ABC
News, 26 May
2016:
The risk of spreading
toxic groundwater from one of Queensland's worst environmental contaminations
has prompted a ban on coal seam gas drilling in an area where companies are
already extracting gas.
The State Government
quietly created a no-go zone for gas extraction 10 kilometres around the former Linc Energy site in the Southern Inland,
at Hopeland, burying the decision in an environmental approval issued to Arrow
Energy in December.
Despite the ban, Arrow
and QGC still have permission to extract gas within the zone.
On a separate, neighbouring
mining lease — approved in August — Arrow gained approval to ramp up six
existing "pilot" wells for commercial production.
Farmers said they were
alarmed by the revelation and want state officials to come clean about the
risks of groundwater contamination spreading under prime grazing and cropping
land.
The ban is the first
public admission that a burgeoning CSG industry could aggravate the Linc
contamination, where toxic gases were released into groundwater by a
now-illegal process called underground coal gasification.
Cotton grower Brian
Bender's Hopeland property is split by the two Arrow tenements — where CSG
extraction is banned on one side but not the other.
"I think it's a bit
of a joke, really — there are no lines underground," Mr Bender said….
The ABC understands
tests on groundwater contamination were being examined by a trio of experts who
would be called as state witnesses in a criminal prosecution of five former
Linc executives next month.
The failed company
was convicted and fined a record $4.5 million last May for
causing serious environmental harm through its underground coal gasification (UCG) plant.
The District Court heard
in that trial that it could take up to 20 years for groundwater to recover from
Linc's attempts at the now-illegal UCG process, which allowed toxic gases to
escape through fractured rock.
At the time, the state's
then-environment minister described the contamination as "the biggest
pollution event probably in Queensland's history".
A week before Christmas,
Arrow gained approval for 70 wells on a gas tenement to the north-east of the
former Linc site.
It is part of its $10
billion Surat Gas Project, which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promoted in a
February media release as Queensland's "biggest resources project since
2011".
Ms Palaszczuk's release
made no mention of the gas extraction no-go zone.
But the state's
Department of Environment and Science approval said Arrow "must not locate
any [CSG] production wells within 10 kilometres [of the Linc site]".
"The extraction of
groundwater as part of the petroleum activity(ies) from underground aquifers
must not directly or indirectly influence the mobilisation of existing
groundwater contamination on [the Linc site]," the environmental authority
said.
It said the department
may force Arrow to model CSG impacts on "groundwater contamination around
[the Linc site] at any time" and present its findings within a month.
But there were no such
conditions for gas drilling in the neighbouring Arrow tenement that surrounds
the former Linc site, where six wells were approved in August…..
But will the Morrison federal government or the remaining seven state and territory governments learn from Queensland's disasterous mistakes?
Apparently not.........
But will the Morrison federal government or the remaining seven state and territory governments learn from Queensland's disasterous mistakes?
Apparently not.........
2GB
Radio, 24 May
2019:
The Minister for
Resources is urging the New South Wales government to approve the state’s
biggest gas project.
Santos Narrabri Gas
Project is aiming to develop gas reserves in northwest New South Wales that
could supply half of the state’s gas needs.
The Resources Minister
Matt Canavan tells Ray Hadley almost all of NSW’s gas comes from other states.
“The problem with that
is, of course, it costs a lot of money to transport gas long distances, so that
has pushed the price up for Sydney based users of gas.
“Things have changed and
we need to reflect that.”
The
Canberra Times,
18 April 2019:
Federal Resources and
Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan was in Darwin on April 17 to publicise
an April 2 federal budget announcement of $8.4 million in funding to fast-track
development of gas reserves in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.
"We want to get on
with the job. We want to get the gas up out of the ground and into people's
homes and businesses as quickly as we can," Senator Canavan said in a
statement….
The Beetaloo Basin is
about 500km south-east of Darwin in the Sturt Plateau region between the towns
of Katherine and Elliott and includes pastoral land and indigenous communities.
Around 70 per cent of the Territory's shale gas resources are estimated to lie
in the Beetaloo Basin, reserves that could potentially raise Australia's global
ranking of gas resources from seventh to sixth. Farmers, businesses and
industry are divided over whether fracking should be permitted because of the
risk of pollution to rivers and bores. Pro-fracking advocates argue it will be
a boon for jobs and economic growth.
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