Fractivists Urge DRBC to Regulate Pipeline Construction

The Delaware River Basin Commission continues to remain silent on new drilling regulations for the watershed. The commissioners may be waiting for New York to complete its regulatory update. But the most recent news from Gov. Cuomo’s office did not indicate those rules are coming soon.
In the meantime, pipeline construction in Pennsylvania is booming. Smaller lines from wellheads, as well as large interstate lines like the Laser pipeline, and the Marc 1 Hub line will go below rivers and streams. Activists who want the DRBC to ban gas drilling also want the commission to start weighing in on pipelines that waterways, which feed the Delaware River.
Maya von Rossum, from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, spoke at a public meeting today at the DRBC in Trenton.
“With nearly a dozen new pipelines or expansions proposed to cross within the watershed boundaries in order to serve the shale gas drilling industry,” said von Rossum. “We are on the cusp of a new and yet-to-be-recognized environmental hazard for our communities.”
Von Rossum, and several other environmental groups, served the commission with a petition stating that the agency has an obligation to regulate pipelines within the watershed.

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