News 
 Local News 
 News 
 General 
 Coal seam gas concerns growing 

Coal seam gas concerns growing

14 Oct, 2011 01:30 AM
NORTH West graziers aired their concerns over the steady march of the coal seam gas (CSG) industry into the region at Wednesday's AgForce North regional meeting in Julia Creek.

AgForce policy director Drew Wagner said landholders were apprehensive of the industry which has proved so contentious in the south of the state and in New South Wales.

"They have massive concerns regarding the sustainability of the industry and the assumed number of these projects that are going to be in the region," he said.

Mr Wagner said AgForce was focused on protecting the rights of producers in the North who may not receive as much attention for their plight as those on more arable land.

The State Government plans to introduce legislation to Parliament in late October to minimise the effects of activities such as CSG and open cut mining on land deemed to be suitable for a range of crops during most of the year.

The dry and often inhospitable conditions of the North West mean the region's stations are likely to be precluded.

"Definitely land here sits outside the strategic cropping land scenarios," he said.

"But this is a hit and run industry operating right across our landscape and graziers here have the same concerns as ones anywhere else."

Mr Wagner said the spread of CSG activity to the Galilee Basin was of concern to AgForce.

Wednesday's session with graziers had included advice and education on how to deal with CSG and underground coal gasification (UCG) activity encroaching on their land, Mr Wager said.

"The focus was to help them understand and educate these landholders on their rights and obligations," he said.

Other topics dicussed included the prospect of the Diamantina and Georgina rivers being declared wild and leasehold and the Federal Government's proposed Carbon Farming Initiative.

AgForce will hold sessions in Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek, Normanton and Burketown during the next two weeks for graziers to further discuss issues and produce computer-generated maps of their land.

Print
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size

comments


Date: Newest first | Oldest first
What will happen when the coal runs???

There needs to be cleaner energy coming from somewhere!!! lower impact in CSG compared to mining large dirty coal.

The water extracted from the ground gets put back into the ground cleaner then what it comes out. Understanding the process is a must and facts should be considered rather then a negative view of the industry.

Posted by cloncurry_local, 14/10/2011 8:58:49 AM, on North West Star
Point me that direction,, @cloncurry-local... to them facts. "water extracted from ground gets put back cleaner than what it comes out"
Posted by MakeSense, 17/10/2011 7:37:27 AM, on North West Star
MakeSense, if you can take time out to look into CSG Companies operating in the Roma area, farmers are getting treated water that comes from the Wells when extracting and then the water is treated in an on-site treatment plant at the cost of the CSG Company then used for local irrigation. The water has been tested and in-fact is cleaner then what it is in the ground many months and in fact years of testing the water bores in the local properties have provided much evidence to the water being cleaner, then put back into the ground thru the irrigation, how else dose water get into the ground?
Posted by cloncurry_local, 18/10/2011 1:48:16 PM, on North West Star
cloncurry-local, what cleanliness are we talking here.Color / tubidity clean... or physical/character...and contaminant Clean ?? eg; from the drilling and fractuering processes... diesel and benzine derivatives??? An unreliable comparative would be to benchmark past "years of testing" against todays methodology, parameters results.

With whose standards does does a companys "at own expense" testing and treatment results comply ??

I had no querry as to how water permeated ground and or entered aquifers.

Posted by MakeSense, 19/10/2011 4:07:19 PM, on North West Star

post a comment


Screen name  *
Email address  *
Remember me?
Comment  *
 
We invite and encourage our readers to post comments. Comments are moderated and will appear as soon as our editor has approved them. When posting comments you agree to be bound by our Terms and Conditions.

Most popular articles




North West Star







Weather brought to you by:

Weatherzone

Front Page

Current Issue
Privacy Policy | Conditions of Use | Advertising Terms | Copyright © 2012. Fairfax Media.
 SEND...
 SAVE...
 SHARE...