NEWARK DE - Leaders of the organized labor, faith-based, sportsmen, business, national organizations and college/university populations from the states that make up the Delaware River Watershed – New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware – held a press conference at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.  Governor Jack Markell was invited to attend so that he, as a voting member of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), could receive letters from various constituencies asking him to vote against regulations that would allow controversial gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin for the first time.

Some environmentalists argue that gas drilling and the use of the new, largely unregulated practice of high volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, could pollute the Delaware River – a drinking water source to over 15 million people living in the region.

“If anyone needed evidence that our public commissions are bowing to the pressure of big business and that the democratic process in America is in trouble, this is it,” Josh Fox, writer/director of the film "Gasland" said. “If Governor Markell votes to frack the Delaware, he will do it with the world watching and the civil strife and contamination that result will mar his legacy.”

 “We are here today to bring to Governor Markell a broad constituency of people who do not want gas drilling in the Delaware River Watershed, an irreplaceable water supply and cherished national treasure”, said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “The students here today with Director Josh Fox and those who love the Bay, its shellfisheries and coastal resources, are saying to the Governor: Vote No to protect our drinking water, our coast, and our future. Don’t Drill the Delaware!’” concluded Carluccio.

Fracking to extract natural gas involves injecting large quantities of water, sand and over 600 chemicals underground to break up shale and rock. Many of the chemicals are known carcinogens. The resulting wastewater is toxic; ten times more toxic than that produced by oil extraction, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and no treatment facilities exist to remove all of these pollutants. Numerous studies by government bodies, universities and media outlets have documented fracking’s adverse impacts on public health, air quality, waterways, and drinking water.

National and local groups, legislative officials and activists have opposed the DRBC regulations, which will receive a final vote on Nov. 21. The regulations would lift a 3-year moratorium and allow between 18,000 and 64,000 fracking wells to be placed in the Delaware River Basin, opening New Jersey and New York up to horizontal fracking for the first time, bringing more fracking to Pennsylvania and exposing Delaware, the most downstream state in the Basin, to water quality degradation, coastal disruption, threats to the Delaware Bay’s oyster habitat, and sprawling gas pipelines and related infrastructure.

Hundreds of people are expected to join the protest from throughout the Delaware River Watershed at the Nov. 21 10:00 am public meeting of the DRBC at the War Memorial in Trenton, N.J. where the DRBC commissioners will vote.