Lifting the veil on Yes2Gas

This advertisement has been in the news in 2015:

If examined closely, readers can see that it is authorised by Louise Tout, Narrabri.

There is little information about Ms.Tout on the Internet, other than she is the spokesperson for Yes2Gas.

However, there is one short ABC radio interview with her on 2 December 2014.

In this interview Ms. Tout claims that the Yes2Gas group is one hundred percent local, one hundred percent independent. She also admits to talking to Santos all the time and that the ‘group’ doesn’t have an identifiable membership.

Ms. Tout stated in the radio interview that a few local businesses fund the group. A suspicion that these few may be Santos contractors raises its head.

Despite the lack of members,Yes2Gas does have a Facebook page (which has a subversive clone run by another person/group) and a website.

Website details:

The website was created on 29 September 2014, the registrant is listed as Kate Campbell (a Narrabri-based freelance photographer who is also the tech contact for this website), but its physical address is in the Sydney metropolitan area at 11 Colgate Street, Balmain NSW 2041:

There is a second registered website titled Yes2Gas - a parked site yes2gas.com whose purpose is unknown. This site was registered by Kate Schwager of Wee Waa on 2 October 2014:

____________________

UPDATE:

In an email dated 26 February 2016 Kate Schwager informed North Coast Voices that she no longer owns yes2gas.com and that she initially registered this domain so that it could not be used to promote the gas industry.

                                                     ____________________

So it is possible that the claim that Yes2Gas is a genuine grassroots community group may not hold up under scrutiny; having an unverifiable membership, shadowy funding and an Internet presence created hundreds of miles away from the Narrabri district.

The Yes2Gas quotes Max Davis of Rosewood, Narrabri, who ABC News tells us has a farm which is just a few kilometres from Leewood, a property south of Narrabri that's owned by Santos, and the location of what the company is calling a 'state of the art water treatment facility'. Leewood is a 246 ha property fronting the Newell Highway at Narrabri.

Mr. Davis' address may possible host this business:

Hopefully Max Davis’ cropping property is more than a few kilometres away from Leewood, as Santos proposes up to 850 production wells will be drilled across its Narrabri tenements:

WeeWaa.com

Wells not drawn to scale and positioning potential only

But what of the claims in the advertisement?

Santos is an Australian company

Yes, Santos Ltd was established in Adelaide SA in 1954.

According to its Annual Report 2013 it had 112,397 shareholders and 970,270,108 fully paid ordinary shares listed on the Australian Securities Exchange at 28 February 2014.

However, despite the large number of shareholders, Santos states it is the top 20 shareholders who represented 65.09% of the total voting power in Santos by February 2013 and, these predominately institutional shareholders are not necessarily “Australian”.

Indeed the two largest shareholders, with a combined share percentage of 37.74% of all ordinary shares, are large U.K. and U.S. based investment banks.

HSBC Holdings plc (UK based, located in 75 countries and reportedly Europe’s largest banking group) is the largest shareholder through its subsidiary HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited (HSBC Bank Australia Limited) and, JP Morgan Chase & Co (US based international investment banking group) is the second largest shareholder through its subsidiary JP Morgan Nominees Australia Limited.

Santos is an excellent neighbour

as professional as Santos

So is Santos an excellent neighbour and professional in its business activities?

This is the area in which the Santos Pilliga/Narrabri gas project operates:

http://sore.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/image1.jpg

http://www.santos.com/library/PEL238_PAL2_and_PPL3_Produced_Water_Management_Plan.pdf

In 2014 the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issued Santos NSW (Eastern) Pty Ltd with one clean up notice (29 July 2014) for its Narrabri NSW gas fields and one penalty notice for water pollution at its Bibblewindi Water Transfer Facility.

EPA Media release: 18 February 2014

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued a $1,500 fine to Santos NSW (Eastern) Pty Ltd following a pollution incident at their Narrabri Gas Field operations in the Pilliga.

In March 2013 Santos notified the EPA after results from routine ground water sampling around the Bibblewindi Water Treatment Plant showed elevated levels of total dissolved solids and slightly elevated levels of others elements.

EPA Chief Environmental Regulator, Mark Gifford said EPA staff immediately began an investigation into the cause of the elevated readings.

“Our investigation into the matter revealed the installation of the liner within Pond 3 was of poor quality which resulted in the integrity of the liner being questionable.

Pond 3 had historically been used to contain the water and brine generated by the gas field. Water quality testing by Santos of the surrounding aquifers showed elevated levels of total dissolved solids and other elements outside the average readings for the aquifers in the area,” Mr Gifford said.

“Further investigation showed the pond had been installed in 2007 by the site’s previous owner, Eastern Star Gas. A report Santos provided to the EPA showed there was no evidence that contractors, engaged by Eastern Star Gas, had carried out the necessary field testing, quality control or quality assurance during the installation, as is required by current government standards.

Santos has applied to the EPA for an Environment Protection Licence for this site. The EPA is close to finalising this application and has put in place strict conditions to ensure an incident of this nature is not repeated.

The EPL includes a legally binding Pollution Reduction Program requiring Santos to develop and implement a Groundwater Remediation and Monitoring Plan that is aimed at remediating that affected aquifers,” Mr Gifford said.

Contact: Emily Boyle

Further waste water non-compliance issues came to light.

EPA Media release: 28 March 2014

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is investigating a release of about 500 litres of produced water which entered a diversion drain at the Santos Narrabri Gas Field on Tuesday March 25.

The produced water entered the diversion drain during transfer from an assessment well to a holding pond.

Immediately following the release, the diversion drain was blocked to prevent the produced water leaving the site.

The produced water was captured and returned to the pond.

The EPA is undertaking further investigations.

The Government has designated the EPA the lead regulator of environmental and health issues associated with coal seam gas, and established the Office of Coal Seam Gas in NSW Trade and Investment to regulate other important issues, including petroleum titles, rehabilitation, safety and engineering standards.

Contact: Pamela Wilson

Newcastle Herald 5 January 2015:

A NEWCASTLE City Council-owned waste facility has been  receiving  contaminated coal seam gas waste from far-west NSW, and little is known about where it ends up. 

Environmental Protection Authority documents from 2013 accessed by the Newcastle Herald reveal the council-owned Summerhill Waste Depot was the destination for contaminated soil and waste from the Santos Gas Project in the Pilliga Forest.

Santos says the waste includes ‘‘soil, sediment and pond liner materials’’ removed as part of its $17million rehabilitation of the site following its takeover from Eastern Star Gas in 2011.

But the council won’t say what happened to the waste when it got to Summerhill, where it ended up, or whether it is still receiving the waste.

A spokeswoman said in a statement that Summerhill ‘‘operates as a landfill facility with basic recycling activities’’ and is ‘‘not a treatment facility for contaminated wastes’’, but did not say where the waste ended up. 

‘‘Council is not prepared to discuss any commercially confidential arrangements it has with any of the customers that use the Summerhill Waste Management Centre, this includes any details around waste and revenue receipts,’’ the spokeswoman said.

With the lesser known issue of air pollution being raised.

World Coal 7 January 2015:

Astronomers at the Siding Spring observatory in Australia have warned light pollution from a planned coalbed methane (CBM) development may force the observatory to close.

Siding Spring is the country’s premier observatory. The site of the Australian National University’s observatory, near Coonabarabran in New South Wales (NSW), currently benefits from clear, dark skies above it.

This environment allowed the observatory’s powerful SkyMapper telescope to discover the oldest known star, at 13.6 billion years old, in 2014.

Yet astronomers have voiced concern that CBM developments at gasfields around 50 km away could produce so much light pollution the observatory is rendered useless.

Dark skies are vital if astronomers are to pick out stars and other celestial objects in space.

Mining firm, Santos, plans to tap the area, known as the Gunnedah Basin, for gas sourced in coal seams.

Astronomers are also worried that material dispersed from CBM mining operations will prove corrosive to telescope lenses.

Peter Small, a technical support engineer for Siding Spring, said an existing CBM operation at Boggabri already gives off more light than the neighbouring towns of Narrabri and Gunnedah.

“We get light pollution from that – we even get light pollution from Sydney, which is 400km away, so you don’t have to be that close,” he said.

“This will reduce visibility. If there’s light pollution from anywhere, never mind about the gasfields, this site becomes unviable. It would shut down and all those local jobs would be lost,” he added. “I’d hope there would be a compromise, but no dialogue has taken place with Santos as yet.”....

Santos does not appear to be quite as good a neighbour and not as professional a corporation as Yes2Gas would have us believe.

Whoever the principal or principals of Yes2Gas are, they may have to be very active in 2015 if they are to support their favourite coal seam gas miner Santos Ltd through this.

The Sydney Morning Herald 8 January 2015:

Billions of dollars worth of projects face an uncertain future amid write-downs and job losses across Australia's battered oil and gas sectors as the global oil crash deepens…..

"You have to believe you're going to see enormous write-downs in particular from Santos and Origin – BG have already taken an initial write-down on QCLNG and alluded to the fact it could take a larger one."

Carrying values for some acquisitions made over recent years could also be at risk.

"I don't see how Santos could still carry Narrabri at the book value of the acquisition of Eastern Star Gas," Mr Samter said of Santos's NSW coal seam gas business, based on its $924 million takeover of Eastern Star in 2011.

Santos shares dropped another 1.3 per cent to $7.45 on Wednesday and are now 51 per cent down from their August high.

Steps it took last month to relieve pressure on its balance sheet, including a 25 per cent cut to its 2015 capex budget and an extra $1 billion loan facility, have failed to calm investor fears that it will eventually have to raise equity to protect its investment-grade credit rating. It is also considering asset sales.

Illustrating the extent of the impact of the lower prices on Santos, Mr Samter released research that found the company's equity is worthless if current oil prices and foreign exchange rates are assumed to persist forever.

The Australian 12 January 2014:

STANDARD and Poor’s has cut its oil price forecast for the third time in five weeks, in a move that will increase concerns Santos will be forced to raise equity to keep its investment grade credit rating.

The ratings agency already had Santos (STO) and Origin (ORG), which both have BBB credit ratings, on negative watch and has said further cuts to oil price forecasts could lead to downgrades for the two companies, which are both building LNG plants at Gladstone. The price of LNG is linked to crude oil prices.

“Over the coming weeks, we will be updating our assumptions, and we anticipate a number of corporate rating actions,” Standard and Poor’s said.

The Port of Yamba infrastructure romancer soldiers on

If there is one thing that can be said about Queensland’s former truck driver and wannabee infrastructure entrepreneur, Des Euen (left), it is that he is persistent.

A dated suit, a striped tie, a fancy corporate title, a couple of $1-1 share companies with no visible cash or staff and an unworkable idea¹ – then he’s off to turn the small Port of Yamba into an international coal port/container terminal & transport hub by 2023.

From first sod to finished port complex in just eight years from now - based on a unsolicited proposal which is yet to get through the Baird Government’s front door.

Mr. Euan has been touting his 'dream' for at least the last two to three years and, he turned up again last December on the website of IQPC’s Infrastructure Privatisation 2014 but it is unknown if he actually participated in the two-day event.

Mention of him popped up again this week when this short email landed in my Inbox:

Hello, I have upset Mr Euen also! He gets very upset when you send links to your blog page to councillors in the region. He has threatened me with legal action. Is he full of hot air and bluff? Keep up the good work.

Apparently the self-promoting Mr. Euen thinks that he should decide when he is mentioned on the Internet and the manner in which he is mentioned.

1. Brief Background:

More New England madness…..

What is it with these rednecks from over the range?

Desmond John Euen wants a sea port

Desmond John Euen wants a sea port – Part Two

Abbott Government health funding cuts will hit home on the NSW North Coast

New South Wales residents can expect the state public hospital system to experience a further strain on service delivery in 2015 courtesy of both federal Abbott Coalition and state Baird Coalition governments' health policies.

On 5 June 2014 The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

The Bureau of Health Information report released on Thursday shows that from January to March more than 600,000 people visited NSW public hospital emergency departments, a 2 per cent jump compared to the same time last year.

About 73 per cent of patients left emergency departments within four hours, up from 66 per cent last year, but still falling far short of the 81 per cent target…..

The new figures show that while about 97 per cent of people are getting surgery on time, some patients are still waiting more than six months.

Median waiting times for ear, nose and throat surgery are now 153 days. Gynaecology, urology and prostate surgery waits increased between seven to 10 per cent.

''NSW still has the longest waiting times for elective surgery in Australia and close to the longest in developed countries,'' said Dr McDonald. ''A 302-day median wait time for a knee replacement is just unacceptable.''

On 11 January 2015The Australian noted:

NSW has abandoned a national target for attending to people who need treatment in hospital emergency departments after the federal government cut reward payments.
Under a national partnership deal struck between the states and the commonwealth in 2011 under the Gillard government, all states were meant to have reached a benchmark of seeing 90 per cent of patients in emergency departments within four hours from January 1 this year.
The agreement included rewards of $50 million a year for reaching this target, but in the federal budget last year the government abolished the payments.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said, because of that, “there is currently no formal target tied to rewards payments”.
NSW intended to keep to last year’s target of 81 per cent instead of using the new target of 90 per cent, she said.
Although emergency department performance has been improving, it has not met national benchmarks…..

In practice this means that during a year public hospital emergency departments are expected to experience an increase in the number of patients presenting because the Abbott Government has cost-shifted its Medicare rebate cuts onto individuals and families from January 2015¹, its public hospital funding cuts have also made matters worse for those seeking treatment at hospital accident and emergency departments.

The figure below clearly shows the best that the ill or hurt in NSW could expect in late 2014 – an average wait to receive treatment of between 41 minutes and 2 hours 29 minutes for the majority attending A&E departments.

The 95th percentile represents the time period within which most people received the relevant care or treatment.

Hospital Quarterly: Activity and performance in NSW Hospitals July to September 2014

On the NSW Far North Coast this averaged out for the majority of patients seeking treatment as a wait of between 29 minutes and 2 hours 11 minutes:

http://www.bhi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/251385/HQ18_EDLHD_Appendix_Tables_031214.pdf

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is predicting that public hospital emergency department waiting times will now rise not by a factor of minutes but by hours in 2015.

1. Increased GP fees are expected to commence from mid-January 2015 and increase again in July for over 15 million Australians, as Medicare rebates cover less of general practice & specialist doctors standard fees. Many patients will be paying a standard upfront fee of $75 or more for a simple 10 minute visit to their local doctor as fewer medical practices are expected to continue bulk billing. The Medicare rebate formula would have meant that the the federal government met half of that cost for non-concessional patients. However, from 1 July 2015 the medicare rebate on a $75 fee will be reduced to $32.04 leaving the patient $42.95 out-of-pocket.
If a medical practice decides to use the AMA recommended schedule of fees and abandon bulk-billing all together, then concessional patients (such as aged and disability pensioners or children under 16 years) will also have to pay an upfront fee of $75 for a 10 minutes consultation and be $34.95 out-of-pocket.
For non-concessional patients seen by their doctor for between 6 and 10 minutes the rebate reduction will increase their out-of-pocket expense to $20.10 from 19 January rising to $25.10 after 30 June 2015.

UPDATE

A statement that needs to be taken with a grain of salt…….

The Sydney Morning Herald 15 January 2015 at 12:34pm:

The government has capitulated and scrapped its plans to next week cut the Medicare rebate by $20 for short visits to the doctor after a fierce backlash by doctors and non-government Senators, who vowed to veto the measure.

In her first act as the new Health Minister, Sussan Ley broke her holidays to announce on Thursday that the cuts - quietly introduced by her predecessor Peter Dutton late last year - are now "off the table".

Ms Ley said she was still committed to introducing price signals into Medicare including the revised $5 GP co-payment due to start July 1, but pledged to "pause, listen and consult".....

The Goings On In Gloucester OR The Case Of The Coal Seam Gas Fracking Flowback Water

This little tale, told in excerpts from news articles and media releases, illustrates how changing a sum of money from a "penalty" to a "tradewaste charge" gave unpopular coal seam gas miner AGL Energy an excuse to deny that it had been involved (through its waste water treatment contractor Transpacific Industries) in dumping coal seam gas waste water into a Hunter Water Corporation sewer system.

What this change in wording did not do was stop its contractor from refusing to take any more AGL waste water from its Gloucester coal seam gas project in the foreseeable future.

Newcastle Herald 9 March 2014:

HUNTER Water has refused to dispose of waste water from AGL's Gloucester coal seam gas project because of concerns about chemical contamination.

AGL, which is yet to receive final state-government approval to frack four pilot wells, approached Hunter Water last year about transporting waste water from the site to a treatment plant.

But Hunter Water has told AGL that the waste water produced from hydraulic fracking would not meet its criteria for tankered waste water.

''Hunter Water's waste water works are designed and licensed for the treatment of human effluent,'' its letter to AGL states.

''Waste water (flow-back water) from hydraulic fracturing has the potential to adversely impact the waste water treatment process and therefore Hunter Water's ability to meet its environment protection licence conditions.''

Hunter Water's manager of government and media relations Jeremy Bath said the utility was specifically concerned about chemical additives likely to be in the waste water.

Waste water produced from coal seam gas extraction often contains a range of fracking and drilling chemicals and heavy metals including arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium. It is also typically highly saline.

It was revealed on Saturday  that energy company Santos was fined $1500 after 

contaminated waste water  seeped  from a holding pond at its Pilliga forest project near Narrabri into an aquifer.

As a result the aquifer had increased concentrations of  lead, aluminium, arsenic, barium, boron, nickel and uranium.

An AGL spokeswoman said the company would dispose of waste water from the Gloucester project at an appropriate licensed facility, in accordance with its assessment of environmental impacts.

Gloucester Advocate 12 August 2014:

GLOUCESTER Shire Council has called on the State government to retrospectively introduce a 2km setback for coal seam gas wells in the valley following the decision to approve AGL’s Waukivory Pilot Program.

Resources Minister Anthony Roberts approved AGL’s plans to frack four coal seam gas wells at Gloucester last Wednesday, along with a renewal of AGL’s Gloucester Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 285 for six years.

Council said it was ‘frustrated and angry’ the Minister had renewed the licence and approved fracking in the valley.

It called on the State to follow the science and not allow fracking until the federal government’s bioregional assessment, AGL’s numerical model to enable assessment of water impacts and council’s water study coordination report were complete.

 “Council acknowledges that the Waukivory Pilot is part of AGL’s research program, but has not been given compelling reasons as to why the test wells need to be located where now proposed,” deputy mayor Frank Hooke said.

Newcastle Herald 31 October 2014:

MIDCOAST Water "strongly oppose" AGL's plan to release recycled water from its Gloucester coal seam gas project into the area's waterways.

AGL's draft water management policy proposes releasing water used during coal seam gas drilling into nearby river systems when wet weather makes irrigation impossible.

The company said its preferred method of management is irrigation, and the discharges of desalinated water would only be made "during periods of high rainfall".

It said the water would only represent "a very small addition, less than 1 per cent, to the average annual flow of the Avon River of approximately 110,000 million litres".

But in a submission to AGL's draft water management strategy for the Gloucester gas project, Midcoast Water states it does not support the company's plans.

"We believe the proposed scheme will be very complex with a number of risks associated with its operation," general manager Robert Loadsman said.

"We strongly oppose the idea of using waterways as transportation routes for recycled water - such water has to be transported by pipelines."

MidCoast Water is also calling for a comprehensive risk assessment to be undertaken and contingency measures designed as part of any extracted water management scheme.

It said the water monitoring plan proposed by AGL was "highly inadequate".

Newcastle Herald 18 December 2014:

POTENTIALLY contaminated wastewater used to frack AGL's Gloucester coal seam gas project has been dumped unlawfully into the Hunter's sewer system by the private company hired to treat it.

Transpacific, one of the nation's largest wastewater management firms, has been fined $30,000 by Hunter Water for releasing treated "flow-back" fluid from the gas project into the region's sewer network.

It comes after AGL and Transpacific were both explicitly warned by the water regulator that releasing the flow-back fluid was a breach of its wastewater criteria.

Hunter Water asked Transpacific for a please explain after the Newcastle Herald revealed on Thursday that it was the company treating flow-back water for AGL.

Both AGL and Transpacific had refused to state what was happening to the water once it was treated, but when approached by Hunter Water, the company admitted to dumping the water into the sewer network…..

In a statement to the Herald, Hunter Water said it was "extremely disappointed" by AGL's "seeming inability to control flow-back water originating from its CSG mine".

"AGL has also previously committed to having measures in place to ensure that waste management companies would not attempt to discharge flow-back water into the Hunter Water sewer system," chief customer services officer Jeremy Bath said.

ABC News 18 December 2014:

There are renewed concerns over a coal seam gas fracking operation in the Hunter Valley, after a contractor was fined for dumping wastewater into Newcastle's sewer system.

AGL recently completed fracking at four CSG test wells just outside Gloucester, but has been vague on the detail of what would happen to the flow-back water from the operation.

Hunter Water says in October it refused an application from waste contractor, Transpacific to discharge treated flow-back water from the AGL site.

But it says it recently became aware that Transpacific had discharged a prohibited substance into the sewer system from its treatment site on Newcastle's Kooragang Island.

The company has since been penalised $30,000 and warned that any further breaches would result in the termination of its commercial agreement with Hunter Water.

Community group, Groundswell Gloucester says it is outrageous and AGL's licence should be suspended.

  

AGL 19 December 2014:

At our Gloucester Gas Project, as with all our operations, AGL's Upstream Gas team places the highest priority on meeting our environmental and community engagement obligations. 

So, it was deeply disappointing to read the Newcastle Herald's report yesterday (19 December) which wrongly claimed that "fracking wastewater" was being "dumped" in Hunter Water's sewers.

The story went on to claim this was being done 'unlawfully' and that our trade waste contractor Transpacific had been "fined" $30,000.

These incorrect claims unfortunately have caused concern and once again our project, where we are meeting the highest environmental and regulatory standards, has been tarred by misinformation.

Not one drop of untreated flowback water has gone to Hunter Water from the recent operations at Gloucester by AGL or our contractor, Transpacific, as far as AGL is aware. 

AGL 5 January 2015:

Recently you may have seen news reports raising concerns about AGL Energy Limited's (AGL) arrangements for the proper disposal of flowback water from our Waukivory Pilot at the Gloucester Gas Project.

We understand your concern for the safety of local water resources and we take our responsibility to protect water very seriously. So, please allow me a few moments of your time to set the record straight.

The water in question, 'flowback' water, is retrieved from a gas well after being used in the hydraulic fracturing of a coal seam. It is mostly water, with some sand and very small amounts of highly diluted additives from our hydraulic fracturing fluid. The quality of this water is monitored frequently and the monitoring results are reported to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and published on our website.

AGL is required to transport this flowback water to an appropriately licensed facility. After reviewing our options, AGL engaged Transpacific to lawfully treat and dispose of this water under its licence with the EPA for wastewater treatment and disposal.

The Transpacific facility is the closest wastewater treatment provider to the Waukivory Pilot, which means that traffic movements and distances are minimised.

As far as AGL is aware, there is no justification for claims that AGL's flowback water was inappropriately disposed of and we are now providing details of these arrangements to the EPA for review.

It's also important to understand that there was no "$30,000 fine" involved. It is our understanding that Transpacific was being levied a trade waste charge under the normal terms of its trade wastewater agreement with Hunter Water.

Transpacific has advised us that it has suspended taking our flowback water while it is clarifying operational issues with Hunter Water. We have engaged Worth Recycling, a Sydney-based resource recovery and waste treatment company. Worth Recycling, which has Environment Protection Licences with the EPA, will transport and treat AGL's water and then recycle it for industrial purposes.

I would like to assure you that at no stage has flowback water been "dumped" into the Hunter Water sewerage system. Rather, it has been treated at a facility licensed by the EPA, and as far as AGL is aware, lawfully disposed of.

Finally, I assure you that all of our actions in relation to the Waukivory Pilot Program have been, and will continue to be, undertaken in accordance with our approvals and with the highest respect for the community and the environment. For further information please visit our online community, www.yoursayagl.com.au.

Newcastle Herald 5 January 2015:

In a full-page advertisement in today's Herald, AGL states there was no $30,000 fine issued.

In its initial statement to the Herald, Hunter Water said it had issued a $30,000 ''penalty'' and then re-worded that to call it a ''tradewaste charge''.

ABC News 8 January 2014:

Hunter Water imposed a $30,000 charge on AGL's contractor Transpacific for accepting the wastewater from the four CSG test wells without its approval.

Transpacific has been warned that any further breaches would result in the termination of its commercial agreement with Hunter Water.

According to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Transpacific Industries Pty Ltd was issued with four penalty notices in 2014 for contravention of licence conditions at its Homebush NSW liquid treatment plant and, in 2013 AGL Upstream Investments Pty Limited was issued with three penalty notices for contravention of licence conditions at its Menangle NSW gas plant.

One suspects that the EPA may become rather interested in the goings on in Gloucester in the coming year.

Many Northern Rivers residents are watching AGL Energy with interest - seeing its inability to effectively deal with pollution risks as a problem Metgasco Limited would also fail to deal with should the Baird Government allow it to continue exploration and/or grant it a production licence on the NSW North Coast.

NSW North Coast police make mockery of traffic accident attendance criteria

On 15 October 2014 NSW Police changed its criteria for attending traffic accidents.

Traffic and Highway Patrol Command - NSW Police Force:

Police on the NSW North Coast have apparently refined this criteria further.

On the morning of 13 January 2015 a Yamba resident, reporting what was a head-on crash on a badly cambered bend in a town road was told by police that only accidents where a person was injured would be attended by officers.

Apparently this is how local police are interpreting the NSW Government’s so-called drive to reduce red tape.

Now this would possibly be a worry-free policy adaptation if all accidents on the North Coast occurred through no fault on the part of drivers due to adverse road/weather conditions, but there is a glaring hole in how this three month old directive is being implemented on the ground.

In effect it means that it there will be drivers who were speeding and/or intoxicated who will escape being held legally accountable for their unlawful actions and the property damage they inflict, because North Coast police are refusing to come to crash sites unless they are specifically told a person has been injured.

If the person contacting police fails to mention a suspicion that a driver may have been drinking or speeding or the police fail to ask that question at the time, then dangerous drivers will begin to feel invulnerable – which may eventually have fatal consequences.

Prime Minster Abbott denies South Australian bush fires have anything to do with climate change - Australian firies not amused

 Jim Casey , state secretary of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees’ Union in The Guardian, 7 January 2014

Junkee telling it like it is on 8 January 2015: 

In the past week we’ve seen bushfires consume huge stretches of land in South Australia and Victoria. 19 communities totalling thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes around Adelaide, more than 2,000 firefighters were called upon to battle the flames, and 32 homes were destroyed. On the other side of the country, Perth faced weather so hot it literally broke the internet and let people fry eggs on the sidewalk. Similarly, Melbourne has seen each day creep closer and closer to 40 degrees while simultaneously bearing the brunt of surprise tropical storms that brought down power lines, severely damaged people’s homes and saw skydivers tossed around the earth like human confetti.

We’ve had better summers.

But this morning, in an effort to respond to the worst of this craziness, Tony Abbott went on a tour of the recently contained bushfire site at Adelaide Hills and acknowledged that climate change is indeed a thing that exists. “Climate change is real [and] humanity does contribute to it,” he said. Seriously. This is a thing that has happened.

Abbott then met with volunteers and members of the affected community and announced his intention to offer disaster recovery payments of up to $1,000 per person and a 13-week Centrelink allowance for those who have been out of work because of the fire. “The worst of nature brings out the best in people,” he said. “You have responded magnificently to all of the challenges you have faced.”

But, never to leave a press conference with an entirely positive reception, he then went on: “Over time climate change could make a difference to these sorts of occurrences [but] I think it is wrong to try to attribute particular natural disasters to climate change.”

“We think that Australia is making a strong and effective contribution to reducing emissions,” he said without a hint of sarcasm.

Despite his words of praise for the firies, a lot of them have a pretty different message for the PM than the one he’d probably like to hear.

Yesterday, State Secretary of the NSW Fire Brigade Employee’s Union Jim Casey penned an op-ed in The Guardian that directly appealed to the Abbott government for stronger action against climate change, following the bushfire in Adelaide Hills.

“Changes in weather behaviour are making bushfires bigger and more dangerous,” he wrote. “We need the federal government to start being a part of the solution to this problem, rather than denying it exists. This is the critical decade for international action on climate. The recent unexpected statements from both China and the US on the question of carbon emissions gives some hope that action may be taken, but if this does occur it will be in spite of our own government’s position.”

Sadly, these pleas aren’t even new. Firefighters have been trying to get the government to take action on this issue for years (look here’s one, and some more; actually, maybe it’s all of them). Now, as their concerns have not been fully dealt with, the Climate Council are saying firefighter numbers will likely have to double to deal with the increasing threat of fires in a hotter and more unpredictable climate. Here’s hoping there are still lots of little kids who really like the idea of fire poles.

After being constantly humiliated on the world stage, having his arse handed to him by the leader of the free world, and clocking in only one step ahead of Saudi Arabia in the latest global Climate Change Rankings, it’s no surprise that the PM would want to speak out about climate change now.

But whether you’re a firefighter or just a person who doesn’t really like the idea of living in a place that might spontaneously combust at any given minute, it’s kind of worrying that the PM thinks this is the best he can do.

Metgasco becomes a metaphor for mindless, total destruction

If Metgasco Limited shareholders were ever in doubt about how the NSW Northern Rivers region (from Clarence Valley to the Queensland border) viewed this coal seam/tight gas exploration and wannabee production company, those doubts must have disappeared when on 8 January 2015 S. Sorrensen writing in the Echo Netdaily entered “Metgasco” into Australian English as a metaphor for mindless, total destruction in Here & Now #87: Hell’s hen: