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BARNESVILLE - Citing a potential loss of "millions of dollars," Marcellus and Utica shale driller Gulfport Energy is suing the village of Barnesville for the right to draw water from the Slope Creek Reservoir for its nearby fracking operations.

Filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Gulfport's lawsuit claims the Oklahoma City-based firm should be allowed to take water from the reservoir, located about five miles south of the village, unless the "health and safety of area residents and businesses are impaired."

"Barnesville has frustrated Gulfport's right to develop minerals under the mineral rights agreement by refusing to provide Gulfport with water in violation of Gulfport's water rights," company attorney O. Judson Scheaf states in his complaint. "Barnesville has wrongfully maintained that Gulfport's water rights are limited by the 2014 water use agreement between Barnesville and Antero" Resources.

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Court documents show that on Aug. 17, 2012, Barnesville officials signed an agreement permitting Gulfport to buy water from the Slope Creek Reservoir at a price of one cent per gallon. The contract shows the firm would be able to draw the water until a point when the village would determine such action would endanger public health.

Less than one month later, on Sept. 10, 2012, village leaders signed an oil and natural gas lease with Denver-based Antero, another significant driller in the western Belmont County area. Antero agreed to pay the village $5,700 per acre along with production royalties of 20 percent once gas starts flowing. Antero later signed the Barnesville Exempted Village School District, as well as many individual mineral owners in and around the corporation limit, to similar deals.

Scheaf said Gulfport and Antero reached a mutual development agreement in June. Now, Gulfport believes it should have "assurances of performance" to ensure that it can attain enough water to support fracking operations.

Barnesville officials have not yet filed a response to Gulfport's complaint. Village Administrator Roger Deal Wednesday referred questions to Village Solicitor Marlin Harper, who could not be reached for comment.

David Castle, a spokesman for a group known as the Concerned Barnesville Area Residents, said frackers had been drawing water from the reservoir until officials told them to stop last fall because the water level dropped so low.

"It's been a tremendous source of concern for the community. We sent a petition signed by 2,500 people to Gulfport asking them to move their drilling pads farther away from the reservoir," Castle said.