Abstract
ABSTRACT Environmental activists in 1980s Bucks County, Pennsylvania, waged a nearly decade-long battle against a plan to pump water from the free-flowing Delaware River. The activists ultimately lost their fight to stop construction of a pumping station, but in the process, galvanized environmental awareness in the region. This article, as a case study of grassroots community activism during the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, a struggle known locally as “Dump the Pump” and spearheaded by a nonprofit organization called Del-AWARE, provides a regional take on recent scholarship illuminating the vibrant underlying dynamics of local civic engagement occurring amid the overshadowing political conservatism of the Reagan years. In addition, as a case study in public history, it explores how collective historical memory fueled not only Del-AWARE's protracted struggle, but its enduring legacy in public policy and community life.
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