Bend over, Pennsylvania

Because here it comes! Now that we have a new Republican governor, you can kiss a clean water supply goodbye:

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The agency that oversees water quality and quantity in the four-state Delaware River basin issued proposed regulations on Thursday for the natural gas drilling industry, launching what is certain to be a heated debate pitting energy companies and property owners who have signed lucrative leases against environmentalists, sporting groups and residents worried about their drinking water supplies.

The Delaware River Basin Commission published the long-awaited regulations on its website. They govern a range of drilling activities, including water withdrawals, well pad siting and wastewater disposal, and require drilling companies to post a bond of $125,000 per well to cover the plugging and restoration of abandoned wells and the remediation of any pollution.

The commission — a powerful federal-interstate compact agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City — has declared a moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling projects in the Delaware River basin until the rulemaking process is complete.

[…] Farmers and other landowners say drilling will bring jobs and prosperity, chafing at what they see as unwarranted regulatory foot-dragging by the basin commission.

Drilling opponents, meanwhile, contend that large-scale gas exploration so close to crucial waterways and renowned fisheries invites catastrophe. They wanted the agency to complete a proposed cumulative impact study before issuing the draft rules.

“It’s a grave mistake for the DRBC to rush forward with half-baked regulations before the needed scientific analysis is done through a cumulative impact analysis,” Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a statement ahead of the rules’ publication.

Oh, don’t worry about a thing. It’s all going to be fine!