The four-state commission charged with regulating the Delaware River watershed has unconstitutionally imposed a “moratorium” on fracking in parts of Pennsylvania, two leaders in the state Senate have alleged in a lawsuit seeking to open up thousands of square miles of land within the basin to unconventional natural gas well projects.

On Monday, Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, who is chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, and Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, who is the majority chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee, sued the Delaware River Basin Commission in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Damascus Township, which is located in Wayne County, also joined the senators as plaintiffs suing the commission.