CREDO is Fighting to Ban Fracking in the Delaware River Basin

The Delaware River Basin is one of the east coast’s most vital water sources. More than 15 million people in the region from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware rely on it for drinking water.

Hydraulic Fracking

But hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – the extremely dirty and resource-intensive process to extract natural gas from the earth – could threaten the drinking water supply for at least 5 percent of the U.S. population, including residents in New York City and Philadelphia. Here’s why:

The average fracking well uses around 4.5 million gallons of water. In drought years, this intense water usage could reduce stream flows in the Delaware River Basin by up to 70 percent while potentially raising the amount of dangerous contaminants, like barium, 500 percent compared to background levels.

And if officials were to lift the current fracking moratorium, natural gas developers could create up to 4,000 new fracking wells. Running that many wells would require 18 to 26 square miles of land – the equivalent of building 840 Walmart Supercenters in the area.

Additionally, regional officials have proposed to allow fracking wastewater to be imported, stored, processed and discharged into the Delaware River Watershed. The rules would also allow for Delaware River Watershed water to be exported out of the basin to fuel fracking elsewhere.

That’s why CREDO and our members in the region are speaking out to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin and protect the watershed from the fossil fuel industry. We launched a petition calling on the Delaware River Basin Commission to ban all fracking activities.

And earlier this year, our campaign received some great news:

After fierce opposition by environmental groups, residents and nearly 20,000 CREDO members who signed our petition, New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy announced he would join with several neighboring states to oppose fracking.

But we can’t take a victory lap just yet. The full ban on all fracking activities has not gone into effect, and New Jersey is still importing toxic fracking wastewater into the state.

Recent legislation to ban the disposal or placement of fracking by-products in the state, however, is making its way through the New Jersey Legislature.

Take Action

We urge you to add your voice and call on all the governors in the region to ban fracking now. You can sign the petition here: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/DRBC-ban-all-fracking