Hi —

Conversations are happening right now in the Delaware River Basin Commission about the future of the Delaware River watershed— the water supply for roughly 13 million people in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. 

Last year, Pennsylvanians spoke up during public comment sessions and, because of our voices, fracking was permanently banned in the Delaware River Basin. Now we are facing another huge moment that will decide whether fossil fuel industries will still be allowed to treat and store fracking wastewater in the Basin, where it could contaminate our rivers, streams, and land near homes, hospitals, and schools.

On Wednesday, December 7, the Delaware River Basin Commission – the agency that protects and manages the Delaware River and land that surrounds it and is made up of the four governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware – will hold a vote on their draft fracking byproduct management regulations. This is our chance to remind Governor Wolf to finish the job he started when he voted to ban fracking throughout the watershed last year by also banning the import of fracking wastewater and the export of water for fracking anywhere.

Will you join us in asking Governor Wolf to fulfill his pledge to protect Pennsylvania from the harmfuk impacts of fracking wastewater pollution and water depletion?  

Fracking wastewater, the leftover by-product of fracking, contains thousands of chemicals that could be radioactive and cancer-causing – and no company should be allowed to import it into the Basin. Because we don’t have a complete picture of what’s in fracking wastewater, fracked gas companies can’t definitively say these chemicals are safe for human health and consumption, especially when they can’t be filtered out.

Additionally, there is no safe way to treat and dispose of fracking wastewater. And where there's wastewater, there are spills, which endanger the workers at waste treatment facilities who are handling the wastewater and taking the radioactivity home on their bodies and to their families.

What’s worse is that Black, Brown, and low-income communities will be most affected if fracking activities continue, as they are the areas where water treatment facilities are already located. These communities cannot afford to keep investing in more advanced filtration systems to combat corporate greed and the lack of protection from the agencies that were put in place to protect them.

A fracking ban will be incomplete if it does not protect the water supply for the 13 million people that use it and protect the entire beautiful Delaware River Watershed and its communities now and for generations to come. We must call for a revision of the proposed fracking regulations to ban the import of wastewater produced by fracking and ban the export of water from the watershed to support fracking in other watersheds!

Sign on to our petition to the Governor demanding he vote for a total ban on fracking in the Delaware Basin that doesn’t allow for wastewater treatment and other loopholes.

Thanks for all that you do,

Katie Blume
Political & Legislative Director
Conservation Voters of PA

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Conservation Voters of PA
P.O. Box 2125
Philadelphia, PA 19103
United States