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There is still room on the bus heading up to Matamoras PA this wednesday (about noon depart). Join your neighbors as we travel up river to testify at a public hearing (beginning at 3pm) about the first fracking and water withdrawal being considered for the Delaware River Watershed. The industry wants to take .7 million gallons of water a day from the Lackawaxen River and use it for hydro-fracking natural gas. This river was just named the Commonwealth's 2010 River of the Year by Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources. Tickets are free and we'd love your company! Visit www.delawareriverkeeper.org for the action alert and how you can write your own letter, due March 15th.

“We’re fighting for our lives.”, according to Al Benner of P.O.W. (Protecting Our Waters, Philadelphia) Robert Ryan, Ph.D., a hydrologist at Temple University, said that gas companies are considering drilling 25,000 gas wells in Pennsylvania, though others predict more. These many wells mean that 125,000 acres of land will become impermeable since each well sits on a 5 acre concrete slab. This means that there will be increased runoff and water will not be returned to streams to replenish them. There will be more erosion, and the water quality will worsen for oxygen will be depleted and fish and other wildlife will suffer.

“What Is Clean Water Worth?” asked Barbara Arrindell, the founder of Damascus Citizens. Into the 1.5 to 9 millions of gallons pumped into each well will be hundred of toxic chemicals and salt. This brine injected into the earth will be 3-6 times more salty than the ocean. Presently, we have no way to treat this water.