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The former Erie-Lackawanna Railroad site is now owned by the city of Port Jervis, NY on the southern end of the Upper Delaware River National Scenic & Recreation River. This also happens to be on the northern end of another national park, The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Between these two National Parks there is over 110 miles of river supposedly protected.
I say supposedly because the latest thing to surface (no pun) is an underground oil slick made up of more than 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel that could contaminate the special protection water of the Delaware River.
The NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) plans on building an interceptor trench to prevent the oil slick from reaching the river. The oil slick is currently located about 1/4 mile from the site and officials estimate that it could take 20 years for the oil to reach the river. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel much better since we all know "officials" are always right.
Why doesn't the state use some of the modern technology that exists in the oil & gas industry to suck this diesel fuel from the ground. It's 10,000 gallons of already refined crude oil that should have a better use somewhere else. Or is it the technology that can extract natural gas from thousands of feet below the surface not capable of extracting an oil slick from several feet below the surface? Is it not a safe technology?
We can expect to see more of these situations if fracking for natural gas is ever allowed in the Delaware River Basin. It might be diesel fuel or some other harmful product or by-product the gas industry will leave behind. That's one thing history has taught us about that industry, they don't discriminate.
