Narrabri Gas

The Narrabi Gas Project endangers Australia's largest groundwater aquifer, one should think that fresh water resources are the most valuable good in a country like Australia which has to build desalination plants in order to provide clean water to its citizens. Furthermore the project endangers nature and wildlife in its surroundigns and stands in oppposition to the law of the traditional owners of the land, the Gamilaraay.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/21/siding-spring-observatory-threat-coal-seam-gas-light-pollution

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I AM AGAINST THE PILLIGA PROJECT & I VOTE!

Please rescind the Pilliga CSG project for the following reasons:

1] Coal seam gas fuels climate change
2] Heating of the planet is detrimental to the planets ozone layer, which is is still in very grave danger
3] The Pilliga region is a safehaven for threatened wildlife
4] IT RISKS OUR CLEAN WATER!!

Do you need any other reasons? >> SERIOUSLY.

Decline this ridiculous proposal or face the consequences tormenting your conscience for the rest of your life.

Emma Anne Bellamy
Paddington, NSW

Over two year after the failing of a holding pond and the consequent spill of its toxic contents s is the Pilliga I saw NO LIFE left at all. No plants not even an ant. CSG and unconventional gas mining is a dangerous industry, one that the companies involved, including Santos, do not properly regulate. They announced they had 'refurbished' the area of the spill. I saw with my own eyes that they had used more clean water to hose the toxic mess further into the ground. The aquifer was proven to be contaminated and toxic with fracking chemicals. This is not acceptable on any level. (See photo attached that shows no life in the path of the spill, and the extra large piping used to push the toxic waste into the ground, it also shows the mulch used to hide the spill.)

The Pilliga is the recharge area of the southern end of the Great Artesian Basin, the only water source of many towns and communities, not just in NSW, but across the country.

It is totally reckless to risk such a unique and important water source. To approve 850 wells in the sandy Pilliga will be disastrous on a mega scale.

Apart from the dangers to the flora, fauna, and communities this reckless industry brings, we must be stopping our use of fossil fuels not increasing it. We must change to renewable energy. Temperatures are rising at a runaway rate. Australia used to be smart but we no longer are and I am now quite ashamed to be Australian.

Please do not allow Santos or any other company to frack and mine fossil fuels in the Pilliga or anywhere else in this wonderful country.

Fossil fuels must become a thing of the past if we are to survive and retain a country and planet that will support life.

Please see attached document

1. Santos say they are not going to interfere with a GAB recharge zone. However all government hydrogeological mapping of the GAB shows the project will straddle the most important inflow zone into the GAB in NSW (Hydrogeological Atlas of the Great Artesian Basin (2016); Department of Water Resources (NSW) Hydrogeological Series Sheet SH 55-12; NSW Department of Water & Energy April 2009 PN00799 WR2008-089)
2. There is no evidence provided which shows there is no connectivity between aquifer strata. Recent studies document migration of coal bed methane to the surface (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep15996)
3. All well casings will fail eventually. Who is going to maintain the well integrity after Santos have gone? We will have 850 leakage time-bombs through the GAB (http://www.pnas.org/content/111/30/10955.full)
4. Santos want to release treated water into Bohena Creek during high and moderate flows, ignoring in their EIS that this creek is a recognised surface groundwater ecosystem (Australian GDE Atlas).
5. Santo have completely ignored pubic health risks from fugitive emissions, including from methane, sulphides and ozone. How can this gas be so clean when all others is so dirty?
6. Recent work has shown that the levels of methane emissions from CSG operations are high to pose significant risks to greenhouse gas levels.
7. The region is an astronomy destination providing jobs, business and tourism. Flaring gas and dust creation is a huge risk to this sector and the region.
8. Fragmenting the bush of the Pilliga forest will add to pressure from fox predation on threatened species. No control program will compensate the additional areas of forest which will see increased fox activity.
This project must not proceed as the risks are too high for the environment and the community.

Sir/Madam,

Please find attached my submission regarding the Narrabri Gas Project SSD6456. Please note that the attachments and a copy of this submission are on a USB Flash Drive which has been forwarded to you by Australia Post to the address given by your office.

I have not uploaded the Attachments via this website due to their size, 17.5GB, and number, 92.

Please contact me if you require clarification - 02 6793 2104.