Fracking Ban in Delaware River Watershed Survives GOP Challenge

A Republican-led effort to end the Delaware River Basin’s fracking ban fell short after an amendment to the federal Water Resources Development Act was not brought before a congressional committee.

The amendment, authored by Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, would have stripped the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate regulator, of its authority to stop hydraulic fracturing in the 330 mile-long watershed from upstate New York to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. The region supplies drinking water to millions of people.