QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/50246
COMMUNITY GROUP DEBATES FRACKING CONCERNS By Jarrod Fitch P erceived environmental degradation resulting from coal seam gas (CSG) extraction and hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') was the topic of an impassioned South Australian community forum. Representatives from environmental groups including Lock the Gate Alliance, GetUp!, River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group (RLCAG), joined by Federal Senators Nick Xenophon and Sarah Hanson Young, debated with mining group Santos over the high-profi le gas extraction processes. Chair of RLCAG, Professor Diane Bell, who hosted the Adelaide forum in October, said that the science of CSG and hydraulic fracturing is not settled, and concern over the processes, helped by prominent media coverage, has left many in the community anxious. "We have many questions. One of them is about connectivity through the systems. How much is the Great Artesian Basin connected to the Murray Darling Basin? What's the impact of mining of one area on another? What's the impact of mining on the Murray Darling Basin? What is going to be the impact on the changes in the ground water? It's really the ground water that brought the RLCAG into this debate," Bell said. "Our concern… is that the Water Act under which the Murray Darling Basin Plan is being prepared excludes the Great Artesian Basin; that is very, very old water. So what is going to be the impact of mining in the Murray Darling Basin? One of the things that we've learnt very strongly in our campaigning on the river is that the river is connected. Once you start breaking it up you break up its resilience." Water allocation CSG activist group Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson, Sarah Moles, said she has concerns over underground water drawn for CSG that is relied on by irrigators and for domestic use. "CSG companies have unlimited take. Their water is not regulated under the Water Act, unlike everyone else. How much water is [6]6 QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin Summer 2011/12 actually going to be taken is really not known. It depends a great deal on the eventual size of the industry: Probably around 350 gigalitres a year, and that compares with the current total GAB water use, and dwarfs the savings that have made by the GAB Sustainability Initiative over the past 10 years," Moles said. "Of particular concern to people like me is the fact that we know that there's going to be an impact on water levels, and irrigators who have gone to a great deal of trouble to restructure their business are deeply concerned about their security of access to that water." General Manager of Energy Projects for Santos, Andrew Kremor, defended the company's CSG water use practices. "We've been operating in Queensland for the last 16 years. We know that where we operate there hasn't been any measurable impact on the surface aquifers. That's a fact," he said. Kremor showed guests a photo taken recently of a farm in Queensland that is utilising treated CSG water to grow crops that are then fed to cows. "This has occurred after three years of research and development between Santos and the land owner. It is going to result in up to a 25 per cent increase in productivity of that farm over the next 30 years. It's also important to understand in the area that this is done, in the Santos area, none of that water comes from the surface aquifer, it all comes from the coal seam water, and there's no interconnectivity between those two aquifer sets." Saline water discharge Questions were also raised about saline water discharge resulting from CSG extraction. Kremor says Santos manages the discharges in several ways. "The fi rst way, which is already occurring, is that it's reinjected into deep saline aquifers. That's happened in our operations in Queensland to date, and any residual salt will be put into proper registered facilities," he said. Moles, of Lock the Gate, whose central aim is to campaign to protect Australia's water INDUSTRY NEWS