Monongahela Called One of Most Endangered Rivers in U.S.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2 June 2010
By Don Hopey
Two Pennsylvania rivers, the Monongahela River and upper Delaware
River, are on this year's listing of "Most Endangered Rivers" due to
the threat of toxic pollution from accelerated Marcellus shale gas well
drilling activities.
American Rivers, a national river advocacy organization, today named
the Monongahela River, which flows out of West Virginia and joins the
Allegheny River at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River, the ninth most
endangered river in the nation.
The Delaware River, which provides drinking water to 17 million people
in Pennsylvania and New York, is ranked first on the endangered river
list, which has been issued annually by the group to call attention to
imperiled and threatened rivers.
"We must put the brakes on the rampant gas drilling that is already
threatening the safety of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of
people," Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said about the
Monongahela River. "We simply can't let energy companies rake in
profits while putting our precious clean water at risk."
American Rivers called on the federal government, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia to protect the Mon from further degradation from drilling
wastewater, which contains high concentrations of dissolved solids and
hundreds of chemical additives used in the drilling process to break up
or "frack" the shale and release the gas from the mile-deep Marcellus
shale bed.
Also on the list is the Gauley River, a popular whitewater rafting and
recreation river in West Virginia, which is threatened by degradation
due to ongoing mountain top coal mining, according to American Rivers.
The top 10 endangered river list also includes the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta in California, the Little River in North Carolina,
the Cedar River in Iowa, the upper Colorado River in Colorado, the
Chetco River in Oregon, the Teton River in Idaho, and the Coosa River
in Alabama.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.