HARRISBURG — Crews rushing to drill deep, high-pressure wells into the vast Marcellus Shale reservoir beneath Pennsylvania will soon have tougher safety standards to obey as regulators work to modernize the state’s environmental protection laws.

The Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the gatekeeper of Pennsylvania state regulations, today approved a set of proposed standards. The rules are expected to be final by January.

This latest of several sets of new regulations is designed to protect waterways and drinking water supplies from natural gas migrating underground, well-site chemical spills and the massive volumes of toxic sludge that comes out of newly drilled wells.

The regulations would lower the maximum allowable well pressure, raise standards for well cement and pipes and strengthen the industry’s obligations to investigate and report incidents of gas migrating out of well bores and into residential water wells.

Scott Perry, director of the department’s bureau of oil and gas management, said he views the new standards as “state of the art.”