 It goes by the ugly name of  fracking , it could poison our water and it s on its way to Scotland.  an australian-owned company is about to apply for permission to drill the country s first exploratory hydraulic fracturing well in a bid to exploit the shale gas that could be locked in the rocks deep beneath the earth.  Stirling-based Composite Energy, taken over by the australian multinational methane gas extraction firm Dart Energy in February, wants to sink a ?1 million test bore 2000 metres deep at airth, near Falkirk before the end of the year.  If it finds what it hopes, then full-scale fracking, as hydraulic fracturing to extract gas is known, could follow. as well as opening up a whole new energy frontier in Scotland, it would unleash an unprecedented environmental conflict.  Environmental groups say that fracking can contaminate water supplies, and will greatly add to the pollution that scientists say is disrupting the climate. Shale gas, they say, should stay in the ground to help save the planet.  according to WWF Scotland, fracking would be disastrous for Scotland.  Scotland saw the birth of the shale-oil industry over 150 years ago but times change and shale gas is the last thing we need,  said the environmental group s director, Dr Richard Dixon.  It is ridiculous for a country with the world s best climate targets and supreme ambitions on renewable energy to be home to a proposal to produce a new fossil fuel even dirtier than coal. Scotland should instead be playing to its natural advantages in clean, green renewable energy.  He pointed to evidence from the US that gas and toxic chemicals leak into drinking water as a result of fracking.  Shale gas is a disaster for the climate and its production can contaminate groundwater,  he said.  Dixon urged Scotland to follow the example of France, and ban fracking before it starts.  If this proposal goes ahead it will be an embarrassment for the new Government,  he said.  any shale-gas projects in Scotland will quickly tarnish our global claim to green credentials.  Peter Roles, the managing director of Composite Energy in Stirling, defended the search for shale gas. The geology of central Scotland suggests it would be there, he said.  He told the Sunday Herald:  It s worth the investment.  Contamination of groundwater could be avoided by ensuring fracking was contained in certain areas, he claimed.  There has been a lot of negative publicity, but I don t think it s well-founded, Roles said. He argued that indigenous su 