ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Environmental groups and a Steuben County village are headed to an appeals court over water sales to a Shell Oil Company subsidiary for shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
The state Conference of Mayors says a decision in favor of the environmental groups could endanger thousands of water sale contracts that help struggling towns raise revenue.
The Sierra Club and People for a Healthy Environment won a court injunction in March 2013 stopping the village of Painted Post from further water shipments under a 2012 contract with SWEPI LP, a Shell subsidiary drilling gas wells in Pennsylvania. The five-year contract is for up to a million gallons of water per day shipped by rail.
The trial-level state judge ruled that Painted Post officials improperly conducted the project's environmental impact review.