NEW YORK - Lawyers for a group of environmental organizations presented arguments in US District Court in Brooklyn Tuesday over the development of new gas drilling.

Their contention is that the Army Corps of Engineers and the Delaware River Basin Commission failed to comply with federal law by proposing gas drilling regulations without first conducting a full environmental review as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The suit was filed one year ago by a coalition including the National Parks Conservation Association, Hudson Riverkeeper and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said after the court session that the Upper Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area are national treasures that would be negatively impacted by gas drilling.

“The level of devastation, the amount of loss that we would suffer if we were subjected to gas drilling is horrendous and it’s tremendous and the government is obliged to take a serious look at the potential environmental, job, health, safety implications of making that type of decision,” she said.

Hudson Riverkeeper Watershed Program Director Kate Hudson said it is “completely unacceptable that the DRBC is considering opening this critical resource to drilling without conducting any evaluation of the potential environmental impacts or informing the public of the risks of those impacts as the law requires.”

A decision from Judge Garaufis could come before the end of the year.