Ships, salt and the EPA

She has finally left her berth of nearly 30 years in Philadelphia. The SS United States has started her long, last journey, first to Mobile, Ala., and then on to its sinking off the coast of Okaloosa County, Fla. Fascinating ship, fascinating story behind her and this move.

Some of the delays in getting started on this journey have been weather-related — and hasn’t this been a winter! Our driveway has never been this bad. But heeding the advice of those who know, we’re not putting salt down if the temperatures go below 15 degrees, which they have here in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Salt was front and center during Winter Salt Week, a multi-state effort to raise awareness about the harms of road salt. Have a look at the results here.

But it’s not just a winter problem. Freshwater streams are staying salty long after spring rains wash winter salt away and the culprit, once again, is development.

It’s a balancing act between staying safe on wintry roads but not overdoing it to protect our drinking water.

And speaking of water, at yesterday’s meeting of the Water Management Advisory Committee of the Delaware River Basin Commission, the state of our still-pretty-dry-in-some-parts basin was discussed. 

It’s another example of how big and complicated our watershed is. The total precipitation for the upper river in the past year is about 55 inches, and the lower basin about 35 inches — and that translates to about 6 inches above normal for the upper basin and about 10 below normal for the lower basin.

The drought conditions we experienced in the fall and early winter still plague us since it takes a while for streams and groundwater to make up for lost rain.

Remember back in 2021 when the watershed was hit by a series of storms in July and August? And then the knock-out punch of Ida in September?

We have a story from WHYY about how some communities along the Brandywine are trying to prepare for future storms.

Politico’s weekly NY & NJ Energy newsletter had an interview with the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 2, former New York State Senator Mike Martucci. He represented the New York piece of the Delaware River watershed and was seen to be interested in bipartisan representation.

In the interview by Ry Rivard, Martucci “effusively praised his agency’s career civil servants.” Later in the day of the interview, hundreds of people were fired from the EPA.

Martucci said, “What I do know is that when that all nets off, our focus is going to be exactly what the mission of this agency is, which is to make sure that we’ve got the cleanest air, the cleanest land and the cleanest water,” but added, “What that actually means in terms of staffing levels and numbers, I do not know.”

It’s not just Martucci, none of us know what it means, but the work we do matters now more than ever.

On a more upbeat note, the Delaware River was named Pennsylvania’s 2025 river of the year. Congrats to this hard-working river of ours!

Thanks for reading, and for all you do for the watershed.