Opponents of a new plan to open the Delaware River basin to natural gas drilling renewed their attack on the proposal, saying it fails to determine whether public water supplies will be contaminated by gas extraction.

Environmental groups said the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate regulator charged with maintaining water quality in the four-state basin, has ignored their calls for a cumulative impact study on whether aquifers would be polluted by toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking“), a process that has facilitated the current boom in obtaining gas from shale beds in many U.S. states. Keep reading →