Narrabri Gas

I object to the Narrabri Gas Project. I do not believe there is a justifiable need for the project; and I certainly do not believe there is reason to take such grave environmental, social, cultural, and economic risks by entering into further CSG plans especially considering there are economically sound, environmentally responsible, alternatives to be invested in.

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.

Our country's water supply is our lifeline and it concerns us greatly that this could be put at risk. Please don't give this project approval. Its not worth risking our water supply.

please protect the land for my grandchildren and their descendants by rejecting this proposal to make a quick profit for overseas investors

I think it's time local, state and federal governments started to think ahead and not about the gaining the immediate dollar. They need to stop prime produce land being sold to wealthy consortiums and reflect on what it will mean to all of us 10-15 years down the track.

As a young married man, I wish to have children in the coming years.

My biggest concern for the future of my children is what their natural world, on which we all rely, will be like - and how it may have changed by the time they reach adulthood and have children of their own.

Currently, the world is on a trajectory to reach 5C of global warming by 2100. The Paris climate summit agreed that in order to live in a safe and habitable climate for people on Earth, we need to keep this below 1.5C.

I believe the project to drill for gas in the Pilliga is yet another step in the wrong direction - numerous reports have recently found that methane leakage from natural gas wells is a widespread and persistent problem. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps about 72 times more heat than carbon dioxide. If we want to transition to a low carbon economy for the good of the world, this can not be allowed to continue.

There have also been numerous cases of methane, and many other pollutants, leakage into the surrounding water supply of unconventional gas mining - this has already happened in the Pilliga. Water is an extremely valuable resource in the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and to risk our largest groundwater aquifer, the Great Artesian Basin, is folly of the highest order.

I've experienced water pollution via unconventional gas first hand - before I knew what it was and knew the risks involved. I spent some time living in Roma, Qld. One of the first places where fracking was introduced.

One of the very first things I noticed when I moved there was the smell and texture of the water. The shower water smelled like rotten eggs, and the water left an almost oily sheen on my skin. We couldn't drink it from the tap as it tasted foul, and many in the town felt the same way. The water had been polluted by the nearby gas plant, as has happened countless times in the US.
That this isn't a national scandal confounds me.

The local community in Narrabri also rejects this proposal - especially the farmers and indigenous groups of the area - the Gamilaraay.

Although I don't live in the area, I believe it is about time we started listening to those who rely directly on the land for both sustenance and cultural heritage. We have long neglected and mistreated these people, and the welfare of those affects the welfare of all of us. To build a fairer and more equal Australia, we need to stop prioritising the needs of big business over that of indigenous groups.

Australia is also one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, yet we hold the number 1 spot for mammal extinction worldwide. Many mammals in Australia, such as brush-tailed bettongs, koalas, quolls, mountain pygmy possums and leadbeaters possums - which are all uniquely Australian might I add, have been massively impacted by the fragmenting of their habitats. We now only have 10% of our forest left from pre-European settlement, and what we have left is largely regrowth and fragmented.

To ensure the continued existence and famous biodiversity of our unique and wonderful marsupials (as well, of course, as the myriad bird and reptile species), we need to understand and protect our forests better.

Carving up and disconnecting important parts of ecosystems only exacerbates the issues faced by our wildlife.

It is for these reasons, and to ensure that my children and their children, and the children of everyone here (including yours!) can continue to enjoy the wonder and awe of the natural world in Australia. Let's start looking after it, and looking after ourselves.

Say no to the Narrabri Gas Project.

I am committed to protecting the land, the water and the air for present and future generations. I can't allow profits to come before what is right and what needs to be done. I submit that this mine is not in the best interests of the needs of the people on this planet and should not be given approval.

I object to this project and believe it should be rejected.

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 will also cause more trauma to the regional Aboriginal community because the area of impact is crucially important to the spiritual, cultural and social life of Gamilaraay people.

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.

Signed,

I would like the government to record my objection to this project.
Coal Seam Gas is a foolish undertaking with risks far greater than rewards. Twenty years ago I was a geology study at Syd Uni. I remember lecturers telling us that the extraction of coal seam gas was a theoretical possiblity, but so ludicrously dangerous that only a idiot would consider it. It disgusts me that our current NSW government is prepared to consider it.
CSG poses too great a risk to ground water to proceed. The community (the VOTING community) is vehemently opposed to CSG. The community wants clean, green energy solutions. They DON'T want Santos to profit from the destruction of our environment.
If the NSW govt had any commonsense, any morals, any respect for the environment, the traditional owners of the land, the views of the voting public, any courage to stand up against greedy corporations, and any enthusiasm for a clean future, they would reject this project and prohibit CSG in any location in NSW.

I oppose the Narrabri Gas Project for the reasons below.

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.
- See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.ZRxn7blU.dpuf

I am strongly opposed to Santos's Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga for the reasons listed below.


1. The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Australian Basin--Australia's largest groundwater aquifer
2. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed
3. Farmers and other local community reject the project
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
5. The Pilliga is a haven for threatened wildlife
6. Coal seam gas fuels dangerous climate change
7. Human health is compromised by coal seam gas
8. The nation's premier optical astronomical observatory is at risk
9. Thousands of tonnes of salt waste will result from the project
10. Risk of fires would increase throughout the Pilliga's tinder-box conditions

I strongly object to the proposed Narrabri Gas Project being developed, permitted or tolerated now and in our future in any shape and form.
The project would threaten, devalue, devitalise and destroy many ecosystems and cause the local extinction of many species of life not registered in currently orthodox surveys.
The project would add to the pollution of our air, of the soil, the ground water and aquifers.
Remediation after Gas extraction is unlikely to be effective, enforced or complete and on the basis of previously abandoned mining operations can be considered as farcical
Despite political assertions that we need more gas, the truth is that we don't. Instead we need to support, fund develop and commercialise a whole raft of existing and new power harnessing and generating technologies most of which involve principles expoused by Nikola Tesla.
Nikola Tesla as is each of us, is a multi-dimensional being and has re-incarnated currently as a young teenager. Nikola in spirit is able to communicate and help some of those of us with integrity, love and gratitude and more, design and create new power harnessing and generating technologies some of which are already available and known by the powers that be and military establishments and others that will become widely known and available for development around the globe within 3 years.
The Patents Offices have been used as a front for purloining and suppressing knowledge of many technologies that have the potential to free humanity from our currently enforced dependence on coal, gas and other petrochemicals with their highly destructive polluting unsustainable consequences on our global environments and many life forms with whom we share Earth. I challenge you and all those who read this to expose the deeds of the Patents Office and bring to full legal account all those behind them as criminals against humanity and nature. Similarly all those who have misused inventions to usurp power over people and countries.
On another them most of us have little awareness, concern, empathy and comprehension of how activities such as the proposed Narrabri Gas Project ADVERSELY interact with the physiology and consciousness of the living Being we refer to as Earth, Gaia, Terra, such as the buffering of tectonic plates, the circulation of aquifers and much more.
Australians should be long term intergenerational custodians of this magnificent land, Instead, up until now, we have witnessed wave after wave of destructive exploitation by both the mining and agricultural industries largely for the benefit of a relatively few large powerful corporations that have minimal concern and admit minimal responsibility for degrading and destroying so much of the land and other ecological systems upon which all of us eventually depend for life here on Earth.

I am appalled to hear that the Narrabri Gas Extract Project is even being considered. With over 35 billion litres of toxic groundwater planned to be extracted, much of it in the first five years, our natural water resources will be exploited when we could be created green energy options.. 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.

I object to the 1,000 hectares of the Pilliga Forest being cleared, 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.

It is not justified: SantosÂ' 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

Attn: Executive Director, Resource Assessments
Department of Planning and Environment
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001

This is a submission to the Narrabri Gas Project EIS.
I object to this project and believe it should be rejected.

If approved, this project will incur the following costs to the community:

1. Extract over 35 billion litres of salt laden groundwater. 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 almost 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 methane emissions from venting and leakage whether deliberate or accidental. In addition the fossil fuel emissions from earthmoving, transportation, pipeline construction, desalination and other processes will be significant will contribute significantly to the rate of dangerous climate change over its lifetime and beyond.
5. Leave behind a toxic legacy of 850 abandoned, deteriorating and unmonitored gas wells beneath 950 square kilometres of agricultural land and native habitat which will continue to compromise the environment for decades into the future.
6. Destroy existing relationships between the land and its custodians in the farming and Aboriginal communities in the ways that have been clearly demonstrated in Queensland and whereever large gas developments occur. Noise and light pollution from gasfield operations are incompatible with human habitation and will destroy the conditions which caused an astronomical observatory to be located in the area.
7. The 'benefits' of this project - the jobs, the property boom, the income for local businesses and the revenue for government - will last for 20 years - assuming its social licence survives the unfolding climate catastrophe around it. The benefits will flow to relatively few but the negatives described above will last much longer and the damage and cost will be felt by many more.


The costs described above cannot be imposed on the community just because a market currently exists for gas and it is a good short term money making exercise for Santos, some workers and the NSW government. There would have to be some larger, overriding public good to justify imposing such an inequity.

But no such reason exists. The cost of developing abundant, non-polluting energy resources is already below the cost of developing fossil fuel reserves such as coal and gas. Renewables can supply better returns for investors, sustainable jobs for workers in whole new industriies. Other ways can be found to replace the money from mining royalties and poker machine licences that is needed for government services. Most of all, these new industries will not damage the land, water and atmosphere that we and future generations rely on for our very survival.

Signed,

Yours sincerely,
Robert Garnsey
Annandale, NSW

The Pilliga is the last remaining native forest in Australia west of the Great Divide. It is home to 240 bird species including barking owls, turquoise parrots and many other declining species.
Please keep the integrity of this Australian jewel.
We need sustainable energy not energy that damages the land and water ways for ever.
We should be looking to countries like Germany and adopt innovative renewable energy practices.
Save the beautiful Pilliga region for the next generation and not squander our natural resources for short term gains.

I recently visited the Pilliga region and I was filled with great sadness that this beautiful area will be damaged by a Coal Seam Gas Field and future generations will not be able to experience the wonder.
I got to see many different forms of wildlife in their natural habitat while in the Pilliga, and if "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. " that will be a great loss to us all.

CSG gives off Methane when used. This is a known culprit in damage to the protective atmosphere of our Earth.
In addition it is very toxic to us, and other oxygen using fauna.
The method of extracting the gas is incredibly destructive to the precious UNREPLACEABLE structure of the earth's surface, not only the amazing grasslands, which have become an important food bowl for us all, but especially regarding our precious UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLIES.
I have been a landholder, grazing and cropping in that region, and know only too well the importance of these wonderful valuable assets we have,
Why are we sacrificing land belonging to ALL AUSTRALIANS for the sake of profit-making by foreign owned companies, or those greedy enough not to care about any others.
It never ceases to amaze me that politicians will back greedy mining 'experts' against all good advice by scientists, and those who have managed and understood the land for lifetimes.

SECRETARY PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT NSW
Level 22, 320 Pitt St, Sydney 2000
GPO Box 39, Sydney NSW 2001

RE- NARRABRI GAS PROJECT OBJECTION
Dear Sir, I have analysed Chapter 15 - Terrestrial Ecology Impact assessment of the Santos EIS and consider it is totally inadequate. I object to this Project on the grounds that terrestrial ecological impacts have not been adequately assessed and mitigated.

Following a review of Chapter 15 of the Narrabri Gas Project (NGP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a number of serious omissions within the assessment are evident, and several questions regarding the adequacy of the assessment remain unresolved, in particular:
* The adequacy of the methodology used to describe direct impacts is questionable. The lack of a development footprint by which impact could be measured according to `whole of government' guidelines gives uncertainty to the outcomes.
* Levels of indirect impact haven significantly under-estimated. Using fox predation as a measure, pre-mitigation levels of indirect impact should be at least doubled in magnitude, based on available evidence.
* Survey effort for some key fauna species appears to be deficient and would have adversely affected the ability of the EIS to adequately account some species.
* A NSW and Commonwealth-listed threatened ecological community White Box Blakely's Red Gum-Yellow Box Woodland (and derived native grassland) has been mis-identified and presumed to be not present in the study area. New data confirms its presence along Bohena Creek.
* The description of important habitat for a number of key fauna, such as the Regent Honeyeater, Pilliga Mouse, Koala, Black-striped Wallaby and Five-clawed Worm-skink does not appear to be accurate.
* New information regarding the presence of the Koala in the study area discounts the assertion made in the EIS that it is not currently present.
* Due to deficiencies in the in the survey and assessment for two `matters for further consideration' (Regent Honeyeater and Five-clawed Worm-skink) statutory requirements under the NSW Biodiversity Offset Policy have not been met.
* Direct impacts upon Brigalow Park State Conservation Area remains uncertain as do the magnitude of indirect impacts upon the adjacent Nature Reserve and existing corridors.
* A Biodiversity Offset Strategy does not provide any surety for how well it will `retire' the impact of the Project because the strategy provided in the EIS does not provide any like-or-like land-based offsets apart from an unproven rehabilitation plan and rests on the hypothetical efficacy of a feral animal control proposal. The suitability of the offset package with respect to the statutory requirements under the NSW Biodiversity Offset Policy is poor.
Based on these findings, the Secretary for the Environment should reject this part of the overall Project assessment as being data-deficient and inadequate under the terms of NSW Biodiversity Offset Policy or request the matters outlined above be addressed by the proponent.

Please do NOT approve this Project:

Yours sincerely

Alexander Dennis BSC
7/27 Arcadia St
COOGEE NSW 2037

I am making a submission on the Narrabri Gas Project and I OBJECT to it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Light pollution from flares, compressor stations and the water treatment plant will ruin the dark sky needed by the internationally renowned Siding Spring Observatory.

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.

I am very concerned that the water quality of the Great Artisan Basin and Murray-Darling Basin will be affected by 'fracking'.
Santos does not have a good record of managing 'fracking' operations elsewhere, why would you allow them to spoil our major food producing area.

I urge the Department of Planning to reject the Narrabri gas project

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.
It will lead to large deliberate and fugitive emissions of methane, adding to climate change.
It will cause more trauma to the regional Aboriginal community because the area of impact is crucially important to the spiritual, cultural and social life of Gamilaraay people.
It 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.