WHEREAS, Over fifty percent of the Delaware River Basin, which spans New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, is located in Pennsylvania and its largest tributaries are the Schuylkill and Lehigh Rivers; and
WHEREAS, Approximately five percent of Americans, or 15 million people, rely on the Delaware River Basin for drinking, agricultural, and industrial use, including 3 million in Pennsylvania, 2 million of which are customers of the Philadelphia Water Department; and
WHEREAS, This natural resource must be protected in order to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing, and economic security of Philadelphia residents today and in the future; and
WHEREAS, In our quest to be energy independent we must also be environmentally sustainable, and currently the total environmental impact on Pennsylvania, both in the short and long term, of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of the Marcellus Shale in the Delaware River Basin is unknown; and
WHEREAS, It is known that chemicals including diesel fuel, benzene, industrial solvents, and other carcinogens and endocrine disrupters are injected at high pressure into wells in order to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale; and
WHEREAS, Energy companies are currently NOT required by law to report the chemicals they are using, and legislation to end this loophole, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, sponsored by the Honorable Senator Casey and endorsed by 14 environmental organizations in Pennsylvania, is currently in committee in the United States Senate; and
WHEREAS, There have already been cases of private well contamination due to fracking in Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Water Department has called for strong regulatory leadership and oversight by the Department or Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission to ensure the health and safety of the regions drinking water; and
WHEREAS, The Stone Energy Corporation began operations in a Special Protection Waters site without required application for approval from the Delaware River Basin Commission; and
WHEREAS, At the public hearing held by the Delaware River Basin Commission on February 24, 2010 in Matamoras, Pennsylvania, there was significant public outcry against approving Stone Energy Corporation's retroactive applications for water extraction and natural gas well drilling in a section of the Delaware River Basin classified as Special Protection Waters; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we call on the Delaware River Basin Commission to halt Stone Energy Corporation's operations and not approve their applications, or any other applications, until a full environmental impact assessment of fracking in the Delaware River Basin has been conducted to ensure that it will not threaten the safety of Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians, and the 13 million other American citizens who depend on the waters of the Delaware River Basin.
End