Fracking is still big business in Pennsylvania.
More than 7,000 wells in the Keystone State have been sunk into the Marcellus Shale, reaching out through the ground to seek out and recover oil and gas.
But since the beginning, fracking has come with public health concerns. People worry that the chemical cocktails that are pumped through the ground to force out oil and gas will make their ways into drinking water supplies. And those same concerns surround the wastewater produced by the fracking process.
Now, thousands of people want Gov. Phil Murphy to make sure fracking and those public health risks never come to New Jersey.
Environmental activists delivered more than 104,101 petitions calling for a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin to Murphy’s office on Tuesday. The petitions also call for a ban on processing and disposing fracking wastewater in the river basin, and a ban on exporting water from the river basin to be used for fracking elsewhere.
The petitions were signed by people living in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. All four of those states are part of the Delaware River Basin, a watershed that supplies drinking water for about 17 million people, including 2.9 million in New Jersey. The petitions were also delivered to the governors of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Murphy serves as the current chair of the Delaware River Basin Commission. The interstate organization, which is made up of the governors of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, manages the health and use of the Delaware River.
In February, Murphy announced his support for a ban on fracking in the river basin.
The DRBC has had a temporary moratorium on fracking in the river basin since 2010. A permanent ban on fracking is currently being considered by the DRBC, but environmentalists say the measure doesn’t go far enough because it allows for fracking waste to be dumped in the river basin.
“Having a partial ban that actually allows the dumping of fracking waste still puts the drinking water and environment of the Basin at risk,” Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said. “This could lead to pollution and contaminated drinking water for tens of millions of people.”
In Trenton, state lawmakers are pushing a bipartisan resolution, SCR150, through the legislature that calls on Murphy to make sure the DRBC’s fracking ban includes a ban on fracking wastewater and a ban on exporting water from the watershed to be used for fracking elsewhere.
“Fracking and fracking waste should get kept out of the Delaware River watershed. New Jersey’s drinking water sources shouldn’t be placed in danger by out-of-state fracking companies discharging their pollution into our watershed,” said Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex,) a lead co-sponsor of SCR150. “I urge Gov. Murphy to do everything he can to ensure the DRBC moves forward with a full ban on fracking and fracking waste in the Delaware watershed.”
There is currently no fracking in New Jersey, but there is no statewide ban on the practice either. A one-year ban existed in the state from 2012 to 2013. Gov. Chris Christie had repeatedly vetoed efforts to ban the dumping of fracking waste in New Jersey.
Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.