Warm Weather Puts A Halt To Water Withdrawal Along Susquehanna

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

July 17, 2012 | 5:20 PM

It’s that time of year again – warm weather means the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is temporarily suspending water withdrawal permits at about 60 locations. Pennsylvania Public Radio’s Mary Wilson reports:

Near-drought conditions persist throughout the Susquehanna River Basin, and businesses that usually take large amounts of water out of the system’s streams and rivers are being told to stop.
It’s mostly natural gas companies that have seen their water withdrawal permits suspended, but others got the kibosh as well: resorts, golf courses, a trout park and hatchery.
Susan Obleski of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission says the list of who can withdraw water from the Susquehanna River and its tributaries is constantly changing – on Monday, 64 permits were suspended. Obleski called it “somewhat of a peak.” By Tuesday, that number had dropped to 57.