Narrabri Gas

To Whom it may concern,

As a human being living on this planet I understand what it takes and means to live. Things are not always easy, nor are they always clear.
What I do know, no matter how much we defend or try to prove our points, we all live here. The way we treat our planet is the way we treat ourselves, and there is no getting away from this. When do we stop and reconsider what we are actually doing, not just a select few of us, but all of us?
We do not have unlimited resources and we are continually damaging and fragmenting the natural areas of or planet, and it is affecting all of our lives, including yours.
I know you have statistics, and I know you feel you have reason to go ahead with this project, and I am sure you feel completely righteous in your actions, but once this place is damaged, it is not coming back. If you truly love this country and the place you live, I hope that you will reconsider moving ahead with this project because it will cause irrevocable damage to the waters, the lands, the people, and all living things surrounding. And again I ask, when and where do we stop?? Are there not other alternatives that we can invest in that will guide us in a better, more sustainable future for ourselves? What if this was the new direction? All it takes is for one truly brave group of individuals to make a real and concrete change. For someone, somewhere to stand up and decide to do things differently.
CSG is not a way of the future, it diminishes our future and the health of our planet, which is a direct reflection of our own health, yours and mine.
I know that when I am surrounded by intact, healthy tracts of wilderness I feel so much better, and I am sure each and everyone of us would feel similar. We need our planet to be healthy and strong, so we can be the same. All of our futures are in this committees hands. It only takes one group of individuals to make a positive change and difference, and steer of collective future towards a better place. Please be those people and help keep our waters, our lands, and our families safe and healthy.

Kind regards,

Christopher

I am writing to object to the Narrabri Gas Project for the following reasons:
1. Coal seam gas extraction has been proven to adversely affect water tables there is no guarantee that this will not be the case in this instance.
2. The biodiversity of the Pilliga region will in no way benefit from this project, some degree of damage will certainly occur as infrastructure is installed.
3.The project will contribute toward continuing climate change and all of the impacts associated with it.
4. Too often Environmental Impact Statements are produced by companies merely as an exercise to justify their projects, once the project is underway there is no enforcement of the EIS conditions and the health of environmental systems is sacrificed in pursuit of operational expediency and pursuit of profit.

My concerns are for the risk of environmental damage, in particular to our water supplies, and the disregard and lack of respect shown for Aboriginal sacred sites and local communities.

Many people from all walks of life have come together to oppose this project with a sense of urgency. I am one of them.

Clean water and renewable energy are the currency of the future. This proposal reeks of an unsustainable past that can't continue in the light of present day knowledge.

The following summary further outlines key concerns -


The lack of detail: Santos' EIS is very short on detail. It does not provide maps indicating where these 850 wells and the lines and infrastructure that run between and around them will go. Santos is seeking a blank cheque consent for this gasfield on the promise that it will decide where the wells will go afterward using a "Field Development Protocol." No project has ever been assessed this way before in NSW and the constraints Santos propose are weak and subject to change later on. This is not an appropriate way to assess the largest development project ever undertaken under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act and the Government must insist that Santos release details to the public about the placement of its wells, pipelines and some other infrastructure.

There's no justification: The significant harm on the social, environmental and economic values of the Narrabri Shire and New South Wales that this project will inflict needs to be weighed against the economic justification for the project, but there is no such economic justification. Santos is one of several large gas companies that threw the east coast gas market and the industries that rely on it into turmoil by opening up CSG fields in Queensland and contracting to sell more gas than those fields can produce to overseas customers. They drove up the price of gas and are plundering supplies previously available to manufacturers and power stations.
The gas produced at Narrabri might be as little as 4.9% of the volume contracted for sale out of Gladstone. It's not going to bring down prices. In fact, it will force prices up, because unconventional gas like CSG is so expensive to produce and yields are so low. Research undertaken by gas company AGL shows that gas from the Pilliga would be the most expensive gas of anywhere in the current east coast gas market. The number of jobs the project will support once the construction is over is just 145. Weighed against damage to the land, and the Great Artesian Basin, this makes no sense. We need sustainable jobs, not plunder for profit.
Groundwater and the Great Artesian Basin: Santos' project is expected to remove 37.5GL of groundwater over the life of the gasfield, mostly in the early years. The coal seam needs to be dewatered to release the gas, but this aquifer lies beneath the Pilliga Sandstone, part of the Great Artesian Basin recharge. Santos' EIS admits that the project will result in a loss of water from the GAB recharge aquifer over time. CSG in Queensland has drawn down GAB aquifers already. We can't afford to risk this crucial resource.
Salt: The water removed from the ground by Santos will be treated, but this creates another problem: what to do with the salt? Peak salt production at Narrabri CSG will be 115 tonnes per day, or two and a half B-double truckloads per day. In the peak year, this would mean the creation of 41,900 tonnes of salt for disposal, which Santos says will take place in landfill.
Cultural heritage and the Pilliga: The Pilliga is a spiritual, cultural and social icon for Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people. Fragmentation and industrialisation cuts people off from their heritage and connection to country.
Biodiversity and the Pilliga: The Pilliga is also the largest temperate woodland in New South Wales. Santos propose clearing nearly 1,000ha of the Pilliga, including habitat for critically endangered Regent honeyeater and for koalas, which are already in decline in the Pilliga. Spread across the whole forest, this clearing will fragment much larger areas of habitat. The gasfield will clear breeding habitat for Pilliga Mouse, which lives nowhere else, and breeding habitat for other wildlife. It will fragment and degrade the forest. Without specific information about where the wells and lines will be located, a proper ecological impact assessment can't be completed. Regardless, the Pilliga is a cherished natural and cultural icon and must be protected from becoming an industrial gasfield.
Social and health impacts: Santos' social impact assessment is three years old and utterly inadequate. The compendium of health studies produced by the Concerned Health
Professionals of New York shows mounting evidence for health damage by unconventional gas operations, including water contamination and respiratory illness. The Government must insist that Santos conduct a proper health impact assessment including modelling exposure pathways, reviewing literature and engagement with the Narrabri community. In Narrabri, this project will have negative impacts on cost-of-living, the labour and housing markets. The latter is cited in as a benefit of the project but it will not benefit low-income renters. The effect of the project on cost-of-living in the Shire needs to be modelled, assessed and considered, as do the labour dynamics of the project. The project entirely surrounds Yarrie Lake, and Santos propose that wells might come as close as 200m from the Lake.
Air quality: The air quality assessment fails to include health-damaging fine particulate pollution with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (known as PM2.5). With diesel generators at each well pad and at the water treatment and gas compression plants, there will be significant PM2.5 emissions. The air quality assessment and greenhouse section also fail to model the likely substantial escape of fugitive methane emissions.
Dark sky: light pollution from flares, compressor stations and the water treatment plant will ruin the dark sky needed by the internationally renowned Siding Spring Observatory.
Climate change: recent research by the Melbourne Energy Institute shows that Australia may be dramatically under-estimating the fugitive methane emissions from unconventional gas, including coal seam gas. It's not needed or useful as a source of energy: we have the technology we need to replace gas with renewable energy sources.

The Pilliga is important historically, environmentally and culturally. It forms a part of the very fabric of early white settlement in north-western NSW, as well as having significance for the Kamilaroi people. It contains unique flora and a wildlife habitat that can never be replaced once gone. Everyone should read Eric Rolls, A Million Wild Acres, and then decide if we should just sit back and let this forest like no other be destroyed.

I am submitting a complete objection to CSG Mining in the Pilliga / Great Artisian Basin.

When will the Government put the Health of its People and Its environment and water ahead of large scale dangerous projects that they are only using as a large revenue stream.

Surely any human in their right mind and heart can cleasrly see, even without evidence or precedence that this process is so very destructive to the health of everyone and everything associated with it .

I dont hold any strong political ties, I am just a human being who values health over money. We are an abundant country and I want us to make it remain that way.

#csgfree

I find it very discerning that the government of the people consort with large companies with the premis of good fortune for all, when in most cases it's just another money making get rich quick attitude that will eventually damage not only the company but entire generations to come. Where is the foresight! Who will benefit at the expense of: our land; animals; water; air quality; eventually you and me and ours.

There is already evidence of devistating effects of these types of projects. Let's leave Narrabri off the list of 'lands devastated by greedy humans'.

I strongly object to this application as I believe it threatens local wildlife and poses a risk to the groundwater in the area. The traditional custodians of the land, the Gamilaraay people, are strongly opposed to this development, as are a great majority of the local community. I believe it would be a crime to give this application the go ahead and urge the NSW government to reject the application and protect the Pilliga.

CSG development in the Pillaga region should be halted.
The danger to the aquifers and the recharge region of the Great Artesian Basin is too great to ignore the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE of development approval.
This development is in no way sustainable. It benefits only a few in the short term and none past a few years profits and offset taxes...
Please rescind approval for this project.
Regards
Warwick Law

1. The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Australian Basin--Australia's largest groundwater aquifer
The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to our two most precious water resources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. The area of the Great Artesian Basin with the highest recharge rates is almost entirely contained within the Pilliga East forest. In a worst-case scenario, the water removed for CSG extraction could reduce water pressure in the recharge areas--potentially stopping the free flow of waters to the surface at springs and bores across the whole Great Artesian Basin.¹

Creeks in the Pilliga run into the Namoi River--a part of the Murray Darling Basin. This system is vulnerable to contamination from drilling fluid spills and the salty treated water produced from the proposed 850 wells.

2. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed
There are hundreds of cultural sites as well as songlines and stories connecting the Gamilaraay to the forest and to the groundwater beneath. Gamilaraay people are deeply involved in the battle against CSG, and have told Santos they do not want their country sacrificed for a coal seam gas field.

3. Farmers and other local community reject the project
Extensive community surveys have shown an average of 96% opposition to CSG. This stretches across a massive 3.2 million hectares of country surrounding the Pilliga forest, including 99 communities. Hundreds of farmers have participated in protest actions unlike any previously seen in the region.

4. The Narrabri Gas Project has a long history of spills and leaks of toxic CSG water--Santos cannot be trusted to manage the project safely
Santos has already contaminated a freshwater aquifer in the Pilliga with uranium at levels 20 times higher than safe drinking water guidelines, as well as lead, aluminium, arsenic and barium². In addition, there have been over 20 reported spills and leaks of toxic CSG water from storage ponds, pipes and well heads. Santos cannot be trusted.

5. The Pilliga is a haven for threatened wildlife
The Pilliga is one of 15 nationally listed `biodiversity hotspots' and is vital to the survival of threatened species like the Koala, Spotted-tailed Quoll, Black-striped Wallaby, Eastern Pygmy-possum, Pilliga Mouse and South-eastern Long-eared Bat. The forest is home to over 200 bird species and is internationally recognised as an Important Bird Area². The Santos gasfield would fragment 95,000 hectares of the Pilliga with well pads, roads, and water and gas pipelines--damaging vital habitat and threatening the survival of endangered species.

6. Coal seam gas fuels dangerous climate change
Methane is by far the major component of natural gas, and is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO². CSG fields contribute to climate change through the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas.

7. Human health is compromised by coal seam gas
A range of hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds can be released into the air from coal seam gas operations, including flaring of gas wells. The effects of volatile organic compounds vary, but can cause eye, nose and airway irritation, headache, nausea, dizziness and loss of coordination⁴. These impacts have been documented in human populations nearby to existing gasfields in Queensland, Sydney and in America.

8. The nation's premier optical astronomical observatory is at risk
The Siding Springs Observatory, situated in the Warrumbungles and adjacent to the Pilliga, is under threat from the Narrabri Gas Project due to light and dust pollution⁵. The area has been internationally recognised as a `dark sky park'⁶ and the 50m high gas flares proposed by Santos threaten the viability of the facility.

9. Thousands of tonnes of salt waste will result from the project
Santos has no solution for disposing of the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of salt that will be produced. Between 17,000 and 42,000 tonnes of salt waste would be produced each year. This industry would leave a toxic legacy in NSW.

10. Risk of fires would increase throughout the Pilliga's tinder-box conditions
Methane flare stacks up to 50m high would be running day and night, even on total fire ban days. The Pilliga is prone to severe bushfires. The project would increase ignition sources as well as extracting, transporting and storing a highly flammable gas right within this extremely fire-prone forest.

My objections to the plan are that the area is a safe haven for threatened species, coal seam gas fuels climate change, the proposed activity includes a risk to healthy water, traditional indigenous owners are opposed to the proposed action and it is understood that proposed action will increase risks of bushfires. Any one of these concerns should be enough to decline the pla. Combined, they should be perceived at overwhelming reasons for opposing it in any legal and policy framework that is purported to involve a balance of development and conservation. While I live some distance from the area, I recognise the interconnected dynamic of nature and economics, and oppose this development accordingly.

I object to the proposal because it will put at risk the clean water supply in the area.

It is of huge importance to protect our clean water against contamination from coat seam gas mining activities. The Great Artesian Basin and the Murray Darling Basin are vital resources that should not be put at risk for short term profits of the mining industry. These are resources that should be protected at all costs from being contaminated. Until independent research proves that there will be no damage or risk to these resources by CSG mining, the government of Australia should stand in opposition to any further activity mining or otherwise that would threaten these water resources. These resources are not renewable resources and once contaminated put at risk the future of our states agricultural industries as well as our native flora and fauna.

There are many stakeholders whose voices should be given greater weight if than the mining companies interests. The primary stakeholders in any discussion about the viability of expanding CCG mining in the Piliga area are the people of Australia and the communities that will be effected by such a large project. It is the job and duty of our elected officials to firstly protect the rights and interests of the Australian people and their right to have access to clean water now and in the future.

I reiterate:
I am opposed to the expansion of the PIliga Gas fields. It is an action that will threaten the clean water supply of our state and until there is irrefutable evidence provided by independent research to prove otherwise it is the duty of our elected officials to reject CSG expansion in the Piliga area. .

As a NSW native and long-time resident, I urge you not to approve an application from a dying industry that will pollute our water, trample on native title rights, and be of no lasting benefit to NSW

Here are 5 reasons to oppose the Pilliga CSG project:

1. It risks our clean water - the most precious resource for all life
The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to our two most precious water resources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. The area of the Great Artesian Basin with the highest recharge rates is almost entirely contained within the Pilliga East forest.

2. It is safehaven for threatened wildlife
The Pilliga is on ne of 15 nationally listed `biodiversity hotspots' and is vital to the survival of threatened species like the koala, spotted-tailed quoll, black-striped wallaby, eastern pygmy-possum, pilliga mouse and south-eastern long-eared Bat.

3. Coal seam gas fuels dangerous climate change
Methane is by far the major component of natural gas, and is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO². CSG fields contribute to climate change through the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas.

4. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed
There are hundreds of cultural sites as well as songlines and stories connecting the Gamilaraay to the forest and to the groundwater beneath. Gamilaraay people are deeply involved in the battle against CSG, and have told Santos they do not want their country sacrificed for a coal seam gas field.

5. Bushfire risk will rise
Methane flare stacks up to 50m high would be running day and night, even on total fire ban days. The Pilliga is already prone to severe bushfires, this project will increase the risk of ignition.

I object to the current proposal and further urge the government to end Coal Seam Gas Mining. The Pilliga coal seam gas project is a disaster for our climate, local bushland and wildlife and for the Traditional Owners and farmers who call the region home.

Environmental, scientific and cultural information show that gas mining undermines our basic rights to clean water and nutritional food and breaches a number of international laws that relate to indigenous rights.

The degradation and irreversible damage to what is widely acknowledged as the largest remaining temperate woodland in Eastern Australia is inconsistent with efforts to limit climate change and hence responsible government.

Public opinion is against gas mining and in favour of renewable sources of energy and elected governments are bound to represent this public.

Sincerely

Karen Kennedy

As a concerned resident of NSW, I wish to submit my reasons for opposing the Pilliga CSG Project.

Although I do not reside in the Pilliga region, I have travelled through it and, having grown up on a citrus orchard on the Central Coast (long before it became an extension of the city of Sydney), and now having retired to a rural lifestyle in the Hunter Valley, am well aware of the damage that follows extensive development of natural resources without adequate restraint. To drive through our once beautiful rural Hunter Valley gives adequate reason to check the reasoning behind any planned development.

The following points, 1 - 5, have been well documented by those who belong to the 'Green' and nature lovers' movements - neither of which am I a member.

1. The proposed area is safehaven for threatened wildlife
The Pilliga is one of 15 nationally listed `biodiversity hotspots' and is vital to the survival of threatened species like the koala, spotted-tailed quoll, black-striped wallaby, eastern pygmy-possum, pilliga mouse and south-eastern long-eared Bat.

2. Although there is still debate on the idea of climate change, coal seam gas has to be recognised as an added fuel to any climate change
Methane is by far the major component of natural gas, and is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO². CSG fields therefore contribute to climate change through the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas.

3. It risks our clean water - look at what has been well documented as having occurred in Qld when CSG fields have been developed . Natural water reserves have been ruined for stock and human use.

In our dry nation, we MUST make every effort to preserve the most valuable of our natural resources, water
The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to our two most precious water sources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. The area of the Great Artesian Basin with the highest recharge rates is almost entirely contained within the Pilliga East forest.

4. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed
There are hundreds of cultural sites as well as songlines and stories connecting the Gamilaraay to the forest and to the groundwater beneath. Gamilaraay people are deeply involved in the battle against CSG, and have told Santos they do not want their country sacrificed for a coal seam gas field.

5. Bushfire risk will rise
Methane flare stacks up to 50m high would be running day and night, even on total fire ban days. The Pilliga is already prone to severe bushfires, this project will increase the risk of ignition.

6. With the evident extremes of this past summer here in Aus, and any reasonable research into the field of coal seam gas projects in other areas and countries, notably USA, and the resulting environmental damage and dangers threatening those living nearby, it doesn't take a scientific degree to see that plans to drill for CSG in the Pilliga region of our state poses too great a threat to our state and nation.

I call on the NSW Government to cease all further development of CSG in the Pilliga region of NSW.

I think the evidence is now very clear that the wealth and future of Australia lies firmly in agriculture. The huge increase in demand in developing countries combined with the collapse of water systems and topsoil erosion means the need for food across the world will increase dramatically. Australia must look to the future, rather than the past. CSG has very significant deleterious effects. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently indicated that CSG activities in the US have contributed to an increase in the number of earth tremors, in areas historically very stable. The process diverts water from the great Artesian basis, which we completely rely on for agriculture and in fact life in Australia.

The CSG process has proven and significant negative impacts on public health in the areas in which it operates, the activity in Narrabri will produce tens of thousands of tonnes of salts and heavy metals and there is no safe disposal plan for these. Communities are destroyed, cultural heritage is lost and the rights of citizens in the local area are being trampled.

This must be stopped and our energies directed on a positive and innovative future for the nation must be pursued.

I object to the Pilliga coal seam gas project as follows:

1. It is safehaven for threatened wildlife
The Pilliga is one of 15 nationally listed `biodiversity hotspots' and is vital to the survival of threatened species like the koala, spotted-tailed quoll, black-striped wallaby, eastern pygmy-possum, pilliga mouse and south-eastern long-eared Bat.

2. Coal seam gas fuels dangerous climate change
Methane is by far the major component of natural gas, and is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO². CSG fields contribute to climate change through the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas.

3. It risks our clean water
The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to our two most precious water resources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. The area of the Great Artesian Basin with the highest recharge rates is almost entirely contained within the Pilliga East forest.

4. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed
There are hundreds of cultural sites as well as songlines and stories connecting the Gamilaraay to the forest and to the groundwater beneath. Gamilaraay people are deeply involved in the battle against CSG, and have told Santos they do not want their country sacrificed for a coal seam gas field.

5. Bushfire risk will rise
Methane flare stacks up to 50m high would be running day and night, even on total fire ban days. The Pilliga is already prone to severe bushfires, this project will increase the risk of ignition.

I am strongly opposed to the mining of coal seam gas in the Piliga forest.
Coal Seam Gas (CSG) mining has been shown to be untrustworthy for many reasons, and even when strict provisions are put on the miner, they are not adequately monitored, measured, checked, so that leakages and damage go unchecked for years.
It has been demonstrated that CSG mining is a real risk to water supplies, and any problems at the Narrabri gasfield will lead to damage in the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray Darling Basin. To damage the Great Artesian basin, which is a real threat, would be catastrophic. No amount of promises on the part of companies can guarantee damage will not occur as it is inherent in the process of CSG mining itself.
In addition to that, it has been demonstrated that CSG extraction leaks methan gas, which is a huge contributor to climate change.
Bushfire is another high level risk to this important forest region, as fire stacks up to 50m high will be running day and night, even on total fire ban days. the Piliga is already prone to bushfires, it doesn't need this added element.
At this point the governements of Australia have no guarantee that this gas will be used for domestic consumption, which means Australia gains very little out of this mining except the risk and the clean up fees.

It will extract over 35 billion litres of toxic groundwater, much of it in the first five years. This water will be treated and in the early years will generate tens of thousands of tonnes of salt, for which there is no safe disposal plan.
It will clear close to 1,000 hectares of the Pilliga Forest, fragmenting the largest temperate woodland in New South Wales, home to unique wildlife.
It will cause significant diversion of water from a recharge aquifer of the Great Artesian Basin, which is a water resource relied upon by rural communities across western NSW.

I object it because this project will destroy prime agricultural land and threatens the great Artisan basin.