A weak APPEA* response last night to the ABC Four Corners program on the Australian coal seam gas industry

Australian domestic swimming pools generally hold between 22,000 and 60,000 litres of water,

with the average being between 40,000 and 50,000 litres. [Poolexpress.com.au 2011]

*  APPEA is the Australian Petroleum Production & Explration Association

Taking coal seam gas industry representative Rick Wilkinson’s statement at face value and using the highest domestic swimming pool volume quoted above, then the entire CSG industry in New South Wales generated only 120,000 litres of production/waste water in the fourth quarter of 2012.

That is only 0.12 of a megalitre from 1 September through to 31 December.

If true this is only part of the story, as the State government did not lift its ban on fracking until 1 September and the industry was not meeting 2012 exploration/production schedules by December.

It is also only part of the story because mining companies in this state appear to produce anywhere from 60,000 to 6 million litres of water annually per pilot well. While a production well might generate as much as 20,000 litres of waste water each day or an estimated 1.8 megalitres each quarter if Queensland is any example.

Indeed, at one gas field in the Bowen Basin Santos reported an average initial daily water production rate of 0.20 megalitres per well per day which only declined to two domestic swimming pools worth of waste water per day after twelve years. Coal seam gas well life is predicted to be between 5 and 20 years for each well.

The National Water Commission predicts that the NSW coal seam gas industry may generate approximately 5.7–46.9 gigalitres of co-produced water from production of NSW’s current 2P reserves(2469 PJ) of which 0.697 gigalitres (697 million litres) is expected to be drawn from Clarence-Morton Basin groundwater.

Metgasco Limited currently stores over 20 megalitres of waste water in holding ponds in the Northern Rivers and it is nowhere near commencing commercial gas production in New South Wales. That volume equates with 333 domestic swimming pools.

Of course if Mr. Wilkinson meant Olympic-sized swimming pools then this would have produced as much as 5 megalitres of water over the last three months of 2012, which still does not come anywhere near giving a reliable picture of the industry’s capacity to draw on groundwater reserves in this state if it is allowed to proceed with so little government scrutiny of its plans and commercial operations.

What was so offensive about this and other Wilkinson tweet's last night was not his attempts to wildly spin issues raised by the Four Corners program, but his obvious belief that the general public were so stupid that his spurious 'proofs' would be accepted without demur.

Women In Politics: Let's reach another milestone in the September 2013 Australian Federal Election

Source(s): Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, 2010

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010:  

The proportion of federal parliamentarians who are women has risen markedly over the past 20 years. On 1 January 1986, one in twenty members of the House of Representatives were women (5%) rising to more than one in four (27%) by the beginning of 2008. Similarly, close to one in five senators were women in 1986 (18%) rising to more than one in three in 2010 (36%) (AEC 2009; Parliament of Australia 2010b).

In the federal government ministry, as at the end of June 2010, there were nine female ministers and parliamentary secretaries (representing 23% of ministers and parliamentary secretaries), including the Prime Minister The Hon Julia Gillard MP and a further three who were Cabinet members. Around 17% of shadow ministerial and parliamentary secretary positions were held by women (Parliament of Australia 2010b).  

The Sydney Morning Herald 29 March 2013:

When she announced her new ministry last Monday, Julia Gillard made history. For the first time, women make up one-third of the Australian government. Although the cabinet remains unchanged, the promotion of three women into the ministry has radically altered the gender balance of the government.

There are four women, including Gillard, in the 20-member cabinet which in itself is a record (and the numbers were even better before the resignation of Nicola Roxon as attorney-general this year).

But it is the outer ministry where the radical change has occurred. Gillard promoted three women: Sharon Bird, Catherine King and Jan McLucas. This means that six of the 10 members of the ministry are women. That's 60 per cent. That's unprecedented in Australia.

L–R: Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Kate Lundy, Kate Ellis, Julie Collins

Australian Prime Minister with some of the federal ministers

Tony Abbott has a case to answer

 

Mr Abbott has denied the account from Barbara Ramjan - published in David Marr's Quarterly Essay, ''Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott'' - that he came within an inch of her nose and punched the wall on either side of her head.

Excerpt from updated Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott by David Marr, March 2013:

 

The 1977 race for the presidency of the SRC was the first political contest that really mattered to Abbott. He was the great hope of the right. The campaign that winter term was bitter and he lost, heavily, to Barbara Ramjan. Though she was of the left, her work as the SRC’s welfare officer had made her a popular figure across the factions. Her victory was declared on the evening of 28 July in the SRC’s rooms in the basement of the Wentworth building. It was an especially dismal time for Abbott: his defeat came two days after the birth of the child he thought was his son.

A science student was using the cheap photocopier in the SRC foyer when trouble erupted around him. He had many friends in the SRC but was not politically active. Now a professor of biomedical science, he told me: “Suddenly a flying squad of yahoos led by Abbott came down the stairs. Abbott is unmistakable. Everybody knew Tony Abbott. He was all over campus all the time. He walked past me quickly but his gang screamed ‘commie’ and ‘poofter’ and the guy behind him grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me against the wall. I was furious. I picked myself up and immediately followed these thugs down the corridor.”

Ramjan was in the corridor. As Abbott approached, she thought he was coming to offer his congratulations. “But no, that’s not what he wanted. He came up to within an inch of my nose and punched the wall on either side of my head.” She recalls with cold disdain: “It was done to intimidate.”

Two “great logs of guys” were obscuring the science student’s view. “I saw Abbott raise his elbow above his head and his fist was clenched and then he drove his fist down. I did not see a punch land. As I pushed along the corridor, I saw Barbara being helped up very ashen-faced.” He has no doubt who it was. “These two polarising figures on campus were unmistakable and here was Abbott acting as he did all the time. He was a bit of a thug and quite proud of it I think.” He never forgot the incident: “I have been talking about it for a long time.”……

A powerful move by Lismore Workers Club

Letter to the Editor in The Northern Star 22 March 2013:

Powerful move

I WANT to congratulate the Lismore Workers Club for its practical commitment to a clean energy future (Power surge at the workers, NS 16/3), with the installation of a 100kw solar energy system.

As the general manager Stephen Bortolin said, this was not only about saving money on energy but lending a hand to the environment.

The Federal Government has a commitment to at least 20% of our electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020.

Here on the North Coast we have a strong history of support for renewable energy, and not surprisingly we have the highest uptake of rooftop solar systems in the country.

It's great to see the Workers Club demonstrating this community and business leadership towards a low-carbon future.

The club will also get a big seal of approval from its patrons for going solar, particularly those committed to renewable energy who have been gathering at the club regularly (and will be there again tomorrow night) for anti-CSG events.

Janelle Saffin MP

Federal Member for Page

Scientists think a 5.7 earthquake was caused by mining wastewater being injected into underground 'compartments'

Population density

Aftershocks 5 -12 November

Click on images to enlarge

Geology,March 2013,Keranen et al,Potentially induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA: Links between wastewater injection and the 2011 Mw 5.7 earthquake sequence:

Abstract

Significant earthquakes are increasingly occurring within the continental interior of the United States, including five of moment magnitude (M_w) ≥ 5.0 in 2011 alone. Concurrently, the volume of fluid injected into the subsurface related to the production of unconventional resources continues to rise. Here we identify the largest earthquake potentially related to injection, an M_w 5.7 earthquake in November 2011 in Oklahoma. The earthquake was felt in at least 17 states and caused damage in the epicentral region. It occurred in a sequence, with 2 earthquakes of M_w 5.0 and a prolific sequence of aftershocks. We use the aftershocks to illuminate the faults that ruptured in the sequence, and show that the tip of the initial rupture plane is within ∼200 m of active injection wells and within ∼1 km of the surface; 30% of early aftershocks occur within the sedimentary section. Subsurface data indicate that fluid was injected into effectively sealed compartments, and we interpret that a net fluid volume increase after 18 yr of injection lowered effective stress on reservoir-bounding faults. Significantly, this case indicates that decades-long lags between the commencement of fluid injection and the onset of induced earthquakes are possible, and modifies our common criteria for fluid-induced events. The progressive rupture of three fault planes in this sequence suggests that stress changes from the initial rupture triggered the successive earthquakes, including one larger than the first.
Received 18 September 2012.
Revision received 23 January 2013.
Accepted 23 January 2013.

Mother Jones March/April 2013:

Such seismic activity isn't normal here. Between 1972 and 2008, the USGS recorded just a few earthquakes a year in Oklahoma. In 2008, there were more than a dozen; nearly 50 occurred in 2009. In 2010, the number exploded to more than 1,000. These so-called "earthquake swarms" are occurring in other places where the ground is not supposed to move. There have been abrupt upticks in both the size and frequency of quakes in Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, and Texas. Scientists investigating these anomalies are coming to the same conclusion: The quakes are linked to injection wells. Into most of them goes wastewater from hydraulic fracking, while some, as those in Prague, are filled with leftover fluid from dewatering operations.

* Mapping images from United States Dept. of the Interior/US Geological Survey

NDIS forums in Goonellabah and Ballina next Tuesday 2 April 2013

Visit to Page by Amanda Rishworth MP, 
Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers

TIME:  9.00AM – 11.30AM, GOONELLABAH

VENUE: Lismore Workers Sports Club, 202 Oliver Avenue, GOONELLABAH

EVENT: Amanda Rishworth MP and Janelle Saffin MP will deliver the first of 2 local public  forums to update the community on the NDIS legislation that has recently passed Parliament.

           

TIME:   1.00pm – 3.00pm, BALLINA

VENUE:  Richmond Room, Regatta Avenue, BALLINA

EVENT: Amanda Rishworth MP and Janelle Saffin MP will deliver the second public forum on the NDIS legislation.

 Media are welcome at both events.                  

Media contact:  Matt Dunne 0417 287 456

Remembering when 2,000 of cartons of beer fell into the Tweed River.....

From MURBAH2484: 

Hard work pays off 

A few years back a large beer truck lost its load in the Tweed River just outside the main business area of Murwillumbah. The river was, as a result of this accident, full of imported bottles of beer. 

Now the good citizens of Murwillumbah will always help and on this occasion they went out in force to help – themselves – to the booty that lay on the sandy floor of the river. They came in wet suits and with boats. They spent hours under water retrieving the loot and as night fell it was party time in them tha hills. 

On hearing of this major rescue operation the insurance company for the truck wanted the beer back. No chance. Even the local police (allegedly) had a stash in the lock up!

ABC PM program covered The great beer salvage on 17 April 2001.