09/25/2025
PCHPG's statement to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission opposing a proposed Upper Pine Creek water withdrawal in Gaines Township. [published as a 'Guest column' in the Wellsboro Gazette and Free Press-Courier]
-The Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group (Wellsboro, Tioga County, Pennsylvania) is opposed to recent and future water-withdrawal requests managed by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for reasons relating to both Pine Creek's long-term integrity and the regional water loss from our surface and groundwaters. Though only removed by permit "when available," availability is a moving target in our mountainous region. High waters are needed by aquatic organisms from insects to vertebrates for successful completion of life cycles and population maintenance. When limited by continuous removal from stream banks and floodplains, many populations (and forest ecosystems themselves) may suffer from reduced numbers as a result. This is one more example of a lack of "bigger picture" damage being done to Pine Creek. In project after project the Oil and Gas industry has dramatically chipped away at, and will further permanently damage, this delicate ecosystem. Birds, fish, amphibians, wild orchids, and humans seeking solitude in the forest are just a few of the victims paying the price.
-Additionally, why do we keep promoting the extraction of fossil fuels from our lands when we need to stop increasing global temperatures within a very few years to avoid irreversible loss of glaciers, greenhouse gas increases, and resulting heat levels spiraling out of control? Those waters extracted from Pine Creek will be lost forever in miles of underground wells and trapped in the fracked shale. AI technology is a big factor in driving these losses, with electricity needed for data centers predicted to increase from 4% of total generation to 12% by the end of the decade. Now with a 90 billion dollar facility on track toward final approval for Kratos, a crypto mining company, to be built in nearby Clinton County, the demand for pipelines and gas will dramatically increase. Our region is an obvious candidate for supplying this operation. However, America's energy independence is no longer a concern. The methane should stay in the ground and be used only in our region, as promised by Governor Rendell in 2008 when extraction was agreed to on public lands. Will there be no LNG ports and shipment overseas? Local people should not be forced to endure the environmental costs for others, including loss of forest land, industrial-scale infrastructure development, and constant drilling/truck traffic noise near our homes.
-Finally, we don't support inter-drainage transfers of water resources. The landscape is becoming a menagerie of pipelines and artificial waterways. We want clean fully-watered streams, not plastic ones. Replacing waters of the Pine Creek drainage with those from any other drainage is an unwise practice. The Great Lakes Commission, signed by both Pennsylvania and New York, outlawed this practice years ago (Great Lakes Compact of 2008), and the Delaware River Basin Commission banned Frack-water withdrawals soon thereafter. Why should Pine Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River system (essentially The Wilds of PA) not be protected from thirsty outside water-users?
-On behalf of the thousands of local residents and tourists who love Pine Creek and Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, no more water losses from Pine Creek and its tributaries!
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