Fracking Ban In Delaware River Basin

A decision by the Delaware River Commission comes a decade after the commission authorized a de facto moratorium on well construction and follows other fracking bans across the East Coast of the US, marking a historic win for anti-fracking activists. The state commissioners—the governors of each state—all voted in favor of the ban. The federal commissioner abstained. After reviewing various studies and research reports on the potential impacts of fracking on the basin, the commission determined that fracking carries too high of a risk of contaminating drinking water. Fracking fluids are likely to leak into the groundwater, it found, and the Marcellus and Utica shale formations that sit below the river basin contain faults and fissures that may provide additional pathways for methane to migrate upward once the drilling occurs.