Govt Must Act on Polluting Gas and Damaging Coal in Sydney's Water Catchment

Friday, 24 September 2010 09:55

The NSW Premier must take immediate action to halt gas drilling (CSM) in our pristine water catchments following explosive revelations which have exposed an industry seeking to avoid proper public scrutiny of its polluting practices, said Total Environment Centre (TEC) today.

CSM extraction involves large swaths of land being leased to energy companies using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing or ‘Fracing’. Along with massive surface disturbance, the process could involve the fracturing with hundreds of chemicals of aquifers linked to Sydney’s water supply, and could also lead to polluted water being pumped to the surface.

“It is now clear that we can no longer assume that longwall mining and coal seam methane are separate industries,” said TEC Director Jeff Angel.

“These documents reveal that a clear relationship between the longwall industry and CSM industry has been deliberately concealed from public scrutiny, and seemingly encouraged by various ministers through changes to exploration licences and approval variations. They indicate a systematic plan to establish CSM extraction within Sydney’s Water supply catchments.”

The documents reveal Apex Energy intention to use “whatever means” to extract gas in its joint venture with Peabody Energy above Metropolitan Colliery in the Woronora Special Area.

TEC calls on the Premier to:

• Impose an immediate moratorium on new CSM extraction in NSW while a NSW CSM Environmental Strategy is developed with full community and independent scientific input. This follows recent pollution incidents in Queensland and the Lower Hunter Valley in NSW and mounting international evidence about the damage CSM extraction is having upon the environment. This would include a ban on CSM in Sydney’s Metropolitan Special Areas covering the drinking water catchment and State Conservation Areas in the Southern Coalfield.
• Force all companies with currently operating or proposed longwall mines to reveal any relationship with CSM extraction and review all existing Part 3A approvals that have not included these plans and instruct the Department of Planning to fully engage with the public in the review.
• Establish areas in NSW that are off limits to longwall mining and CSM extraction based on environmental, water supply, agricultural and infrastructure values.