Mining giant has approval for eight wells in New South Wales, but environmentalists say plans to protect water are unclear
Mining giant Santos must “come clean” on its plans to deal with millions of litres of waste water it will produce at new coal seam gas wells, New South Wales environmentalists say.
The NSW government last month gave Santos approval for eight new CSG wells in the Pilliga forest, in the state’s north-west, provided the mining company meets strict environmental conditions.
Santos also received approval for stage one of its water management plan.
The Wilderness Society says the company’s management plan is not clear, and Santos has repeatedly changed tack on how it will treat millions of litres of waste water the wells will produce.
“One day it is sending 35 trucks of waste water per day to Sydney, the next day it is re-injecting water into aquifers, and the next it’s going to build a reverse osmosis plant,” Wilderness Society Newcastle spokeswoman Naomi Hogan said.
“Santos should come clean with its water treatment plans for public, government and independent scientific scrutiny.”
NSW Trade and Investment said the wells and water management plan were approved on 16 August, but Santos would not be able to operate the wells until it received approval to transfer water to its Leewood ponds outside the Pilliga forest.
Hogan criticised the government for approving the proposal without first seeing firm plans for dealing with waste water.
“Recently the NSW chief scientist outlined a range of concerns about the impacts and management of coal seam gas, yet the NSW government has made this new approval without any plans for treating waste water,” she said.
Hogan said the Pilliga project would result in the forest being bulldozed, which would threaten native species including koalas.
A Santos spokesman said the company had a plan in place for water management and the local community had been “extensively consulted” over the Pilliga proposal.
“The water produced during the exploration phase is able to be stored at the new water storage facility currently being constructed at the Leewood site outside of the Pilliga, 25km south-west of Narrabri,” he said.
“This facility and our produced water management plan for these exploration wells has been approved by the NSW government.”
He said extensive modelling had shown the proposed exploration programme would have “no significant impact on the groundwater source” in the region.
Meanwhile, Greens NSW mining spokesman Jeremy Buckingham has criticised the incoming federal government for its attitude to farmers and communities resisting CSG.
The new resources minister Ian Macfarlane has labelled CSG opponents “noisy protesters” and “minority groups”.
“The Abbott government has declared war on the farmers and communities around NSW who are trying to protect their land and water from the threat posed by coal seam gas,” Mr Buckingham said. “The Abbott government seems willing to risk agriculture and water resources, so that a few large oil companies can export LNG to Asian markets.”
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