AUBURN (AP) -- An upstate New York city council has voted to accept wastewater from gas drilling operations at the city's waste treatment plant, reversing a ban enacted last July.
The resolution approved 3-2 by the Auburn City Council this week says the city studied the issue and decided there had been no harm done to the environment when it accepted drilling wastewater in the past.
The city stood to lose about $600,000 in treatment fees from gas drillers.
The council says it will only take wastewater from vertical wells like those drilled for decades in sandstone formations. It won't take wastewater from shale gas wells that use horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. That water is more contaminated.
Before the vote, 27 of 30 speakers urged the council to keep the ban.
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