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LEHIGH
RIVER
THREAT: Poorly planned development
STATE: Pennsylvania
AT RISK: Clean water, fish and OHIO RIVER, OHIO
wildlife habitat, rural and local PHOTO: LORI COLEMAN
communities, open space
SUMMARY : TOM STORM
The Lehigh River, flowing out of the
Appalachian Mountains and through THE RIVER
the densely populated Lehigh
Valley region, is the “backyard
From its headwaters in the boreal forests of the Pocono Plateau, the Lehigh River
river” for half a million people, flows 109 miles to its confluence with the Delaware River in Easton, Pennsylvania.
and the keystone to Northeastern The river valley is the homeland of the Lenape people and includes present-day
Pennsylvania’s outdoor recreation cities of Allentown and Bethlehem.
industry. The areas that surround Part of the Lehigh River is designated as one of Pennsylvania’s Scenic Rivers, and
the river offer outdoor gathering
the headwaters are designated as Exceptional Value. The river’s name comes from
spaces and accessible recreation
the Lenape name for the river, Lechewuekink, which means “where there are forks”.
opportunities for people throughout
the watershed, but especially in The Lehigh is a whitewater river, and both new and experienced boaters enjoy its
the cities of Allentown, Easton, rapids. The river connects rural and urban communities, is a direct drinking water
and Bethlehem. But as the region source for hundreds of thousands of people, and as a tributary to the Delaware River,
becomes the logistics hub of the supports the drinking water supply of 15 million. Located in a region that has grown
eastern seaboard, with over four and contracted alongside the resource extraction industry, tourism to the Lehigh
square miles of warehouses and River has helped restore the region’s economies after the transition away from coal,
distribution centers built to date,
timber, and steel.
the river’s health is at risk. Unless
federal, state and local decision
makers act to improve protections THE THREAT
for local waterways, the area’s clean The region has become the logistics hub of the eastern seaboard, with warehouses
water and wildlife habitat could and logistics centers already covering more than four square miles of land within the
suffer irreversible harm. watershed. According to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, there’s another
square mile (approximately) of development in the pipeline. Currently, only California’s
Inland Empire can compare to the buildout happening in the Lehigh Valley.
Poorly planned, large-scale warehouse and distribution center development
threatens the Lehigh River by converting critical forest and wetlands to hard
surfaces—roofs and parking lots. These impervious surfaces prevent rainwater from
soaking into the ground. Instead, warm, salty, dirty water runs off the pavement
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directly into the river and its
7 tributaries. These impacts to
water quality, and the paving of
the remaining open space in the
LEHIGH urban stretches in the Lehigh
Valley, disproportionately impact
RIVER
downstream communities that
have already borne the brunt of
environmental degradation
Continued and pollution.
This development also accelerates
the impacts of climate change.
Based on calculations in a recent
FOR MORE INFORMATION: economic benefit report from Our
Pocono Waters, that acceleration
LIA MASTROPOLO will be costly. Watershed
American Rivers
(717) 763-0743
ecosystems provide numerous
lmastropolo@[Link] services, like water purification, air
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONLIN
filtration, carbon storage, nutrient
DONNA KOHUT
PennFuture cycling, soil formation, erosion
(507) 778-3979 control, food, and recreational
kohut@[Link] value. In the Delaware River Basin, riparian buffers provide about $11,000 per acre
through these services and $9,000 of carbon storage benefits per acre per year.
TAKE ACTION: The continued destruction of these buffers will increase carbon emissions and
the severity of flooding, and it will be costly for communities to replace the
[Link]/
services provided.
LEHIGHRIVER2023
Better planning and development regulations could help reduce the economic and
environmental impacts of development, but many local governments feel powerless.
Communities throughout the region have voiced concerns, but their capacity is
limited in the face of laws that fail to protect communities and the environment.
WHAT MUST BE DONE
The public can demand federal and state government decision-makers make crucial
funding and legislative decisions to protect water quality from land development
throughout the watershed.
Both the federal and state governments must provide their full, fair share of funding
to the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). This regulatory agency oversees
a multi-state approach to water resource management that includes the Delaware
River and its tributaries, including the Lehigh River. Its programs address water
quality protections, flow management, and recreation, which is challenging to do
when chronically underfunded since 2014.
The Pennsylvania state legislature must pass what’s been known as the Riparian
Buffer Protection Act (previously known as HB 714). This bill would ensure that all
waterways across the state are guaranteed critical protective riparian buffers of at
least 100 feet. High Quality and Exceptional Value waterways would be provided
300-foot buffers, which would be an increase from the current 150 foot requirement.
Impaired waters would receive additional protection, as well, of 150 feet.
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