A look back at what our unique network accomplished in 2023
Here are 10 examples of how our advocates won positive results for the public and the planet in 2023.
Our country’s lakes, rivers and streams give life to ecosystems and people alike from coast to coast. Now it’s time we protect them as the life-giving resources they are.
Here are 10 examples of how our advocates won positive results for the public and the planet in 2023.
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a regional multi-state agency charged with preserving the Delaware River watershed, cast a historic unanimous vote today to fully ban fracking within the Delaware River Basin. This action comes after a multi-year public input process.
The Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition is looking forward to a historic vote at the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) special meeting announced for Thursday Feb. 25, 10:30 a.m. The meeting was publicly noticed yesterday by DRBC as a virtual meeting, with no public comment, for “final action on DRBC’s Proposed Amendments to the Administrative Manual and Special Regulations Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Activities." The DRBC voting members are the Governors of the four states that flow to the Delaware – New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware – and a federal representative for President Biden.
A coalition of organizations have petitioned the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to upgrade the regulatory status and protections for the Philadelphia/Camden reach of the Delaware River. The initiative seeks to ensure that water quality standards governing the river provide protections to those that come into direct contact with the water during recreational activities. According to the petition, the identified river reaches are heavily used in ways that bring people into direct contact with the water, including children. As a result, according to the environmental petitioners, the DRBC and the states should modify the existing legally designated uses to reflect the actual existing uses of the river.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection published a rule yesterday that it will apply one of its strongest clean water protections to 600 miles of rivers and streams throughout the state. The new Category One designations are the first made in over a decade and set strict limits on pollution and development for parts of the Salem River in South Jersey; the South Branch of the Raritan and Lamington Rivers and Jacob’s Creek in Central Jersey, and the Ramapo River in North Jersey among many others. The upgrades also include a two-mile stretch of the Cooper River, the first urban waterway in the state to be protected.
On the 47th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, advocates, elected officials and Camden County officials joined together on the banks of the Cooper River at Gateway Park, showing public support for the first ever designation of an urban waterway to Category One protection status by the NJDEP. The proposal was sparked by improving water quality, which led to the discovery of an endangered species, the Eastern Pond Mussel. This section of the Cooper River is part of a larger proposal calling for 749 miles of waterways to receive these upgrades.