13 July, 2013
Sydney’s drinking water supply wins a reprieve after coal seam gas decision
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW has welcomed the Planning Assessment Commission’s determination rejecting the application by coal seam gas company Apex to sink 15 exploratory wells in Sydney’s drinking water catchment. [1]
“This is a massive win for anybody concerned about maintaining a clean and healthy drinking water supply for the whole of Sydney,” NCC Campaigns Director Kate Smolski said.
“Coal seam gas extraction produces millions of litres of waste water contaminated with salts and heavy metals and must not be allowed in a water catchment that supplies drinking water to more than four million people.
“The Planning Assessment Commission decision on the Apex application is a very positive step forward, but the threat remains.
“Several other companies have active petroleum exploration licences covering the catchment and will presumably make similar applications in the not-too-distant future.”
Ms Smolski said the commission had left open the possibility of approving similar applications at a later date if the uncertainty around the effects of CSG extraction was clarified. The NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer is currently investigating the issue and it is expected that the resulting report will inform state government policy.
Ms Smolski said the PAC’s determination did not deal with the current impacts of longwall coal mining on water quality, but it did allude to the problem in its ruling:
The Commission does not dispute that the water impacts of coal mining may prove to be greater than those associated with coal seam gas activities. Nonetheless, the Sydney Catchment Authority also advised the Commission that it is increasingly concerned about the water losses associated with current mining operations. Consequently a finding that Coal Seam Gas Operations may have fewer groundwater and subsidence impacts is not accepted as a reason to support the proposal.
“If the impacts of CSG are unacceptable in drinking water catchments, then surely so are the impacts of longwall coal mines,” she said.
“Despite this, the Department of Planning and Infrastructure in February this year approved BHP’s longwall mine expansion only a few hundred metres from the Avon water supply dam.”
“The government must act to protect our precious water supplies and ban coal and coal seam gas development in all drinking water catchments, as Premier O’Farrell promised before the last state election.”
[1] www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/a-clear-decision-sydney-water-catchment-fracking-ruled-out-for-now-20130712-2pv5t.html
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