Advocacy group names Upper Delaware River most endangered for 2010, citing gas drilling

Source: Star Tribune

ALBANY, N.Y. - An advocacy group seeking tighter governmental control of natural gas drilling put the Upper Delaware River at the top of its annual list of the nation's 10 most endangered rivers, citing gas exploration in the surrounding region.

American Rivers said in a report released Tuesday that the Delaware watershed along the New York-Pennsylvania border is threatened by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which injects millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals to stimulate gas wells.

Drillers have leased thousands of acres in the watershed, which supplies drinking water to millions of people in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

"Unless we stop the threat of rampant shale fracking, the drinking water for 17 million people across the Northeast will be threatened by toxic pollution," said Rebecca Wodder, president of Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers.

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