Farmland in rural Steuben County, New York (Wikipedia)

Environmental groups and a New York village will be in court Monday arguing over the sale of water to a Shell Oil Company subsidiary for shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press‘s Mary Esch reports.

The Sierra Club and People for a Healthy Environment won a court injunction in March 2013 stopping the Finger Lakes 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 called for up to a million gallons of water per day shipped by rail, and Painted Post officials anticipated earning up to $2.5 million a year on the deal.

But a trial judge ruled that Painted Post officials improperly conducted the project’s environmental impact review and halted the sales, a decision the New York State Conference of Mayors says could endanger thousands of water-sale contracts that help financially struggling towns in New York.

A state appeals court in Rochester will hear arguments Monday in the appeal by the village and SWEPI. 

Read the full story here

Related environmental news stories:
Visualization: Water for Fracking in Ten Texas Counties – Texas Tribune
Group hears about fracking water needs – Fort Morgan Times
Exxon CEO Joins Suit Citing Fracking Concerns – Wall Street Journal
How to Save Water on Fracking – Bloomberg
Trading water for fuel is fracking crazy – rabble.ca (blog)

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Little fracking concern in some Pa towns without zoning 

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Science Magazine graphic published in The Washington Post on Feb 14 2014

The bad news about methane in a new study published in the journal, Science, is that the nation’s natural gas system is leaking at a rate large enough to negate the value of converting buses and trucks from diesel to natural gas.


The good news is that, even with the current leaks, burning natural gas instead of coal is producing less heat-trapping gas and will slow the rate of climate change over 100 years.


The Washington Post reports the findings today in: Levels of global-warming gas methane exceed government estimates, new study contends

Related environmental news:
Fuel Fix: Methane emissions higher than federal estimates, study
Methane Leaks and Natural Gas Benefits | The Energy Collective
3 Questions: On the climate impact of ‘leaky methane’ | ScienceBlog
Methane levels rising as funding cuts threaten monitoring network 

Little fracking concern in some Pa towns without zoning
Scientists generate more energy out than energy in?
Capitol Hill Calendar: February 12-13, 2014 

Is New York State not all it’s fracked up to be?

If you live in New Jersey, you probably can’t imagine a town or county that is not subject to zoning laws. That’s not the case in northeastern Pennsylvanian where drilling for natural gas is most active. And that, apparently, is just fine with many residents there.

In Susquehanna County, Planning Director Bob Templeton says the idea of zoning has never gone over well.

“People are not rich in Susquehanna County, but what they do own is their land and they’re very proud of that,” he says. “It’s been passed down for generations, so don’t mess with my land.”

After the natural gas industry moved in, the county passed an ordinance to deal with noisy compressor stations that move the gas through pipelines. Otherwise, Templeton says many residents in Susquehanna – where only six of the county’s 40 municipalities have adopted zoning codes – just accepted the changes to their rural lifestyle.

“If I’m out in the townships and I’ve leased my land and now I’m looking forward to royalties, I don’t want somebody controlling it,” he says. ”How can you say this area is allowed to be drilled upon and this area is not?”