The Bristol-based Delaware Riverkeeper Network(DRN) announced they have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to improve habitats for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon and other river life.
The advocacy group filed the suit alleging the EPA has failed to finalize standards for dissolved oxygen in water on Thursday followed by releases across the advocacy groups socials.
DRN says those standards needed for protecting the Delaware’s endangered Atlantic Sturgeon population in addition to other water life the river is home to. The lawsuit was filed after the government was given a 60-day notice of the DRN’s intent to file the suit if action was not taken to resolve the legal violation.
Late last year the EPA announced proposed rule to establish water quality standards relating to dissolved oxygen on 38 miles of the Delaware River, approximately from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware.Atlantic sturgeon are protected in 85 miles of the lower Delaware River as part of the species’ endangered New York Bight Distinct Population Segment.
“When the US EPA granted our petition seeking swift and strong action to develop and release stronger dissolved oxygen standards, followed by a draft proposal a year after, we were placed on an important path towards progress essential for saving the Atlantic Sturgeon of the Delaware River from extinction. It has been worrisome to see the process inexplicably slowed. As the River and the sturgeons’ lead advocate in the region, we felt it important to file this suit to ensure that the promised EPA protections are put in place as soon as possible, and before it is too late to help save the Delaware River’s population of Atlantic Sturgeon from extinction,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of DRN.
Explaining further, “In April 2022, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and partners filed a legal petition pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act urging the federal government to promptly initiate the rulemaking necessary to protect aquatic life in the Delaware Estuary. On December 1, 2022, EPA granted the petition, exercising its authority to determine that revised water quality standards for the Delaware River estuary were necessary to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. EPA’s letter granting the petition stated “ … the currently applicable dissolved oxygen criterion … is not sufficient to protect propagation throughout the specified zones,” van Rossum said.
The EPA determination letter granting the Delaware Riverkeeper Networks’ petition stated EPA’s intent to issue proposed standards within a year; a time frame it honored when on December 21, 2023 the agency issued a proposed rule addressing the concerns and requests laid out in the petition. The EPA proposed rule would set higher dissolved oxygen standards for the Delaware Estuary from Philadelphia to Wilmington in order to better protect aquatic life in the River, including the oxygen-sensitive Atlantic Sturgeon and Shortnose Sturgeon, Rossum said.
The proposed rule was the subject of a robust 60-day public comment period and hearing process that closed on February 20, 2024. According to the Clean Water Act, the EPA should have promulgated final standards within 90 days of publishing the proposed standards – which would have meant final standards in May of 2024, the Riverkeeper Org says.
“While EPA appeared on track to promulgate the scientifically-based dissolved oxygen standards in a timely manner, the deadline has long passed. We are filing this litigation because we need EPA to keep their foot on the power pedal and move towards strong protections for the Aquatic life of the Delaware River and to ensure the genetically unique population of Atlantic Sturgeon in our river has the oxygen it needs to survive and to thrive. We simply do not have the luxury of time. And with a potential change in administration that could block the progress we have made to date, we felt it imperative that we exercise our legal rights under the Clean Water Act,” said Van Rossum .
The EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
About the Delaware Riverkeeper Network:
Established in 1988 upon the appointment of the Delaware Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization. DRN’s professional staff and volunteers work throughout the entire Delaware River Watershed. We also work throughout the four states that comprise the Watershed — including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York — and at the federal level on the issues, actions, regulations, legislation, policies, programs and decisions that impact the health of our Delaware River Watershed waterways and our ability to protect and restore them for the benefit of all