Advocacy Success
Displaying 44 Advocacy Success CasesAppeals Board Promotes Agency Transparency by Compelling PennDOT to Explain its Actions
On March 5th the Delaware Riverkeeper Network delivered to the Delaware River Basin Commission a petition asking them to take steps to protect fish populations of the Delaware Estuary by ensuring the oxygen levels of the Estuary are set, met and protected at a level that support not just fish living there, but fish reproducing and growing in all of the waters of the Delaware Estuary. The Petit
In September, 2014, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted a formal petition to the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) requesting the agency take jurisdiction over the proposed PennEast pipeline project; DRN also crafted an action alert calling for letters from the public which has resulted in the submission of well over 500 citizen letters.
In response to a petition submitted by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network regarding high lead levels in the sediments of the Philadelphia Gun Club, located next to the Delaware River in Bensalem, Bucks County, PA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated in October, 2013 a preliminary assessment of the site pursuant to federal law.
After 3 years of advocacy and a lawsuit filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network's River Resources law clinic Dupont pulled out of the project it was pursuing with the US Army to dump 1200 tons of VX nerve agent waste in the Delaware River.
DRN advocacy protected nearly 1/3 of an acre of shallow water fish habitat which would have otherwise been filled during wharf reconstruction in Trenton. Shallow water fish habitat is extremely important in this reach of the river which was being increasingly lined with fill projects and hardened banks. The wharf was rebuilt but without filling in and over this important habitat.
After a year of refusing multiple requests by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network to mandate the Tennessee Gas Pipeline 300 Line Extension Project and the Columbia 1278 Replacement Project secure Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) review and dockets before being installed, on January 30, 2013, the DRBC reversed their decision and determined it would subject the two projects to review and permitting (in DRBC terms called getting a docket). While the two projects had been completed -- the multiple violations of law during their construction and the abysmal restoration efforts upon their completion leaves plenty of room for implementing restoration practices to minimize and reduce their water quality and ecosystem harms.
The Township of Lower, Cape May County, NJ applied for a CAFRA Individual Permit and received said permit on January 17, 2014 for a project called the Beach Drive Pedestrian Access Improvement Project. The project would have cut 6 to 16 feet (varying information secured during investigations) into a dune for a distance of 1.5 miles in order to accommodate a new walk way on the bay side of Beach Drive. On the other side of Beach Drive there already exists a sidewalk.
In July 2020, Elcon chemical hazardous waste storage and treatment facility withdrew its Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) permit applications.
In 2016, DRN put out an Action Alert to submit comments to support a proposed bill to end the commercial harvesting of diamondback terrapins in New Jersey. On July 15, 2016, then-Governor Chris Christie signed this bill which ended commercial harvesting and re-categorized terrapins as non-game species.
