Report: Delaware River is cleaner, but problems remain

Delaware Online: Environmental conditions have improved across the 13,539 square mile Delaware River Basin, scientists reported today, but serious problems remain in areas ranging from flood control to habitat and species threats. The summary emerged from reports issued jointly by the Delaware River Basin Commission and Partnership for the Delaware Estuary following a meeting at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, Pa.

After decades of recovery and protection efforts, researchers rated more than two-thirds of 37 environmental indicators as good or fair, including water supplies and flows and oxygen levels in water that once routinely suffocated fish and other aquatic life.

Problems remain, however, including periodic flooding, widespread warnings against eating some types of fish contaminated with toxic pollutants, threats to somee bird and aquatic species and continued loss of habitat to development. Sea level rise, one consequence of rising global temperatures and climate change, also are a concern, the groups noted…

George Ratliff shot this picture of the Middle Delaware River above Walpack Bend