Brad Mullard's coal seam gas 'con job'

Arrow Energy gas well blowout 
in Tara region gas fields in Queensland identified in Google Earth snapshot

The well which exploded up to 100 metres in the air continued to shoot to 40 metres is on a farmer’s property on the Kogan-Condamine Road

A CSG well is created by drilling through layers of earth and rock up to 1000 metres below the surface. Multiple layers of steel casing and cement are pressure injected so the well adheres to the surrounding rock.

A strong seal prevents gas or fluid leakage into permeable layers, including aquifers.

The process of drilling and installing the well can take over a month. Before activation, the well is subjected to a high pressure test. A geophysical logging tool is lowered into the well hole to inspect the casing and ensure it meets Government standards.

These measures limit the potential for CSG drilling activities to interfere with water resources and the environment. [NSW Government website]

Letters to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 10 and 20 May 2013:

CSG info at hand
I refer to your article (Elliot at MardiGrass for CSG petition, DEX May 6).
NSW Trade & Investment's Division of Resources and Energy has launched a comprehensive resource to provide residents and landholders with factual information on coal seam gas.
CSG is already part of the state's energy mix but many people do not understand what the resource is, how it is explored and extracted, and the regulations that govern the industry.
Companies that drill for gas in this state operate in a tightly regulated environment that ensures our valuable land and water resources are not damaged.
Residential areas are also protected by a 2km exclusion zone that prevents CSG exploration and production near homes.
A new website provides residents and landholders with specific information on CSG, including maps, videos and fact sheets. The public can also join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter by following links on the site.
Learn more about coal seam gas and the protections in place by visiting www.csg.nsw.gov.au

Brad Mullard

Mineral Resources

NSW Trade & Investment

CSG letter a con job
Brad Mullard's letter (DE May 10) assuring us that coal seam gas miners in this state "operate in a tightly regulated environment" is nothing but a con job.
The industry is clearly more highly regulated in NSW than Queensland; that's partly the reason why Metgasco and others have moved out temporally.
However, the tight regulations do not alter the required infrastructure of a gas field.
On the day Mr Mullard's letter was published, I read another letter from a lady who had just returned from a trip to the south Queensland CSG fields to see for herself what is happening there. She was clearly distressed and very angry with our politicians at what she saw.
She spoke of broken communities, of meeting a farmer who has considered suicide because a nearby compressor station stops him from sleeping and his farm is no longer a farm due to gas wells.
She describes the dangers of driving on roads that are clogged with mining trucks; and visiting the township of Chinchilla and the difficulty she had spotting a child, a farmers wife, or any person that did not wear a yellow vest.
There are distressing reports of being stalked, harassed and filmed by male security guards, "in packs of three", when they stopped to photograph a compressor station 750 metres away.
The writer describes the endless land clearing for infrastructure, the seemingly hundreds of kilometre- long toxic waste-water holding ponds, and scores of compressor stations that look and sound like international airports.
She concludes that she saw no co-existence with farming, and in fact the mining was "forcing people away from the district, and that's the way the miners like it".
A few weeks ago I watched a Queensland farmer say that he never thought he'd see the day when Australian police would force their way past Australian farmers to allow foreign-owned mining companies to trash their land.
Dart Energy and Metgasco have gone from the Northern Rivers for the time being, but the potential danger of the region suffering the same impacts as Queensland has not.
Our State Government representatives still appear to believe their own rhetoric, trotting out media releases about how water and human health will be protected, and clearly still support CSG mining despite overwhelming opposition from the majority of people they claim to represent.
I wonder why?

John Edwards

South Grafton

Aerial shot of nascent NSW CSG gasfield

Pilot CSG gas wells NSW

* All images from Google Images & Goggle Earth