Federal and multistate cleanup efforts throughout the years have helped revive the Delaware River. The Delaware River Basin Commission was created in 1961 and the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the commission to implement monumental cleanup efforts throughout the Delaware River Watershed, especially in the urban reach.

In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Maya van Rossum, head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, says environmental activism, federal and state laws and the commission have made a lot of progress and have put in place technologies that help keep pollution out of the river. She also notes that there is still a lot of work to do.

“We’re sort of at this tipping point. We’ve made a lot of progress, there’s more to be done, but there are new threats coming down the pipe,” she said.

Van Rossum says governmental officials need to be proactive in cleanup efforts, but also be more mindful about development and industrial projects that could bring more pollution to the river.

Van Rossum also highlights the river’s genetically unique species of Atlantic sturgeon, a species that only exists in the river and continues to be threatened by pollution.

“We have so few sturgeon left, that this is actually the species of Atlantic sturgeon and amongst many species literally worldwide, that are considered to be most at peril from extinction,” said van Rossum.

In the multimedia series “Water’s Edge: Trials and tributaries of the Delaware River Watershed,” NJ Spotlight News examines the progress so far and the prospects of further restoration, but also the hazards still facing the vital Delaware River Watershed.