New York News Connection
| June 2, 2010 | Available files: mp3 wav |
“We're Number One!” - The Distinction New Yorkers Don't Want
Mark Scheerer
ALBANY, N. Y. - A conservation group has dubbed New York's Upper Delaware River the "most endangered" in the country, warning of a threat from natural gas drilling that could compare with the spill in the Gulf.
The Upper Delaware forms the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania; its watershed provides drinking water for millions, including half of New Jersey and all of Philadelphia. Plans to drill more than 1,700 natural gas wells using hydraulic fracturing, a controversial process better known as "fracking," have propelled the river into the top spot on American Rivers' "America's Most Endangered Rivers" list. The group's Amy Kober:
"We don't want to turn the drinking water supply for 17 million people into an environmental disaster area like we're seeing now in the Gulf of Mexico."
Shale gas proponents believe the United States should pursue all forms of natural gas as part of the so-called bridge to a renewable, clean-energy future, but fracking has caused significant spills and contamination around the country. Pat Carullo, an environmentalist in Damascus, New York, says the Upper Delaware is host to myriad forms of wildlife. He is concerned that the "drill, baby, drill" crowd, which backs homegrown energy, questions his patriotism.
"I believe I'm being very patriotic, because this is the habitat for hundreds of bald eagles. Yesterday, I saw three bald eagles while I was in the river, in my kayak."
Carullo says Halliburton, the same company that made the cement casings for BP's blown-out well in the Gulf, makes the toxic water-and-chemical mix used in fracking.
"The same cast of characters, the same modus operandi, the same names. It's almost surreal to hear what happened in the Gulf, because that's exactly what's happening here in the Upper Delaware watershed."
Halliburton says it is developing methods to recycle and reuse some of the water involved in fracking.
The full report and list, "America's Most Endangered Rivers," is online at www.americanrivers.org.