Does the Grafton office of the NSW Environmental Protection Agency have poor communication skills or was it being obstructive?

 

In a letter to the editor published by The Daily Examiner on 12 January 2013 Michael Franklin of Glenugie complained:

As a local landowner and cattle producer located on the head of the Coldstream River, I have become concerned about CSG extraction. Albeit the current drilling process is downstream of my location, I consider it is relevant that I express my concerns with the current activities regarding CSG extraction in our local area, as I believe the drilling for CSG will expand in this area and eventually have a far greater impact on local landowners in the Clarence.

Recently I paid a visit to the Grafton EPA Office to source information and documented protocols that I assumed would be in place regarding CSG extraction. I was informed by the local EPA that CSG extraction was signed off in Sydney and that it has nothing to do with me. I was provided no information and left their office in total disbelief.

What government agency is overseeing the CSG extraction process?

And where do we as local landowners locate information regarding to our rights?

 

If Michael is correct in how he remembers his conversation with the Grafton office of the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), then that agency was less than forthcoming.

 

It would have cost local staff little in time or effort to point him in the direction of Metgasco’s 2010 REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS – a public document which sets out the proposed exploration drilling program for PEL 426 and one which should be on record with the EPA as the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services refers environmental impact assessments associated with CSG exploration to the EPA for comment.

 

In addition, under provisions of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act if Metgasco commences commercial production it will probably have to hold an environment protection licence which would be administered by the EPA.

EPA staff could also have referred Michael to the agency’s own coal seam gas webpage or the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services.