Garrett to correct Bligh Government's shoddy approvals process on Coal Seam Gas Projects

The Commonwealth Minister for the Environment Protection has been forced to intervene and call for a review of the impacts of two Queensland coal seam gas projects on our water supplies and landscapes, and their potential to contaminate the Great Artesian Basin, one of the only reliable sources of fresh water in inland Australia. 

The unseemly haste with which the Bligh Government has sought to fast-track approvals of controversial coal seam gas projects in the Surat Basin has caught up with them.

The Environment Protection Minister, Mr Peter Garrett, has written to both British Gas and Santos demanding more information on impacts on the Great Artesian Basin and how they might mitigate these impacts. This follows very critical reports from the Queensland Coordinator General who, nevertheless, gave both companies "conditional" approvals.

Now BG and Santos have to submit revised EISs to the Federal Government.

Spokesperson for Six Degrees and prominent environmental campaigner, Drew Hutton, who has been working with farmers and rural residents concerned with the likely impacts of these developments said the Bligh Government had only itself to blame for this mess. As Mr Hutton says: 

The State Government knows these companies did not have adequate modeling of the underground water systems. 

They do not know whether or not their activities will have impacts on other aquifers and they have no realistic solutions about what to do with the huge amounts of briny water they bring to the surface during their operations.

They also have given no clear details about cumulative impacts, the size and locations of the many disturbances, including land clearing, they will undertake nor the impacts on coastal ecosystems at Gladstone.

Six Degrees yesterday expressed grave concerns that whilst the Queensland Government has initiated research to address these unknowns, the research will not be concluded until the end of June in 2012. 

Due to the rushed approval process of the Queensland Government, the information required for a measured and safe regulatory framework for the CSG industry will not be available until long after much of the extractive activity has been approved and any damage is likely to have already occurred.

As Mr Hutton states: 

Let's face it, these coal seam gas projects are ill thought out and overseen by a State Government that is thinking only about getting elected next time on the back of a few billions of dollars in royalties and a few thousand jobs in construction.

And for their own electoral fortunes they are prepared to put in jeopardy some of our most precious environmental assets.

The review of the proposals from Queensland's own Coordinator General's warned of the anticipated environmental risks due to the significant amount of water, salt, toxins, heavy metals and fracking chemicals removed from coal seams. As the Coordinator General Colin Jensen said in his report: 

I consider the strategies for managing CSG water as critical, as there is the potential for ongoing risks to streams, soils and landscapes, through inappropriate use and disposal of CSG water.

I am concerned that the cost to future generations will be substantial should rehabilitation works associated with CSG LNG industry activities be ineffectively undertaken.

Of course, this is not the first time that the environmental approvals process has failed spectacularly in Queensland, with the Traveston Dam and the Shoalwater Bay port noteworthy examples.

Mr Hutton sees this consistent failure of Queensland Government as grounds for root and branch reform of the environmental assessment process: 

When this is all over, Queensland needs to undertake a solid program of environmental law reform to ensure this sort of serious irresponsibility never happens again.

To remind the Queensland Government that environmental assessment matters and to support landholders and farmers directly affected by coal and coal seam gas mining, come to the parliamentary protest on Wednesday August 4th at 12pm.

See here for the flyer.