No-one could seriously believe that the O’Farrell Government, in its headlong rush to satisfy the coal seam gas industry, has given any thought to the consequences for north east NSW economies based on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism after reading what it is prepared to visit on another region.
The Sydney Morning Herald 27 March 2013:
Artificial lakes will be dug out of the arid soil of the Pilliga district, in north-western NSW, to hold millions of litres of contaminated water from coal seam gas wells.
Gas company Santos plans to drill several hundred wells in the area. The plastic-lined lakes will store the huge volumes of water that will be sucked up, along with gas, from a kilometre underground.
Construction of the lakes, which will hold enough salty brine to fill about 240 Olympic-sized swimming pools, was approved by the state government this week.
That was despite the NSW Environment Protection Authority writing to government planners in January, warning of the "inherent risk" of approving construction before a complete water management plan had been developed.
The site has been plagued previously by contaminated water spills, which were only made public after local residents tipped off the EPA. Investigations continue into the damage caused by the spills, which took place when the site was being managed by another gas company, Eastern Star, in 2010…….
Santos regards the new water storage scheme as a way to close down and rehabilitate the network of small, polluted ponds which dot sections of the Pilliga Forest as a result of drilling test wells, and to consolidate the waste water in one place.
But it is unclear what will happen to the water once it is in the lakes.
The company says it could be treated for use on farms, or injected back underground to "recharge" aquifers that may have been partially drained by the drilling.
Yet treating the briny water will leave behind mounds of salt, probably laced with traces of arsenic and heavy metals, which have been detected in water from test wells already operating on the site.....
Metgasco’s preliminary plans for Casino in the Northern Rivers in 2012: Metgasco says it needs about 1000 wells to make the money it predicts in a recent economic forecast report.
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