate for Congress to ensure that federal environmental laws and States rights obligations are fulfilled before it aids in the forward movement of the project with additional funding.

The Constitution and Federal Law are carefully designed to protect the sovereign rights of States to oversee and/or affect projects that have impacts within their borders. Protecting this balance of power is essential for the proper implementation of law and for the proper protection of citizens. Actions and decisions that affect this balance of power have ramifications far beyond the debate of whether to deepen the Delaware River’s main navigation channel. Continued federal funding in the face of these legal battles directly pits the federal government against the rights of our states to uphold their laws and enforce applicable federal laws.

Deepening Is a Threat that Costs – Costs Health, Safety, Jobs and the Taxpayer Dollars it Will Cost to Restore the Damage to Come.

Environmentally, deepening the channel changes the movement and balance of fresh and salt water in a way that will move the salt line up river, threatening drinking water supplies and other community harms.

A moving salt line is a major threat to the oyster populations of the Delaware Estuary – including threatening the reintroduction of parasites and disease that decimated their populations in the recent past. Oysters are vital to the ecology of the Delaware. Oysters act as a vital food source and are important filters for pollution found in Estuary waters. Oysters of the Estuary are also economically important. The annual harvest of oysters from the Delaware Estuary are expected to generate up to $80 million of annual economic benefit for the region. In recognition of the economic, job and cultural importance of the Delaware Estuary’s oysters they have been the recipient of over $6.5 million of public restoration funds and resources.

The Delaware Bay is home to the largest spawning population of horseshoe crabs in the world irreplaceable for supporting migratory birds and a $34 million boost to the region’s ecotourism industry. Nationally, horseshoe crabs represent a substantial benefit to the biomedical industry, to which one pint of Horseshoe Crab blood is worth $15,000 for required testing on medical devices, vaccines and intravenous drugs used by all, representing $150 million of annual revenue and social welfare value. The deepening project directly threatens the horseshoe crabs and as a result is also a threat to dependent migratory birds and associated ecotourism.

According to experts, deepening and associated spoil disposal will introduce heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxins into the environment. And will cause the washing away of wetlands important ecologically and for storm protection. It also is a direct and immediate threat to the Atlantic Sturgeon populations of the Delaware River – a population that once supported the largest caviar industry in the country – and could again if allowed to recover (potentially over $400 million of economic benefit here).

Earmarks of this kind – that threaten harm to our economy and region, have no place in a fiscally responsible government.

Neither the House of Representatives nor the President included funding for the project in their proposed budget – nor have they in the past 3 administrations. There is a strong recognition that earmarks have allowed bad projects to move forward – projects not worthy of taxpayer dollars but instead given for political gain or interests. President Obama would be the first to budget for this project in well over a decade if he were to succumb to the political pressures of the defeated Senator Specter and to Senator Casey. Better he support the good works of respected Senator Lautenberg, Menendez, Kaufman and Congressmen Andrews and Lobiondo on the matter and continue to oppose funding for deepening.

The Delaware Deepening is a major threat to our River and region. It should not continue to receive the casual funding that has kept it alive and unjustified all these years.

Gas Drilling Harms River Jobs and Communities

2010-10-22T14:08:00.001-04:00

The Delaware River attracts visitors from all over the world to spend money and support business up river and down.

When we keep our River clean and full flowing it provides those who live here

• clean drinking water,

• healthy food,

• memorable recreation,

• good paying jobs,

• strong local economies, and

• unparalleled quality of life.

The gas drillers claim they will bring us better jobs and income at little or no cost.

They also try to pitch this as a property rights fight.

This is about rights, we agree, but it is about the right to life, and the rights of a community to ensure that no piece of property is used in a way that hurts the rest of the community.

It is also about jobs – the jobs the gas drillers will take from hardworking people today, and the jobs they will rob from future generations.

With the drillers come big costs – for our River, for our region and for our communities.

Drilling will leave us a legacy of pollution and environmental degradation that will have to be cleaned up by everyone else, i.e. by the taxpayers.

Gas drilling brings with it:

• Toxic pollution to our air and water – that will last generations

• It robs us of fresh, clean water in the rivers and streams that we drink and eat from, swim and fish in.

• It will decimate forests that protect us from pollution and flooding, and that are vital for recreation, ecotourism and economic investment.

• Gas drillers bring trucks, generators and bright lights by the thousands which create unending noise, traffic, and pollution disturbing and sickening our communities and taxing our community infrastructure.

• Drilling brings overwhelming odors and

• Too often it brings fires, explosions and toxic spills that damage and threaten our communities and environment, and that burden local responders with emergencies they aren't equipped for.

The gas drillers will take from our children the natural, cultural and historic heritage that our region is known for.

Gas drilling cannot wean the U.S. off its dependence on foreign oil. In fact, much of what they extract is planned for shipment overseas to places like China, Japan, Norway, France, India.

Gas drilling contributes to global climate change, it does not make it better. When you consider the drilling process from cradle to grave:

• Drilling (extraction, collection and distribution) emits vast amounts of methane, VOC, NOX and other emissions that are major contributors to GCC.

• Construction of each well is estimated to require at least 1400 truck trips, each fueled by dirty diesel. With estimates of 10,000 to 50,000 wells for our upper Delaware you can see the magnitude of this pollution and traffic harm.

• Construction of the wells, transmission pipes and needed roadways – means the loss of forests which are natural carbon sinks.

Destroying the health and image of the River will drive businesses away from our communities. Businesses increasingly look to settle in attractive and well renowned communities. If we lose our River, we lose our cache, and we lose this attraction for big business.

Gas drilling also puts at risk ecotourism and river jobs.

Ecotourism is a fundamental mainstay of many Delaware River businesses and communities.

In just one year the Upper reaches of the Delaware River brought to local communities over 367,000 whitewater paddlers, who spent over $20 million, contributed almost $10 million to our local economies, and supported 447 jobs.

There are 20 canoe liveries that operate along the Delaware. Some employ as many as 200 people. With an annual attendance of over 60,000, one livery alone can create gross revenue of more than $3 million a year for our region -- just one livery.

Trout fishing in the Upper Delaware resulted in $17.69 million in local business revenue in a single year. This revenue supporting 348 jobs, providing $3.65 million in wages and $719,350 in local taxes. This investment translated into an ongoing $29.98 million in local economic activities.

River festivals up and down the River draw crowds. Lambertville’s shad festival draws 30,000 to 35,000 to that community just for one brief weekend generating tremendous amounts of business.

In PA, NY an NJ wildlife viewing alone generates an estimated $1 million in retail sales, $623 million in trip related sales, $217 million in federal and state taxes and supports 35,000 jobs a year. Nature viewing only succeeds when there are healthy habitats and clean streams that sustain wildlife and beautiful views for the visitors.

In Philadelphia and beyond restaurants and hotels market themselves based upon their river views and river access. Some hotels charge over $100 more for a room if it faces the River.

Boating on the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers – rowing, paddling, and motorized boats are a big attractions – bringing visitors and business. The Schuylkill has hosted over 20 regattas in a single year – some bringing 1,400, 3,000 even 5,000 visitors each from all over the country to enjoy and spend in and around Philadelphia.

The pollution, water withdrawals and massive land disturbance the drilling will bring does damage to these businesses, jobs and economic attractions – both through direct harm and indirect harm by harming the perceptions of the health and beauty of the River.

Protecting and restoring the ecosystems of the Delaware River is not just of economic import, but is also important to the health and safety of our region.

Woodlands and forests protect us from flooding and flood damages by absorbing the water that otherwise runs off and floods us. Tree cover has saved communities billions of dollars in infrastructure that would otherwise be needed to manage stormwater runoff and prevent flood damages. Trees in just four of our tributary watersheds saved a combined $6 ½ billion in otherwise needed infrastructure.

Communities along the Delaware already suffer from catastrophic flooding and damages. Gas drilling will remove vast areas of trees and compromise vast areas of floodplain making the danger of catastrophic flooding for communities worse and more frequent.

As for drinking water, Philadelphia and New York City both well know that protecting the watershed that is the source of drinking water is the most effective and cost efficient way to protect water supplies. Every dollar invested in watershed protection can save a community between $7.50 and $200 in costs for new water treatment facilities.

New York City has invested 1 to 1.5 billion dollars to protect the Upper Delaware, the source of its water supply. The alternative treatment plant option would have cost the City $10 to $20 billion.

Philadelphia too is investing to protect its drinking water source.

The drillers put all this at risk with the pollution they create, the glutinous quantities of fresh water they withdraw, and the destruction of the green infrastructure that is the basis of all this clean water and economic prosperity.

As recently as September 24, 2010 the DRBC put the region in drought warning and directed needed reservoir releases to ensure flows for Philadelphia and other communities. If we allow the gas drillers to take from us the hundreds of millions of gallons needed to feed their drilling operations we make these kinds of conditions worse. Remember, we are talking 10,000 to 50,000 wells at an average of 4.5 million gallons of water per well for fracking.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has determined that natural gas extraction is a threat to the water quality of the Delaware River. As a result it is developing natural gas specific regulations and gas production wells in the watershed are on hold until those regulations are adopted.

DRBC should soon be getting federal funding to study the cumulative affects of natural gas drilling. This study needs to be completed and used as the basis for the new DRBC regulations.

Right now the DRBC is planning to do it backwards – to create their regulations and so allow drilling first, and do the study of the harms of gas drilling later when it is too late to take advantage of its findings.

The DRBC needs to hear from us all that they doing it backwards means irreparable harm as the result of ill informed regulations. We need you to tell the DRBC that the City doesn’t want to see gas drilling regulations being drafted or drilling to start until the environmental and community harms analysis has been done first. Go to the action page of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network website to get your letter in -- www.delawareriverkeeper.org.

And as a community we need to stop focusing our energy on new ways to extract damaging, polluting fossil fuels and start focusing on sustainable, environmentally friendly sources of energy. My husband and I invested in both solar and geothermal at our home in May and are reaping tremendous rewards. We aren’t polluting when we turn the lights on in our house, the amount of money we are saving each month is immense, we are fully powered, without being an environmental and financial burden on our community or the future of our children.

That is our future – sustainable energy – not the devastations brought by natural gas -- at least that's the way it should be.

Pennsylvania Politicians Steal Property Rights to Support Gas Drilling

2010-09-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

My daughter and husband playing by the brook on our land

Governor Rendell and many Pennsylvania politicians often resist issuing regulations to protect us from pollution, runoff and other environmental degradations -- even if water would be contaminated, communities flooded or economies harmed -- because to do so might strip a property owner of their rights to use the land for economic gain.

Now, by contrast, Governor Rendell is planning to strip me of my property rights to protect my 68 acres in Columbia County from misuse and harm. These are the acres my Mother cherished and which, on her death bed, she called on me to protect from harm.

My Mum enjoying her land still during that last year
when she was battling her pancreatic cancer

Governor Rendell and others are seeking legislation called "forced pooling" that would strip me of my right to say no to natural gas drilling under my land.

Drilling for natural gas on any portion of my property (whether the drill pad is located on the grounds or the drilling and injection of fracking chemicals are allowed to take place under the ground) puts at risk the waters that feed the tiny brook that flows through that land (a brook named after my daughter), threatens the many springs of fresh water that come to the surface all over, and puts at risk the well water I and my kids drink in the house.

Gas Drilling happening nearby our property

With this legislation, I would be stripped of my legal right to say no to drilling, the injection of chemicals and the extraction of gas from the rock, soils and minerals that are part of my land (and therefore part of my legally owned property), if neighbors of mine decide to open up their lands to drilling.

So Governor Rendell and other PA politicians are happy to defend the rights of property owners in order to prevent environmental and community protection laws from being passed; and yet now they are eager to strip me of my property rights to say no to the misuse of my land in a way that will harm the environment, my family and my community.

There is one word to describe this kind of politicking -- "hypocrisy".

Music - One of My Ways to Stay Strong for the River

2010-07-20T09:57:00.003-04:00

People often ask me: “how do you keep going in face of all of the opposition and challenges you face every day?”

There are a lot of ways I keep my passion and strength up to face the daily challenges and attacks I face in my job. One of them is music, good music about protecting the environment.

Before itunes and the like I had a cassette of songs I put together. I’d listen to it all the time when in the car on the way to a hearing or a meeting or just to and from work. Eventually it wore out. And so for a long time I was without my environmental protection/social justice music. But once I learned how to use today’s modern technology to amass this kind of music again I got to work. I haven’t found all of the songs I had in my original collection, but I found a lot and recently have found much more.

I’m always looking for good songs to add to my play list so if you have ideas please share them as a comment to this blog. I need to expand my repertoire.

And for those who are interested, here are some of the songs that really help keep my mind and heart focused on taking on and winning the daily challenges for the River:

Of course: “Maya van Rossum’s Blues” by the Donuts (a song about the Athos I oil spill on the Delaware River)
“Clear Blue Skies” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“The Rape of the World” by Tracy Chapman – listen for the part where she urges you to “stand up and testify”
“Nature’s Way” by Spirit
“We Bought it” by Brother Tree
“Help Your Mother” by Brother Tree
“All Over” by Brother Tree
“Earth Song” by Michael Jackson
“Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks as I see this as a song about speaking for what you believe is right despite the opposition you face
“If a Tree Falls” by Bruce Cockburn
“Way of the World” by Chante Pierce
“Good bye to a River” by Don Henley
“Simple Living” by Fred Small
“Treehugger” by J.P. Taylor
“Rise to the Challenge” by J.P. Taylor
“Down along the River” by J.P. Taylor
“Hug the Earth” by J.P. Taylor
“Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver
“Don’t Cut Me Down” by Olivia Newton John
“Silent Ruin” by Olivia Newton John

Boaters Beware -- Robbing the River From the Public, From Boaters, Is Plan of Some in Wake of Duck Boat Tragedy

2010-07-15T08:10:00.001-04:00

River Belongs to the Public -- Including the Day to Day Boaters

Speakers on the radio, in the news, authors of letters to the editor and others are starting to assert that by virtue of the fact that they were operating on the Delaware River, including in and around the main navigation channel, the Duck Boat operators are somehow primarily responsible for the accident that took place on July 7, 2010. These characterizations are not only wrong -- blame cannot be placed simply because the Ducks Boats were operating on the Delaware River -- but they are now being used by some like the Maritime Exchange, to try to kick boaters off the water in Philadelphia leaving it open only to barge, tug, tanker and container traffic.

The Duck Boat tragedy should not be used as a messaging tool to attempt to deprive the public, boaters, fishers and small business operations from free and appropriate access to the Delaware River. This issue of boat access is a bit like the defense of the first amendment, we need to protect it for all; sometimes that means protecting it for the one in order to protect it for the all. And so boaters and fishers of all kinds need to stand together to protect access to the Delaware River, no matter what kind of boat we are talking about.

The Delaware is a shared resource – it is a resource that belongs to the public and which we choose to share with industry. The Delaware River does not belong to the ports or industry. It is wholly inappropriate for any individual or entity to suggest that port operators or big business have a higher right to travel upon the Delaware River than the public. It is wholly inappropriate for any individual or entity to attempt to use this tragedy to urge the ejection of the public, boaters, fishers or small business from travelling in any portion of the Delaware River if they are behaving responsibly, operating with the correct safety equipment, and operating in accordance with safe boating operations and measures.

BP's Lesson for the Delaware River and Region

2010-06-15T14:57:00.001-04:00

The BP oil spill should teach all of our legislators, regulators, friends and neighbors a huge lesson – the health of our Rivers, oceans, wetlands, streams, matter – they matter for every level of life. In addition to clean waterways for drinking water, recreation, and our health, we need the clean water and healthy habitats to sustain the jobs that sustain lives, families and whole economies. This is as true here along the Delaware River as it is in the Gulf. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s recently released River Values report proves that. (found at www.delawareriverkeeper.org)

And yet, now that the spill has been weeks in happening, once again we hear conservative anti-environmentalists attacking any and all who are seeking strong laws and regulations and actions to protect our rivers, oceans and environments from the never-ending search for fossil fuels – whether it is oil drilling in the ocean, natural gas drilling in the Upper Delaware, or drastic deepening projects and LNG facilities to make transportation of that fuel cheaper for the oil companies and their profits. This reality despite that seeking cleaner energy strategies are better long term job creating and community protecting investments.

(Please notice I said “conservative anti-environmentalists” not republicans. This is not a political party issue. Protecting our environment should be the highest priority for all political parties and at many points in history has been.)

We can no longer allow extremist groups rob us of the environmental protection we deserve and need – they do it by capturing the message and capturing the press. But if we were to rise together in a common voice for the River, for the environment, for the health and future of our selves, our families, our children, and the critters that enrich our lives the extremists could not rob us of the message and in so doing rob us of strong action by our political representatives.

When the extremist anti-enviros steal the message our politicians seem to cower. Instead they need to stand strong and proud and take back the message, stressing that we best protect ourselves when we best protect our River and environments. If the politicians on either side of the aisle don’t have the backbone to take back the message and take the action on their own to protect our River and environment, it is our job as the public to give them the strength and spine they need to help them -- to force them -- to do it.

New Report Documents Failure of New Jersey Towns to Protect from Runoff and Enforce Law -- Now the Governor Needs to Listen

2010-05-24T14:31:00.000-04:00

A new report was released today, Monday May 24, 2010, (New Jersey Stormwater Management Implementation – A Case Study of Hamilton Township) which documents:

improper implementation of New Jersey’s stormwater program at the municipal level; and
a failure by the State to oversee the program and to protect against local abuses, and damaged application of the law to development projects.

The report contradicts the findings of Governor Christie's Red Tape Review Group regarding the state stormwater program. In Appendix H the Red Tape Review Group said there was a duplication of responsibility and effort by the DEP and the municipalities in the implementation of the stormwater program and that perhaps the DEP should be pulled out of the review process.

This new report demonstrates that DEP absolutely must not be taken out of the review and implementation process of new Jersey's stormwater regulations. The law, as currently written, is only flawed because it isn’t being fully or properly implemented and enforced, both at the municipal and state level.

Responding to concerns about the stormwater program the Delaware Riverkeeper Network hired 4 consulting firms to review a series of projects in Hamilton twp -- they looked for completeness, accuracy and compliance with the stormwater law.

Of the 12 projects we present in the review, projects complied with the law a pidly average of 42% of the time.
When it came to using the nonstructural strategies so important to the NJ regs, compliance averaged an even worse 13%.
Likewise the report found troubling results in the state’s efforts to identify and respond to these dramatic shortcomings.

The result of the failures of local municipalities and the DEP to ensure full and fair compliance with the state stormwater program is:

increasing flooding for communities like Hamilton Twp and downstream communities like Trenton;
increasing costs for communities in the form of emergency flood response, including police services and public works departments;
polluting and eroding streams in a way that undermines infrastructure, infects drinking water, damages businesses and jobs, damages recreation and associated ecotourism, reduces property values, and threatens health and safety of communities.

If the NJ Stormwater regulations were implemented as they are written, with both the state and municipalities participating, NJ communities would save and make money.

For example, vegetated buffers, an important strategy that results from implementation of the NJ stormwater regulations,

Reduces the volume of runoff, filters pollution and prevents erosion.
At the same time buffers can increase the value of nearby homes by 6 to 15%.
"Pennypack Park in Philadelphia is credited with a 38% increase in the value of a nearby property." Forested buffers generate tax revenues for host communities – in fact, in the United States trees planted on private properties have generated over $1.5 billion in tax revenue.

Protecting and restoring tree cover -- has saved some New Jersey communities billions of dollars in infrastructure that would otherwise be needed to manage stormwater runoff:

Protecting existing tree cover was found to have prevented 65 million cubic feet of stormwater runoff in the Big Timber Creek watershed here in New Jersey saving communities $3.3 billion in stormwater infrastructure.
In the Mill Creek watershed also in New Jersey, protecting existing tree cover prevented 6.7 million cubic feet of stormwater runoff saving the community $350 million in stormwater infrastructure.

Just 3 weeks ago the Delaware Riverkeeper Network issued another report – “River Values, the Value of a Clean and Healthy Delaware River” in which the organization documented that protecting our streams and rivers, with a particular focus on runoff issues, brings to our States and region irreplaceable jobs, economic revenue, tax benefits, and increased safety from illness, physical harm and from economic harm.

The Red Tape Review Group has it wrong – we need a strong stormwater program to protect the jobs and economies of New Jersey. The way to get that in New Jersey is for the state to provide complimentary reviews and needed oversight so as to ensure full enforcement of the regulations we already have on the books.

When we leave the program in the hands of municipalities alone, the results can be abysmal failure, as is illustrated by the problems documented in the Hamilton Township report.

State participation in NJ’s stormwater program is not redundant, it is necessary!

Very Cool Article about Deepening and Delaware Riverkeeper Network

2010-05-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

The linked article gives a spectacular picture of the deepening battle and what we are facing.
I have to say I think the cartoon is really cool too.
Dont' think there's much more to say but check it out.

http://citypaper.net/articles/2010/05/20/delaware-riverkeeper-maya-van-rossum

How much is a healthy Delaware River worth? More than anyone could ever conceive or pay!

2010-04-29T14:35:00.000-04:00

When local, state and federal governments are being pressured to create jobs, jobs, jobs, the River and environment are often undervalued and their value as a job creator and economic engine vital for the region gets downplayed and forgotten as the special interests fight for their pet projects. At the Delaware Riverkeeper Network we have written a report that demonstrates that protecting and restoring the Delaware River is fundamental to healthy jobs, economies and communities in our region and if sacrificed to achieve short term political or industrial ends will result in the undermining of the health, enjoyment and economic vitality of our region’s children, families and communities.

So often we hear about the need to deepen the Delaware to support big oil or industry, or that the state and local regulations that protect our waterways are too great a burden and must be relaxed or eliminated, or that the River is needed to support power plants regardless of the number of fish they slaughter, or that we have to continue to allow industries and communities to dump sewage, toxins, and other pollution into the River. What gets lost in all of these conversations is the reality that a clean, healthy and free flowing river is essential for the jobs of others, to protect us from illness, to prevent us from suffering unnecessary flood damages. Big business, politicians and bureaucrats are so busy worrying about whether Dupont will sue them or the ports will oppose them in an election that they forget the River can benefit many more when we protect it for the benefit of all.

Our report titled River Values, includes case studies documenting individuals and businesses that benefit economically from a clean and healthy Delaware River. But it also shows the many ways a healthy Delaware River and tributary streams protect us, benefit us, nurture us, enrich us, care for us as individuals and communities.

If you are fighting to protect the Delaware or any of its tributary streams or habitats from harm this report, River Values, is a must read. It's going to be a great tool for many of us.

To learn how to get a copy contact the Delaware Riverkeeper Network -- 215 369 1188 or at drn@delawareriverkeeper.org

Some of the Important Facts in the Report:

ü In 1986 the Upper Delaware attracted 232,000 whitewater paddlers who spent $13.3 million, adding $6.2 million to local economy and supporting 291 local jobs.
ü In just one year the Upper Delaware and Delaware Water Gap brought to our local communities 367,400 whitewater paddlers, who spent over $20 million (20,229,000), contributed almost $10 million (9,895,000) to our local economies, and supported 447 jobs.
ü Trout fishing in the Upper Delaware River resulted in one year in $17.69 million in local business revenue. This revenue supporting 348 jobs, providing $3.65 million in wages and $719,350 in local taxes. This investment translates into an ongoing $29.98 million in local economic activities.
ü River festivals generate as many as 75,000 visitors to small riverside towns, giving an important boost to local businesses.
ü Over 2.1 million bushels of clam and oyster shells have been harvested in the Delaware Bay from 2005 thru 2009. For the region, oyster harvest resulting from this federal investment is projected to generate up to and over $80 million of annual economic benefit, much of this in some of New Jersey’s poorest communities who could not tolerate the loss of associated jobs, revenue and benefit.
ü The annual economic value of migratory bird and horseshoe crab phenomenon in the Bayshore area provides $25 million in benefits to the Delaware Bayshore area and $34 million regionally. Because most of these expenditures occur in the “off-season,” they are particularly valuable to local economies.
ü Protecting, restoring and valuing the ecosystems of the Delaware River is not just of economic import, but is also important to the health and safety of our region.
ü The biomedical industry dependent on the horseshoe crabs found in the Delaware Bay is said to provide $150 million of value in addition to the life saving tests they provide for medical devices, intravenous drugs and to detect life threatening illness such as spinal meningitis. The LAL needed for these tests is irreplaceable, found only in the blood of the horseshoe crab, cannot be created synthetically.
ü In the United States trees planted on private properties have generated over $1.5 billion in tax revenue and can increase the value of nearby homes by 6 to 15%.
ü Trees in just four of our local watersheds saved a combined $6 ½ billion in otherwise needed infrastructure. (Big Timber, Cobbs, Mill, & Frankford-Tacony)

Earth Day -- Then & Now

2010-04-19T20:41:00.000-04:00

I had the good fortune at the invitation of WHYY to see the new film Earth Day.

Earth Day told the story of why and how the first Earth Day in 1970 came to be.

It was interesting and scary to see the course of events played out over the course of an hour (or so) that led to the first Earth Day. It was inspiring to see the tremendous energy and action and commitment that went into creating Earth Day, launching the environmental movement of the United States, and making change for the benefit of us all.

So much I didn't remember and/or didn't know. So much I did remember and was reminded of.

And it was sad to see how much of the past that inspired all of this environmental protection is still happening today in new and increasing ways.

The Earth Day of 1970 was the start of a movement -- an environmental movement, a movement to pursue and achieve change. Passage of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Coastal Zone Management Act; creation of the Environmental Protection Agency; solar panels on the roof of the White House.

Today Earth Day is starkly different -- today it is a single day of education and perhaps a little bit of action -- mainly with our kids -- and then it ends with the day.

Because Earth Day has lost its power and inspiration the solar panels at the White House (put there by President Carter) were removed (by President Reagan); and the laws passed continue to be methodically eroded by industry and politicians with little opposition from the public at large. Deepening and offshore oil drilling to benefit big oil and undermine alternative energy despite of the environmental harms is very much alive in the Delaware River watershed. PCBs, a toxin so dangerous its use was banned in the 1980s but it is still discharged legally from over 100 sources into the Delaware River. Natural Gas extraction is being pursued in a way that will turn our beautiful upper Delaware into an industrial landscape, pollute our waterways and threaten drinking water supplies, and sap our streams and aquifers dry of water and health. And development runs rampant - including so aggressively that folks like Governor Rendell think it is perfectly acceptable to fill in 33 acres of the Delaware River to accommodate development.

This has to stop!

Earth Day's next 40 years need to be about a movement for change, for strengthened environmental laws, and expanding environmental restoration.

In fact, with this blog post, I challenge each one of you to begin this year by:
(1) getting involved at the community level -- get active and vocal on one environmental issue threatening a water or ecosystem you care about (to help identify some issues and how you can get involved go to the Delaware Riverkeeper website www.delawareriverkeeper.org and check out the action page) and by
(2) making a change in your personal life -- make one relatively dramatic life change that reduces your impact on the earth such as revegetating your lawnscape with native trees or shrubs (for more info on how to accomplish this go to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network website at www.delawareriverkeeper.org) or perhaps installing solar panels on your roof.

And please, email me at keeper@delawareriverkeeper.org to tell me about the step or steps you took this year to help defend the Delaware River, its tributaries or any of the habitats and ecosystems in its watershed. Send me text and pictures as you see fit to help share your story. I'd love to see the change we can accomplish when we all commit to take action over the course of the year together and to turn Earth Day 2010 into the beginning of a new movement for our River, our environment and our Earth.

How Deepening the Delaware Hurts Millions in River Jobs and Local Economies

2010-03-23T08:56:00.001-04:00

Deepening the Delaware River is not going to bring more goods up the River resulting in more jobs (even the Army Corps doesn't try to make that claim) but it is going to hurt jobs, lots of jobs, and hundreds of millions in economic revenue to our region and communities. Watching this video to start to learn how - this short doesn't tell you all of the jobs and values that will be hurt, not by a long shot, but it does start to spread the word that

DEEPENING HURTS JOBS and the COMMUNITIES DEPENDENT UPON THEM!

Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Clean Streams

2010-02-23T11:06:00.002-05:00

Natural gas drilling as it is being proposed for the Upper Delaware River region threatens devastation.
It threatens to devastate the streams and communities that live in the Upper Delaware and it threatens harm to all those who live down stream and rely upon the Delaware River for drinking water as well as those that rely upon the economic revenue generated by the beauty of the Upper Delaware region.

There are great debates regarding gas drilling taking place today. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network is at the heart of that debate -- along with so many of the citizens and communities that are put at risk by the proposed drilling practices.

I will be posting more on this issue in the coming weeks - there is so much to learn and to tell. But here is a video clip that talks about some of the harms threatening the still clean streams we have left in our watershed and region.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px5OfCvKnUQ

Delaware Deepening debated on NPR's Radio Times

2010-02-19T12:59:00.001-05:00

Rather than read about it, here is a chance to listen to some of the risks and threats posed by the Delaware deepening project, and to listen to the back and forth debate from both sides.

This is a key issue for our region -- will we allow the health of the Delaware River, and all of the jobs, drinking water, critters and communities who depend upon it be put at risk for false promises that even the Army Corps of Engineers says will never come to pass?

We say no!
Take a listen and see what you think?

And of course, you can always learn more and follow this debate by checking out the information at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network's website (www.delawareriverkeeper.org)

http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/02/18/delaware-river-dredging/

Creating Jobs Shouldn't Mean Destroying the Environment

2010-02-06T17:50:00.001-05:00

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.
Jobs are very important.
They allow us to eat, to live, to take care of our kids, to enjoy life, to care for ourselves, our families and all we care about.
Jobs are important.

But, creating a job should not be done at the expense of our environment or our communities.
Just the opposite, the best jobs, the ones that last and grow and advance our communities are those that respect, honor and protect our environment.

Making cigarettes creates jobs. It also kills people.
About 5.4 million people die each year because of tobacco. By 2030 this is predicted to rise to 8.3 million.
Every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies.
If cigarette companies had argued, way back when, that in the interest of creating jobs they had to kill over 5 million people a year would we have agreed that all of these deaths was worth it to create some jobs?

PCBs now contaminate over 10 species of fish in the Delaware River, you can't eat them or should limit your consumption of them because to do otherwise exposes you to dangerous levels of PCBs.
PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of serious health effects including cancer and serious non-cancer illnesses. PCBs cause cancer, harm the immune system, harm the nervous system, harm the endocrine system. PCBs, among other things, harm short term memory development and learning. PCBs have been shown to change thyroid hormone levels in infants, by affecting thyroid hormone levels PCBs can affect normal growth and development. PCBs can affect liver toxicity, blood pressure, cholesterol levels. PCBs can harm the reproductive system.
Having PCBs in the fish of the Delaware River exposes all who eat them -- some by choice but some because they have to in order to feed themselves and their families -- to these dangerous harms. It also affects the level of commercial and recreational fishing that can and does happen on the Delaware River.
When the creators of PCBs were first embarking on its creation do you think as a community we would have agreed to sacrifice the health of our fish and families in order to support the jobs made by creating PCBs?

Today, folks are quick to overlook the harms to others from a particular project or proposal whenever it is preceded by "but it will create jobs."
The problem is that the short term gain of some jobs, if left unchecked, can so often result in the long term loss of many jobs and the health of many in our communities.

Creating a job should not be an acceptable excuse for creating harm to our environment and others.

The deepening, it is argued, will create some port jobs and therefore, it is argued, should be allowed to happen regardless of its implications for others.
But that is not good enough; it should not be allowed to be good enough for this dangerous project to move forward.

Deepening the Delaware River puts at risk so many - It threatens species already on the brink of extinction, species which now or once supported a tremendous wealth of economic benefit and jobs for our region in a way that did not inflict such wholesale environmental and community harm. It threatens to move the River's salt line that puts at risk drinking water supplies for South Jersey and Philadelphia, as well as the oysters that support a vibrant and needed industry in our region. It threatens to change the River in a way that will erode away and harm the wetlands that are important habitat and that provide storm protection to our communities.

Deepening the Delaware River is argued to create some port jobs. But what about the jobs we know exist, jobs people and families rely upon today, that could be decimated by deepening because of the harm it will do to our River and environments?

Among those environments and associated jobs and economies put at risk by deepening:

ü The annual harvest of oysters from the Delaware Estuary that now generates up to $80 million of economic benefit. The loss of this income would be devastating to those communities dependent upon it, some of them the poorest in our region.

ü The $34 million ecotourism industry dependent upon the horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebird phenomenon of the Delaware Bay, providing crucial support to local economies in the “off-season. And the additional $34 million of ecotourism generated by other shorebirds dependent upon a healthy Bay.

ü The $150 million of annual revenue and social welfare value from the horseshoe crab-dependent biomedical industry to whom one pint of Horseshoe Crab blood is worth $15,000 for required testing on medical devices, vaccines and intravenous drugs used by all.

ü Spending in the estuary region by recreational anglers valued at an average of $62 to $100 per day which fuels jobs and income critical for many of our region's communities.

Why is it okay with Senator Specter, Governor Rendell, Delaware Assemblymen J. Johnson, G. Carey and G. Hocker, and the port community to put these jobs and economic benefits on the chopping block?

Those opposing deepening do not oppose the ports. In fact we have advocated for wise port investments that will protect the environment and create port jobs at the same time. Our goal is to protect all communities, all jobs, and all who depend upon the Delaware River; not to sacrifice the many in order to benefit only those who are using this project to further their own political, personal and professional agendas.

The Special Delaware Has Special Atlantic Sturgeon

2010-01-27T16:58:00.001-05:00

The Delaware River is unique and special in so very many ways -- in ways that many know, but also in many ways folks don't know.

Did you know that the Delaware River is home to a unique population of Atlantic Sturgeon? There is a population of Atlantic Sturgeon that lives it the Delaware River which is only found here, in our River -- they are genetically distinct from all other Atlantic Sturgeon on earth. Amazing.

At one time there were so many sturgeon in the Delaware River that they provided 75% of the caviar nationwide. But then, as people do, people took advantage and overharvested the sturgeon, to the point of decimation. By the early 1900s sturgeon fishers were pulling in only 6% of what they had pulled in just two decades before.

The Atlantic Sturgeon have such an extended life cycle, and reproductive cycle, that it has inhibited their recovery. Females don't sexually mature until around age 16; boys age 12.

But the real reason the Atlantic Sturgeon have not been able to recover is not because of their normal growth and reproductive cycle, it is because people continue to take advantage -- advantage of the sturgeon and the River they live in. Pollution, dredging, harvest as bycatch from other species, and more all continue to pound the Atlantic Sturgeon into decline.

By some estimates we have less than 100 Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River -- LESS THAN 100!

The Delaware River Atlantic Sturgeon have a special, unique and irreplaceable place in our River and on this earth. They deserve our respect and care. Whether you appreciate them as another living member of our planet, or as a contributor of food, jobs and income to those who would harvest them and/or eat them -- swift action is needed to restore the Atlantic Sturgeon populations to the Delaware River.

You can help provide the Atlantic Sturgeon the protection they need -- go to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network website at www.delawareriverkeeper.org to learn how you can take action to have the Delaware River Atlantic Sturgeon identified as endangered and receive extra needed protection pursuant to federal law.

February 5, 2010 is the deadline.
Please don't wait to take your action.
We have less than 100 -- the Atlantic Sturgeon need your help now.

Delaware Deepening -- A Threat to Jobs and the Environment

2010-01-21T19:25:00.001-05:00

There is a bounty of data, documents and records to demonstrate the wealth of environmental harm and the lack of economic and job benefits from deepening of the Delaware River.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative office of Congress, is among those who have shown that the claims of economic benefits from deepening the Delaware River an additional five feet are, in large part, a sham. And sadly the sham was not an accident – it was the result of “miscalculations, invalid assumptions, and outdated information.”

The Army Corps and project supporters admit that resulting shipping benefits from deepening are in the form of increased efficiencies – the same volume of goods will come up the River just in fewer ships. In fact, the way the Army Corps says it: “The future volume of cargo passing through the Delaware River port system is determined by macroeconomic factors that are not affected in any measurable way by the channel depth. The purpose of the deepening project is to make it possible to handle … cargo in a more efficient way. This efficiency takes the form of more-heavily-loaded vessels. With the deeper channel, fewer total vessel calls will be required because it will be possible to handle more cargo per ship.”

Less ships, less offloading, same amount of cargo? Less jobs, not more.

Agencies and experts have been documenting the threats of deepening for nearly two decades including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the University of Delaware’s Sea Grant Program, experts associated with the Delaware Estuary program.

While Deepening will not be the impetus for new port jobs, it will undermine, diminish and jeopardize River jobs – jobs dependent upon the quality of the Delaware River, its fish, shellfish, wildlife and ecosystems. Introducing toxins into the already overburdened River, damaging habitats critical for fish and shellfish, burying horseshoe crab and Saballaria vulgaris populations, blasting away at reaches of the River, moving the saltline upriver in a way that threatens contamination of New Jersey and Philadelphia drinking water and introduces harm to oysters and freshwater marshes, causing and/or accelerating erosion of marshlands important for habitat and protecting communities from catastrophic storms, subjecting communities to 60 to 94 feet high piles of toxic dredged muck, individually and collectively harms a wide array of commercial, recreational and ecotourism jobs and revenues. Among those jobs and economies put at risk:

ü The annual harvest of oysters from the Delaware Estuary is projected to generate from $50 to $80 million of economic benefit. The loss of this income would be devastating to those communities dependent upon it.

ü Spending in the estuary region by recreational anglers valued at an average of $62 to $100 per day.

And much, much more.

Why is it okay with the port community to put these jobs and economic benefits on the chopping block?

Protecting the River from Gas Drilling -- PA Action Happening Now

2010-01-03T17:46:00.002-05:00

The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection has proposed regulations for natural gas drilling wastewater and other discharges that are high in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). A discharge standard of 500 mg/L TDS, 250 mg/L for chlorides and 250 mg/L sulfates have been proposed based on a stated goal of protecting drinking water quality. While this is a step in the right direction, the regulations need to be stronger and the standards need to be protective of fish and aquatic life as well as drinking water -- and to accomplish this 500 mc/L of TDS is simply not strict enough.

Further, the proposed rules do not include any testing or regulation of the many dangerous chemicals that are used in hydrofracking and that are produced as toxic flowback when a shale gas well is developed; this is a gross oversight.

Most importantly, the State continues to crank out drilling permits and issue discharge permits for facilities that do not meet this standard now; they plan to continue to allow gas projects and discharges to proliferate even though the new rules are not expected to be adopted until 2011. There must be no new gas well drilling permits nor any wastewater discharge permits issued until protective standards and comprehensive regulations are adopted and implemented by PADEP; it is irresponsible for DEP to continue to issue permits for wells that will produce more wastewater than existing facilities can process. A MORATORIUM should be implemented until our streams and rivers are protected from gas drilling wastewater pollution!

Defending the Delaware from Deepening to Protect the River for All

2009-12-02T09:02:00.000-05:00

Today we learned that the Delaware Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and the organizations that have joined us in our litigation are being allowed to intervene in the call for an injunction to stop the Army Corps from proceeding with the project until our legal challenges are done. This sound decision by the court will help ensure that the wide variety of legal violations and environmental threats the project poses are fully addressed in the Court's decision.

The Army Corps plan to begin deepening before it has fulfilled all of its obligations under environmental protection laws and before the release of the newest Government Accountability Office Review that is now ongoing seems to demonstrate the tremendous fear the Army Corps has in the outcome of honest environmental and economic reviews. It has been nearly 20 years since this project was proposed - the rush to act now is clearly driven by fear and/or politics, rather than need.

The Army Corps is claiming that Congress has demonstrated its support for the project. Such a pronouncement is disingenuous in light of the findings by the Government Accountability Office as recently as 2006 that

“GAO’s recent reviews of four Corps civil works projects [including the Delaware Deepening] and actions found that the planning studies conducted by the Corps to support these activities were fraught with errors, mistakes, and miscalculations, and used invalid assumptions and outdated data. Generally, GAO found that the Corps’ studies understated costs and overstated benefits, and therefore did not provide a reasonable basis for decision-making.”

The Army Corps has not given the Congress an accurate picture of the deepening, its environmental threats, or economic ramifications. Nor has it given an accurate picture to the public, including those who misguidedly support the project.

And the Army Corps, as well as project supporters, have failed to consider the harm that could be done to all those jobs that rely on the healthy fish, shellfish, and wildlife of the Delaware. We are talking about multi-million dollar industries, put at risk from the environmental harm the deepening threatens. In fact, when these jobs have been brought to the table for consideration those who support the project quickly and callously dismiss them as unimportant.

Well, they are not unimportant. They are very important. The health of the River and its ecosystems are vital to us all and it is not okay for one small sector of the community to seek to harm the River purely for their own private gain, at the expense of everyone else.

The Army Corps is failing to honor its obligation to protect the public; so it is now on the Courts to do so.

Lawsuit Filed Against Delaware Deepening To Protect the River and All Who Depend Upon It.

2009-11-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

November 19, 2009, on behalf of 5 citizen environmental organizations including the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, National Wildlife Federation, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Delaware Nature Society, Clean Water Action the Delaware Riverkeeper Network's River Resources Law Clinic filed an independent legal challenge in Federal in District Court in New Jersey against the Delaware Deepening proposal. The groups also filed in Delaware District Court to intervene in the legal action brought against the deepening by the State of Delaware.

When the Army Corps announced that it was going to proceed with the Deepening project at this time, it was announcing its intent to violate no less than 7 federal environmental and community protection laws as well as state environmental and community protection laws.
In addition to being a flagrant violation of state and federal law, the decision by the Army Corps to move forward with the deepening without needed Delaware and New Jersey permits and approvals is a stripping of state environmental protection authority that cannot be allowed to stand.

While it is critically important that both NJ and DE have filed to challenge the actions of the Army Corps, the legal challenges they brought were much more focused on the states’ rights issues. NJ’s action was broader than Delaware’s and included more environmental claims to be sure, but neither included the full array of environmental harms that is included in our litigation.

The Delaware River provides the foundation for our healthy economy and healthy communities. Our environmental protection laws and government agencies are meant to protect the River and environment for us all.

This is not about jobs versus the environment – this is about protecting both.

The Army Corps has made clear that the Delaware deepening project will not increase the quantities of goods that come up the River – the benefits are only increased efficiencies, not more tonnage.

The undocumented claims of jobs being made by Pennsylvania are not the result of the deepening project, they are the result of other port development projects.

Deepening the Delaware puts at risk a wide array of fish, shellfish, and wildlife that are critical for providing hundreds of millions of dollars of income and jobs to our communities, region and nationwide.

The oysters that the deepening threatens provides up to $3 million dollars of economic benefit to our region.

The horseshoe crabs that the deepening threatens is not only critical for ensuring vaccines and medical devices are safe for use by humans, but supports a $150 million biomedical industry and is the basis of $34 million of ecotourism income to our region.

The commercial and recreational fisheries of our Estuary, Bay and River is another multi-million dollar industry that supports many, many jobs directly and indirectly. For example, in Pennsylvania, fishing activities are credited with generating $4.7 billion per year in revenue and supporting 43,000 jobs -- while this is not only from the Delaware Estuary, it gives a sense of how important fishing is economically to our watershed states. Sale of fishing licenses generates tens of millions for the budgets of our river states including $19 million in PA, $4 million in NJ and $200,000 in DE.

The deepening project, according to the record, will not create jobs. But it will harm them.

At the same time it threatens drinking water supplies as well as wetlands that are important for not only environmental protection but providing storm protection to our communities.

That the Army Corps of Engineers awould be willing to break the law in order to press forward a dangerous project that threatens our environment, our drinking water, and all of the jobs that depend upon clean water and healthy fish, oyster and birding communities of the Delaware river is unconscionable. When Government is willing to break the law, citizens must rise up and defend it – that is what we are doing – defending our right to clean water, clean air, fish we can catch and feed our children, wetlands and floodplains that protect us from pollution and floods.

Salem Nuclear Generation Station -- Trying to Live Longer so it Can Kill More

2009-11-06T08:01:00.003-05:00

The Salem Nuclear Generation Station is the single largest predator in Delaware Bay. It is allowed to kill indiscriminately on a daily basis. Every year Salem kills over 3 billion Delaware River fish including:

Over 59 million Blueback Herring
Over 77 million Weakfish
Over 134 million Atlantic Croaker
Over 412 million White Perch
Over 448 million Striped Bass
Over 2 billion Bay Anchovy

This is no small impact, not to the River and not to the commercial and recreational fishermen who are subject to size and catch limits while Salem is allowed to continue killing indiscriminately.

If Salem were retrofitted with cooling towers it could reduce those fish kills by 95% -- 95%!!!!

But rather than invest in this existing and proven technology, the plant's owners have spent years fighting the requirement legally.

Now, there is an effort to extend the life of Salem, originally scheduled to shut down in just a few short years, by another 50 years.

This is not about nuclear power versus not nuclear power.

This is about whether or not to stop the needless fish slaughter.

At this point there are two ways to stop it -- shut down the plant on time or put in place cooling towers.

Delaware Deepening -- Where Will the Spoils Go?

2009-10-30T15:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I toured the confined disposal facilities where the toxin and pollution laden spoils from the Delaware deepening project would go if that project moves forward. Contrary to what Governor Rendell is telling you, all of the contaminated spoils will go to 8 sites located in communities in New Jersey and Delaware, none of the dredge spoils will go to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania will get the remains of the rock that is blasted from the bottom of the Delaware River near Marcus Hook; the rock is quite a different beast than the toxin laden muck that is the spoils.

Does Rendell know he is telling a lie? Yes, he does. I have a letter from Governor Rendell to Governor Corzine saying so -- making clear that he knows so.

What do these sites look like? They are quite lovely actually. They are wide open spaces that are attractive to wildlife -- hence the threat. You put toxic muck in these sites it is an invitation to contamination for the wildlife as you can see from the photos.

The harms of the deepening are vast and varied.

For a quick overview check out the video below.

For more information check out the many postings on the Delaware Riverkeeper Network website -- www.delawareriverkeeper.org.