The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) agreed on Friday to a three-month contract to sell water to an affiliate of American Energy Partners LP (AELP) for Utica Shale drilling activities.

MWCD spokeswoman Barbara Bennett told NGI’s Shale Daily that American Energy-Utica LLC has agreed to pay the district $6 per 1,000 gallons of water withdrawn from the Clendening Reservoir, which is located in Harrison County, OH. The contract, which runs from May 1 through July 31, stipulates that the maximum that can be withdrawn is 2.5 million gallons per day, or six million gallons over three days.

“Theoretically, if you took six million gallons out of the reservoir all at once — which you can’t do, it’s physically impossible — it would lower the lake a quarter of an inch,” Bennett said Monday.

Bennett said MWCD’s governing board also approved an easement in Ashland County, OH, for the 711-mile Rover natural gas pipeline, which is being developed by Energy Transfer Partners LP (see Shale Daily, April 13). She said the easement includes 0.16 acres of agricultural land near Mohicanville.

MWCD is a state government entity that controls an 8,000-square mile watershed, covering about one-fifth of Ohio.