PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Delaware Riverkeeper Network is taking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to court for failing to meet its own deadline to protect Atlantic Sturgeon and other wildlife along the Delaware River.
“The law is very clear. The timeline is very straightforward. We should have had final rules by May,” said Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum, who leads the Riverkeepers Network.
Van Rossum and the network have been battling for cleaner water standards on the river for 14 years.
On Wednesday, the group filed suit to force the EPA to follow through on a commitment to create a higher “dissolved oxygen standard” for the estuary.
A standard proposed in December 2023 underwent a 60 public comment period and ended with a hearing in February. That triggered a 90-day threshold for publishing the new standards, which have not been met.
“The truth is, oxygen levels in the Delaware River already at many times get too low to support the full life cycle of the Atlantic sturgeon of the Delaware,” van Rossum said. “The Atlantic sturgeon of the Delaware River needs about 6.3, 6.5 milligrams per liter of oxygen in the water. The current legal obligation is to protect only 3.5 milligrams per liter.”
Wastewater plants and other chemical and biochemical producers, including farm and forestry waste, will be required to make sure any runoff or water dumped into the estuary meets the new standard and can face penalties for failure to do so.
“The river belongs to we, the people,” Van Rossum said. “The river doesn't belong to the wastewater dischargers or to industry. And the Clean Water Act makes that clear. This lawsuit makes that clear.”