Narrabri Gas

I object to the Narrabri Gas Project because it does not represent a positive outcome for the Australian people.
The gas resources that will be extracted from this land - from the Gamilaraay custodians of this land - will not benefit the local people or the environment in the long term.
This is a quick grab for the precious resources, to fund large business who export this resource and sell to an overseas market. The Australian people then have to buy back this gas at a higher price than overseas counties and live with the toxic mess Santos will leave the environment in for future generations.
Farmers and other local community reject this project because they value the area and the land that they have grown up on. They will be the ones who will not benefit from this project and they will be the ones who must live with a poisoned water system and the loss of the unique and non replaceable natural beauty of the Pilliga.
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. They have already caused extensive damage to the environment, by contaminating freshwater aquifers and leaking poisoned water back into the natural system.
How can we justify the environmental cost of this project when the damage is forever and Australian's will not even benefit from the resources ripped from our land.

I am absolutely opposed to the expansion of gas fields of the Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga forest area.

The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to our two most precious water resources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. 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.

Local people, farmers, and the indigenous community oppose this development. More than 10,000 people have signed in protest of any expansion of this project.

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Narrabri Gas Project and to petition the government to stop all gas mining in this area of NSW.

Serious scientific research into the proposed form of gas extraction highlight the extremely damaging environmental impacts of this industry. This form of gas extraction has also been irrefutably linked to serious damaging health issues.

The proposed mining will generate toxic byproducts including vast amounts of salt which will remain in the area. In addition to the health risks associated with this mining, coal seam gas mining also generates serious fugitive methane emissions, significantly adding to national global warming and dangerous climate change.

At the same time it will be drawing on, and wasting millions of litres of precious water, endangering one of the most significant aquifers in this part of Australia, and the communities and environment which this source of water sustains. And it will have a serious impact on the Pilliga Forest and its unique wildlife.

Australia does not need this...the local area does not need this - the regional Aboriginal community does not support this. Santos is a disreputable company, concerned only with extracting maximum profits for its shareholders. From past and existing CSG mining we know that gas prices will not fall, nor will Australians benefit from any of the exports generated.

This project makes no term financial sense, and will cause only environmental and social damage to the local communities and the country as a whole.

Please do not approve this project. NSW could investing in more reliable and cheaper renewable energy like wind and solar instead... and leave this beautiful part of the world unharmed.

Please show some leadership, vision and care for the future.

I am pleading with the NSW government NOT to allow Santos to proceed with CSG drilling on the Pillaga.
The Great Artesian Basin is surely our most precious water resource in such a dry continent and to even consider allowing any form of drilling there is lunacy. The threat of contamination is too great and the risks are unimaginable.
Santos has an appalling reputation and cannot be trusted with this project.
We are custodians of this continent, not here to allow the probable destruction of the Great Artesian Basin, with far reaching consequences for future generations, for short term gain by a mining company!
I urge the government to think carefully and act responsibly in this very important decision.

don't damage another piece of land
also very dangerous for pollution of the great basin
too many risk not worthwhile

I strongly object to this project. I support the local farmers and indigenous persons in the area in their rejection of this scheme. Not only will it risk ground water pollution, it is a short term solution only driven by immediate financial gains. This project will leave decades of destruction of the area with no suitable answers to the loss of indigenous sites and native wildlife. There also seems to be no clear response on the increase of salt residue and the potential issue of higher fire risks. Selling the country off for short term profit does not seem like an investment in Australia' future. The government should be investing in natural power alternatives. I believe all building constructed in Australia should contain solar panels and produce their own power. We should work together to find some alternatives to increasing Australia's wealth, rather than destroying every inch of the country.

I object in the strongest terms on behalf of all future generations which will have to live with the contamination of the artesian water.

At a time when the world urgently needs to transition away from fossil fuels, opening up a giant new gas field in the Plliga is absolute madness.
It risks our water, our farms and our endangered species. CSG mining has caused severe damage to water tables and the environment wherever it has been allowed

I strongly object to this submission. This practice has proven to be unsafe and detrimental to the environment and surrounding communities. It is abhorrent that it is even being considered when there is evidence as to the grave and irreversible damage fracking does. The people DO NOT want it!

From 1999 to 2008 I did PhD and post-doctoral fieldwork in this area. I worked with the local Aboriginal Elders who stood up for the preservation of their land and their culture. As none of these Elders are alive today, I raise my voice against this project to which they would have strongly objected.

One only needs to look at the devastation that CSG extraction caused in Texas, USA, to be against this project. I have a colleague who lives in Texas and he reports extreme environmental damage and pollution, to the point where there is no clean drinking water available and residents have to buy bottled water for their everyday use. There has also been a rapid increase in cancer and other medical conditions as the direct outcome of CGS extraction. People have been moving out the affected areas, turning whole towns into ghost towns. CSG extraction affects people's health as well as the social demographics of the area.

The area in question is particularly vulnerable as it has already been exposed to decades of cotton-farming chemicals poisoning the local waterways. Actually, I am surprised that even an idea for such a project should exists as the area has been listed as environmentally protected for many years. The project would irreversibly destroy this region with its unique flora and fauna and its people. The interconnectedness of the vast waterways of the area means that whatever happens in one waterway will immediately affect all the others, and that is a good portion of NSW. Do we want another lifeless desert instead of an ecologically protected zone? One can do without extra profit but one cannot do without clean drinking water.

Australia - with its existing resources and great natural beauty, is a rich country. Let's keep it that way for the generations to come.

My family and I vehemently oppose the Narrabri gas project. In this time of global warming, increasing awareness of the scourges of pollution, environmental destruction, wildlife annihilation, such a project is an abberation! We will fight for a future for our children and grand children, a future where they will have continued access to clean unpolluted water, and the possibility to live in a world which will still have nature they can enjoy.
The short term goals of both politicians and miners should be fought off relentlessly. The mining jobs and royalties of today will never provide for jobs in the future, on the contrary. They are undermining the life of tomorrow.

Please do not approve any new fossil fuel extraction projects in Australia. We have an almost limitless abundance of renewable energy sources in the form of solar, wind, wave, hydro and geothermal.

Investment costs for renewables are falling steadily as technology becomes more efficient and production volumes increase. A market-based price on carbon pollution is being called for by most major corporations including all the big energy utilities, to ensure investment certainty, and to properly factor in the full long term health, social, economic and environmental impacts of using 200 year old technology to cater for our energy requirements.

Here follows supporting information provided by experts on the subject:

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.


¹SoilFutures Consulting 2014, Great Artesian Basin Recharge Systems and Extent of Petroleum and Gas Leases. http://www.gabpg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/GAB-Report1.pdf
²http://www.smh.com.au/environment/santos-coal-seam-gas-project-contaminates-aquifer-20140307-34csb.html
³BirdLife International (2017) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Pilliga http://www.birdlife.org
⁴Marion Carey Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), Air pollution from coal seam gas may put public health at risk The Conversation, November 20, 2012
⁵https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/21/siding-spring-observatory-threat-coal-seam-gas-light-pollution
⁶http://darksky.org/first-dark-sky-park-in-australia-designated/

- See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.PEPZAbj6.dpuf

I fear-
That aquifers will be irreversibly damaged
That wildlife habitat will be destroyed
That the livelihood will be impaired

This is an irreversible, high risk project.

There is no guarantee that the underground water basin will not be breeched and when that happens (yes, I said "when") the water will be seriously contaminated forever. And then there is the issue of the above ground environment and the impact that this extensive exercise could have.

As a tertiary educated geologist and zoologist I have the background and knowledge to make these statements. Don't let it happen.

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.

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.

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 compromised by coal seam gas

I am very much against opening up the Pilliga to hundreds of gas wells. Australia already has plenty of gas. We just need to keep enough of it in this country for our use. This development threatens our water and our farming land. It should not go ahead.

this process is fraught with dangers already cases against csg have proven it to be an unreliable science.putting at risk water supplies for short term gain with no sure outcomes.would be irreversible and tantamount to national ecological and treasonous negligence.

I OBJECT..We are going to be leaving our FUTURE HUMANS..WITH POISONED WATER & EARTH..ALL FOR THE EVIL GREED DEMONS!!!ONCE DAMAGED..IT CAN NEVER BE FIXED..& MAN WILL LEARN HE CANNOT EAT HIS MONEY OR HIS MATERIALISMS!!!

I am concerned that the drilling and production of Coal Seam Gas in the Pilliga Forest will cause damage to the unique vegetation that makes up this iconic region of NSW and do irreparable damage to the underground water table. Once the chemical that have been introduced into the coal seams there is no way that they can be removed.

I am absolutely opposed to this project being allowed to proceed.

I am just an average person with a family. Living simply so that others may simply live. Letting others live includes not engaging in business practices that can potentially do harm to people, the land and in particular, the water.
The motivation can only be greed and short-sighted selfishness that can even contemplate allowing CSG wells to be drilled anywhere, any time. There are so many more alternatives.
It's time to man up and say NO!