By Victor Greto
HANCOCK, N.Y. -When an oil tanker dumped nearly a half-million gallons into the Delaware River in November 2004, the spread of the oil – north beyond Philadelphia and south into the bay – made clear again the importance and vulnerability of a river that starts as fresh water in the Catskill Mountains and ends at the salty mouth of Delaware Bay.
The Delaware’s main stem begins its journey 4,200 feet above sea level in Hancock, N.Y., and winds south through protected wilderness, past farms and historic villages, cities and industrial complexes. That 330-mile journey takes a drop of water about 90 days to complete.
Along the way, trout, shad, eagles and ospreys make their homes here. So do oil refineries, chemical plants and nuclear reactors.
More than 15 million people in four states – New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware – live in the basin of the Delaware River, which has carried the United States through two revolutions – the American and the Industrial.
The same water that flows through the gills of a rainbow trout in Hancock, past the rusting town of Easton, Pa., and over the short falls at Trenton, will later pass the refinery towers of Marcus Hook and slosh against cargo ships at the Port of Wilmington.
The same water flows with the tides in and out of the marshes south of New Castle and drip from a cage full of blue crabs pulled from the Delaware Bay at Bowers Beach.
About the series: I spent about three weeks during the summer of 2005 making my way down the Delaware River from its beginning in Hancock, N.Y., to Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay. Partly by canoe, kayak and power boat, the trip gave me a chance to see the river from a different perspective. Along the way, environmental experts and those who live alongside and work on the river shared conflicting visions of the past, present and future of the Delaware River, a waterway that in small and large ways, affects millions every day.
