Narrabri Gas

I wish to make a submission in opposition to Santos' Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project.
This project represents an unacceptably high risk to:
- precious water and farming resources. I note Santos' appalling record of contaminating a freshwater aquifier in the Pilliga with uranium, lead, aluminium and arsenic, and long history of spills and leaks of toxic CSG water; also that this project would result in thousands of tonnes of salt waste
- human health: coal seam gas operations (including flaring of gas wells) release a range of hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds which pose human health risks.
- threatened Australian wildlife - through contamination and destruction of species' habitats
it would also contribute to climate change, as methane - a potent greenhouse gas - is leaked from CSG fields during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas.
As a medical doctor and the mother of two small children, I am greatly concerned by the high risks that this project poses for the environment, our water and farming resources, and to human health. I therefore strongly object to the proposal.

Stop this insanity NOW! CSG drilling is very destructive.

I object to the Narrabri Gas Project:
Here is the details as to why I object.
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.

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.

I oppose the entire extraction process of CSG. It is environmentally disastrous to water, both groundwater and surface water. It is therefore disastrous to life. I like life. You are alive - yes you who is reading this submission. You are alive. Do you like life? CSG poisons water - Water is life.

Many trips through the Pilliga Forest during my childhood prompt me to express my deep concerns for the safety of the Pilliga forest overall - not just the water contained in the project area. Of course you realise that water flows away from a project area - it flows everywhere. Nature does not put boundaries on its primary elements. Whatever damage occurs to the environment of Eastern Australia's last temperate forest by the operation of the 'Narrabri Gas Project' (whether that be CSG fracking, vegetation removal & all associated community segregation caused by well and pipe construction, well and pipe leakages, tailing dam failures - which happen all the time in all extraction projects and which have already occurred during the exploration phase in the Pilliga,) will far outweigh the value of the gas extracted. Santos has no right to cause any of this damage in the Pilliga Forest or in any location.

I oppose the Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga Forest for the following particular reasons:

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. Re-read the wording above please. The word 'vital' means absolutely necessary, essential'. What more really needs to be said about the government's responsibility of care to life in the Pilliga forest region.

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. An approval of this project goes against the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which Australia is a signatory to. Does Santos have the right to require the NSW Government to break international legal obligations? If so then there is something seriously unbalanced in the relationship between the NSW Government and Santos.

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. I repeat my opening statement of 'Water is Life'. Eastern Australia's largest recharge rate is connected to the Pilliga East forest. Water is Life. Life is a shared experience. It is NOT owned by a corporation that utilizes archaic practices and toxic chemicals to poison water in order to make money. Water is life.

4. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed. I support their stand against the Narrabri Gas Project all the way. There are hundreds of cultural sites as well as songlines and stories connecting the Gamilaraay to the forest and to the groundwater beneath. This is something most NSW Government employees are aware of however most people of NSW are unable to comprehend. The connection to country experienced by all First Nations people is a natural part of their life. 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. This is their country. We all live on Aboriginal land, Gamilaraay have Traditional ownership of the Pilliga Forest. Santos is a business organisation, it has no rights here. There is no comparison in the area of rights other than those created by legislation written by a government partaking in illegal colonial rule of Australia. Santos has no rights to destroy the lands of the people who are First Nations Traditional owners and responsible for the health and wellbeing of those lands under Earth Lore.

5. Bushfire risk will rise. This is the stupid and idiotic part of this gas project. It is sited in a densely populated eucalyptus forest.
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. Taxpayer dollars totalling hundreds of thousands are spent yearly on fire fighting already within the Pilliga forest. This project will exponentially increase the risk of ignition and on a continual basis. Are Santos so stupid and/or greed-based that they believe they won't cause bushfires continuously throughout the length of this project? The government, in its consideration of the Narrabri Gas Project, has duty of care to the people, to the vegetation communities, to the water and to the animal life - whether wildlife or domestic animals. This includes all regions connected to the Pilliga Forest. Duty of care requires careful and considerate approach toward fire risk for all projects of all types. The plan to create gas wells in the Pilliga East forest is not responsible. In fact it is insane.

I request the Department reject this proposal on all grounds noted above. I also raise the issue of corporate insanity. Santos is a corporate company with a belief it has the right to flatten, poison, kill, burn and destroy Eastern Australia's only remaining temperate forest. They have no right to do this. Their management and operational structure uses methods of extraction with excessively high water pollution and fire potential and certainty. The project is insanity itself. Reject this proposal.

I urge the NSW Government to reject this project as there are numerous issues that have not been addressed in Santos' proposal.

To whom it may concern,

It is with great concern that I submit a personal objection to the Narrabri Gas project. With more and more information coming out worldwide on the damaging effects of this style of mining inlcuding the under reported methane emissions and large amounts of waste products including 500,000 tonnes of salt from this project along, these very real threats will change the incredible bio diversity of the Pilliga Region forever. The threat to farmland and most importantly the water table that famers rely on so heavily could be polluted forever. The impact to ongoing farming resources is not worth it for a one off "gas grab" that will not improve nor heavily benefit the region. In a time when the effects of climate change are being felt more and more worldwide we need to moving more towards renewable energy options not damaing our precious environment for outdated fossil fuels and putting our food bowls and associated water tables at unnecessary risk.

Ultimately very few people benefit from the gas extracted from these mines yet the damage being done is proving to be more and more harmful to these local communities and the World as a whole.

It is time for our decisions on mining to take into consideration the protection of farmland, water tables and old growth forests as the first priority and mining as a distant second. We cannot eat or drink gas yet the biggest opportunity for Australia in the future is to be the food bowl to Asia and the World. If we do not manage our farmland and associated resources wisely then we will struggle to be the food bowl for Australia.

I trust you can see the necessity for protecting our environment and our farmers and will do what it takes to keep our water clean and our food and livestock uncontaminated by pollutants caused by the mining of the Pilliga Region.

Your sincerely,

Wendy Gregory

Sir/Madam
I object in the strongest possible terms to the Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project. I live in Sydney and whenever possible I buy products, including fresh food grown and produced in Australia. I know that the Liverpool plains in NSW is a prime resource for agricultural products.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS TO OUR COUNTRY?
The Santos Company has a deficient submission- failing to specify the exact locations of its wells, pipelines and other infrastructure.
Research on similar projects in America has shown the negative effects of mining coal seam gas to be harmful to ground water supplies, to the natural environment , the health of the people living near the wells, and biodiversity of flora and fauna.
AUSTRALIA IS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES ABLE TO FEED ITS PEOPLE WITH PRODUCTS GROWN AND PRODUCED HERE.
We do not need coal seam gas. We have renewable energy resources.
The benefits claimed may be real- BUT THE NEGATIVE AND PERMANENT EFFECTS FAR OUTWEIGH THE BENEFITS.
Please do the right thing by Australia and Australian people by stopping this Project.

The great Artesian Basin is made up of layers of porous and then watertight rock layers, forming in effect a number of basins, one inside the other. The very edges of this "stack" of bowl like basins is a very narrow perimeter area, notably in the Pilliga area. This edge strip is the only access for surface water to seep into the lower levels. It is therefore a VERY slow accretion process. Please check this natural inflow against the amount of water to be pumped out for mining! water that is essential to keep enough headwater in the system to allow bore water to flow hundreds of miles away on cattle properties. Most people assume that the vast area of the underground reserve is charged by the huge surface area covering the artesian basin. This wilful ignorance should be corrected.

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.

Executive Director, Resource Assessments
Department of Planning and Environment
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to object to the Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project
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.

It's time we put a stop to plundering our natural resources for energy and building greater capacity from our renewable sources of energy with storage capacity. No wouldn't that be a wonderful idea!

As a mother and grandmother, I feel that it is of paramount importance, to our current population and the generations that will follow us, to protect our vital water resources, the natural environment that supports those resources and the primary producers who depend on the supply of unpolluted water to provide good quality produce to the Australian people as well as contributing to our country's economy.

The sandstone under the Pillaga is a vital re-charge area for the Great Artesian Basin and creeks there provide clean water to the Murray Darling Basin. These water resources are vital to the farming communities throughout the south-east and inland Australia.

To allow Santos to undermine these natural resources with hundreds of coal seam gas wells is a threat to our irreplaceable groundwater and all those who rely on it.

Apart from the threat of polluting our vital water resources, the proposed project also threatens the Pilliga forest, the largest intact woodland in eastern Australia and its unique ecology which shelters multiple nationally listed and state-listed threatened species.

NSW Government - listen to the community and all those around Australia, like myself, who have listened to their concerns and stand with them in opposing Santos's proposed CSG project.

I am not a farmer but a concerned individual. I am flabbergasted that this enormous gas project has been approved by the government. I can see from maps of the proposed wells that a huge part of the best agricultural land of the state will be cleared and made into a wasteland just for gas. The salt waste will utterly destroy farmland and the priceless water tables underground most probably destroyed. The water basin doesn't just affect the Narrabri area but vast areas of Australia.
With climate change already making an impact on our nation and hotter weather already very real, we must protect all the water we have. These gas wells are no answer to climate change. The money must go into renewable energy and mitigation projects. A
Apart from those reasons there is the heritage and cultural legacy that will be destroyed. Government and Santos is looking at short term solutions. Please start listening to the farmers and residents of the regions affected. Don't let Santos drill for gas.

Please see attached

This project should not be approved

This project, if approved, would:
1. Extract over 35 billion litres of salt laden groundwater, much of it in the first five years. This water will be treated and will generate almost 500,000 tonnes of salt waste, for which there is no safe disposal plan.
2. Clear close to 1,000 hectares of the Pilliga Forest, fragmenting the largest temperate woodland in New South Wales, home to unique wildlife.
3. Drill through a recharge aquifer of the Great Artesian Basin and draw water down from a water resource relied upon by rural communities across western NSW.
4. Lead to large deliberate and emissions of methane from venting and leakage, adding to climate change.

The project is not justified: Santos' own coal seam gas export activities in Queensland have caused gas prices to rise and supply to become unpredictable.

NSW should respond to this by investing in more reliable and ultimately cheaper renewable energy, not by letting Santos inflict more environmental, social and economic harm.

It will cause economic upheaval in Narrabri and put agricultural industries at risk, as well as causing light pollution that will ruin the dark night sky needed by the internationally renowned Siding Spring Observatory.

Coal seam gas is harmful to health. Neither the NSW Government nor Santos have investigated or dealt with the serious health effects of coal seam gas now appearing in peer-reviewed research in the United States.

I urge the Government to reject this project and make the Great Artesian Basin recharge off-limits to gas mining.

Save our beautiful Pilliga. Save or water. Save our wildlife including the endangered wildlife found in the forest. Save the farmers. Save our health. Support the Gamularaay Traditional Custodians and the communities surrounding Pilliga. There are so many reasons not to bore csg wells so end this proposal and get out! No. No. No. I object.

Mother Earth does.nt need to be pulled apart awful.

I very much object to Santos drilling for gas or anything else.

As a member of the youth population of Australia, I am very against the proposed Narrabri Gas Project. As a global community we need to be looking towards a 100% sustainable energy future and we cannot tolerate continued investment into dirty, limited power sources.

Not only this, but the Pilliga is an important ecological site, listed as one of the 15 national 'biodiversity hotspots' and vital to the survival of threatened species, such as the iconic koala, spotted-tailed quoll, black-striped wallaby, eastern pygmy-possum, pilliga mouse and south-eastern long-eared Bat.

Coal seam gas is also a major contributor to methane levels, through leakage during production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas. Methane is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO² and thus has immense impacts on global warming. Not only this but 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.

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.

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. It is time to stop disrespecting and destroying Indigenous culture, heritage and land.

There has been enough irreversible damage done to Australia's natural world, we cannot afford to increase the risk, increase the destruction, from some has that will only last so long.

Drilling and extracting around any area sensitive to Artesian Water is dangerous for the future of our country.

After knowing personally people living in the Chinchilla region and learning of the poisons used to extract gas and contamination of groundwater it is irresponsible for any permits to be issues to allow drilling for gas using fracking be allowed in the sensitive Pilbara area.

The Narrabri Gas Project is something I have to object to with all the force of my lone voting voice. I have recently returned to Australia where I was raised in NSW, after living for many years in the USA. There I watched in horror as CSG (AKA `Fracking') pretty much took over the US mainland. Gradually earthquakes began to shake the land with frightening regularity in places where none had ever occurred before. And this has now been proven to be a side effect of this particular industrial nightmare. I watched as groundwater, rivers, lakes and streams became flammable and families and communities lost their homes and livelihoods and as children sickened and farms became unworkable through toxicity of water, air and land.
As I read of the dangers this would pose to the Great Artesian Basin in the state where I was raised and educated, I can hardly believe it. Would you really consider endangering water in a country so dry that only last summer NSW declared fire danger to be at a catastrophic level?
The Murray Darling Basin is a place where a woman i knew took three inch baths all her life as there was never water to spare for more. Would you even consider adding the dangers of contamination to the challenges that farmers and families already face there constantly?
I read that the Traditional custodians of the land are completely opposed to this. As I am. As an immigrant of over 50 years I have witnessed how little respect is given to the first people's wisdom and my late brother's grandchildren are the poorer for this. Will you now listen to the those people and preserve this part of what remains of a uniquely ancient culture?
There is no record to suggest that Santos is to be trusted environmentally. Spills and leaks of Toxic water.
TOXIC WATER? That one can light with a match?
That is not water; that is poison that will destroy the habitat of future generations, human and animal. Short term gain for long term loss is never a wise or safe economical choice.
I have lived in Hawaii, one of the world's tourist havens and yet there the forests and mountains were virtually empty of birdsong. Hawaii is known to ecologists as `the ecological killing fields'. Would you gain such a dark distinction for NSW? This project is in an area of world renowned bird significance. And the four-footed wildlife is precious and loved by school children country wide. Much of it is threatened already. Everywhere that the land is fragmented by roads or wells, wildlife suffers. Loss of habitat is the leading cause of extinction.
I read that this area is a `tinderbox'I urge you to protect and conserve every drop of decent water it has. We as a country can by no means afford dangerously inflammable industry in fire prone bush land. Do you remember the bush-fires in Victoria some years back? The complete loss of the town of Dunally in Tasmania in 2013? No one can control these fires. Certainly not Santos.
I do not know what verb to use to tell you how important it is to me: I ask, request, beg, implore, demand, COMMAND! that you and all considering this project from hell immediately refuse permitting and turn your sights to renewable clean energy. Australia is a land that has more sun than it can handle. It does not have anything like enough water to waste. I read recently that the entire energy requirement of the US (the hungriest of all energy gluttons on earth) could be handled with 3 million acres of solar panels now that solar energy storage is more viable.. How effortless then would it be for Australia to cover its own energy needs and have plenty to spare or sell by turning parts of its massive inland deserts into gigantic solar fields?
Now is the time for great change. We cannot afford to continue warming our planet. And you who are reading this are in a position to help literally keep this a planet a home worth living on for your children
Thank you for your attention and time

Jaiia J Earthschild