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N.Y. Village Appeals Ban On Fracking Water Sales

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.

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.

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