Narrabri Gas

I am opposed to CSG in the Pilliga.

As child born to European Refugee's who have lands and property's confiscated, who have had their family murdered just for being different. Who have had lost their language and culture. I fully support the Gamilaraay people and the local farmers in their stand against these bullying tactic's. I support the Gamilaraay people to help save their culture, their language and their History. Once it is gone its gone, and I should know my people have endured centuries of it and we are a lost people now.

Santos is old news with respect to our energy needs. Even AGL is moving away from traditional energy generation.

STOP raping the land😠
Never have I seen, witnessed such corruption in our government. Enough is enough.
STOP CSG
STOP THIS NOW

Please respect the wishes of the community of the Pilliga who clearly do not want gas mining in their homes and businesses.
Please value the health and wellbeing of the residents (human and animal) of the Pilliga region before the profits of Santos corporation.
Protect our water.
Do what you are elected for: put the interests of Australian people and environment first.
Leave the legacy of stopping gas mining in NSW. You will be remembered and appreciated for it.
THANKYOU.

Please think towards the future. Stop being so narrow minded in what technology can provide us. We are a land of sunshine and wind. Why can Germany and other European countries lead the world in solar power and wind power and we still rely on the minerals and gases below our ground to produce your money? Is it because someone is personally receiving money to fund their own life style within OUR government departments, and they don't care if they jeopardize every other parents children's lives to sustain their own greed. Wake up and feel the change, see the flow of voices that are gaining momentum, and if your are half smart you will start to put your money into solar power or similar.

The Pillaga is magnificent natural environment and,I do not believe that the proposed number of gas wells can be drilled without risk to it's environmental significance and, perhaps more importantly, risk to the groundwater recharge function for the Great Artesian Basin. The evidence from worldwide extraction of coal seam gas does not indicate that the process is without risk, even without negligence.

We know Coal Seam Gas Mining is disastrous for the environment and hazardous to our health. We know that Santos has a questionable history in safety and responsible environmental practice. We need to keep our water safe, our farms productive, and our wilderness protected. We need clean water and healthy land. We need to protect our environment. Please listen to our voices, Australia says no to CSG MINING!

I am making this submission to strongly object to the proposed Narrabri Gas EIS.

Coal Seam Gas is detrimental to human health, devastating to the environment and unique wildlife located in the area, causes toxic emissions and waste products which cannot be safely disposed of, contributes to climate change, and will have a huge impact on the Great Artesian Basin.

There is no justification for investing in coal seam gas, as it is expensive to produce, will not stabilise or lower gas prices (as demonstrated by Santos' own CSG activities in Queensland), nor provide huge numbers of jobs. Instead of wreaking irreversible environmental havoc we should be investing in renewable energy.

Although direct causality between these mining practices and water problems is not yet shown, the data on the topic has arrived at "most likely". The evidence is increasingly bad.

Govt needs to encourage newer energy options for sustainability. Govt needs to avoid damaging the land and its subterranean structures to protect fauna, flora and farming.

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 NSW, 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 the 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.

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

The government that fails to block CSG mining will surely be the government that destroys forever Australia's environment. Leaving a legacy which will guarantee the guilty politicians mire their names, and that of their families, in infamy.

1. The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Artesian 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 watched a program showing the affects that gas mining is doing to properties and water sources in QLD.
The stress and the devastation these people are going through was something I could not believe the government would allow.

What I object to is that the government allows these mining companies to just go onto someones property and the owners have no rights.

Imagine YOURSELF at home and these people just walk in and start to dig up your land and you walk out of your house and the whole neighborhood has been ripped up, really just think about how that would feel.
The smell around your suburb is sickening and you feel sick all the time from the effects. You and your neighbors have no rights and there is no one there to help you. Imagine the affect this would have on you, your family and all the people in the area. Really imagine this happening to YOU.

I find this incomprehensible.
There are cleaner more safer ways to create energy.

I believe gas needs to be phased out and replaced by means of solar power and wind power.

We all have a responsibility to protect this earth.

The Pilliga Forest should never be touched by any sort of mining facility. To disrupt and fragment the Pilliga: a major recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin with coal seam gas mining is a self serving and appalling act of environmental devastation. How can anyone offer up the Pilliga for a destructive and notably unreliable mining process that will destroy the forest's unusual and expansive beauty and potentially contaminate the aquifers.
The Pilliga has cross cultural value to the traditional owners and the many people who have explored and come to love its landscape and wildlife. Like me! It's not just a forest, it's an historical site with a culturally rich story. Read "A Million Wild Acres". Leave the Pilliga alone! To those who are already in there drilling holes, mucking and messing with someone else's land, putting wildlife and aquifers at risk, and destroying history and a sense of place: get out!

Please stop Santos from drilling. Please don't destroy this beautiful and perfect place

I am against any mining that damages the environment and destroys First Nations heritage. Leave it in the ground and use renewable's. If the money that was spent in fossil fuel energy sourcing, compliance and production went into renewable's we would not need these submissions.

We stand for green renewable energy. Make the planet a safe place for all the next generation to come! We only have one planet which we all belong to. My family and myself would like to not use gas and wish the government would support other renewable energy sources more so that everybody, rich or poor, can make the best and right choice for our planet.

I object strongly to this proposal. This is farming land. Land which is important not only to the families who live there and have for years but for our country, our planet. This project would be an environmental disaster-spills and leaks of toxic CSG water and a legacy of contaminated salt waste material. We have seen the results elsewhere surely we can learn from this and listen to the voices of these people who know what will happen not the ones who are out to make money.

The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Artesian 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.

The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed and I consider the land more belonging to the Gamilaraay than Santos'
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.

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.

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 barium. 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.
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 Area. 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.

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.

Human health is endangered 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 coordination. These impacts have been documented in human populations nearby to existing gasfields in Queensland, Sydney and in America.