New York, NY —

Environmental groups are stepping up their campaign against a controversial natural gas drilling technique, with their eye on a deadline for public comment at the an end of the month. WNYC's Ilya Marritz has more.

REPORTER: State officials spent more than a year making plans to oversee hydraulic fracturing, a method of getting gas out of the ground.

But environmental groups say the state's 800 page environmental impact statement is flawed. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Riverkeeper, and a host of other groups are asking Governor Paterson to junk the existing review and order a new one.

Separately, the group Environmental Advocates is raising the issue of waste water from drilling sites. They say can't adequately monitor waste water because of staffing cuts. The Department of Environmental Conservation says it's committed to water safety. For WNYC, I'm Ilya Marritz.