Narrabri Gas

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.nR01Sf29.dpuf

I am the daughter of a landholder in Willala, NSW. The family farm that I will one day inherit is less than 12km from the closest exploration well owned by Santos. I am 21 years old and object to Santos' Narrabri Gas Project on the following accounts:

- There is a huge lack of detail in Santos' EIS for the Narrabri Gas Project.
The company needs to disclose to the public the exact location of wells, pipelines, holding ponds and other related infrastructure. They cannot be approved to start this project under a blanket `Field Development Protocol'.

- This project puts the Great Artesian Basin under threat.
The Great Artesian Basin is Australia's most important natural resource. Groundwater engineers cannot guarantee CSG well integrity. Eight-hundred and fifty bores drilled through the GAB (with no decommissioning plan!) is a lot to gamble with. We cannot afford any cross-contamination of our aquifers and we cannot afford any depressurisation of the GAB.

- There is no guarantee that any local businesses in my community will be supported by the project.
If it is to go ahead, materials, manufacturing and services should all be sourced from towns such as Boggabri, Gunnedah, Narrabri and Coonabarabran.

- If we are to expand the CSG industry in Australia, we should be using the gas domestically.

- The Pilliga is a site of immense cultural significance to the Gomeroi/Gamiliraay people.
Fragmentation and industrialisation of the Pilliga will restrict access to significant sites in the Pilliga and will cut people off from connection to country.

- I am not convinced that Santos have considered the potential health impacts of this project.
As I contemplate a future living right next to a massive gas field, I want to be assured that it is safe for my health. Unconventional gas operations have been linked to water contamination and respiratory illness in the US. Santos have done nothing in investigating the health impacts of this project in the EIS.

- Santos' governance pays no attention to their role in the global community.
Santos have a role to play in the global community. The global community is facing climate change and agreed to limit global warming to 2 degrees. Santos have deliberately ignored the wishes of the global community as a whole and modelled off 4 degrees.

- Farmers in my community of Willala do not want this project to happen.
97% of the Willala community said no to CSG. Farming and CSG extraction are two incongruous industries. The massed industrialisation of our landscapes, loss of quiet enjoyment and threats to our groundwater threatens the feasibility of hundreds of local family-owned farming businesses.

- The Pilliga in summer months is not safe for people to be working with flammable products.
At the height of the worst fire season in my memory, Santos had workers in the Pilliga drilling a bore. They had submitted no evacuation plan to the Rural Fire Service and the workers didn't have a safe exit route if there had been a fire. Everyone there would have died that day if there was a fire.

- The Pilliga is a site of unprecedented biological diversity.
The clearing and fragmentation of 1000ha of woodland will have massive irreversible impacts on species including the Koala, the Regent Honeyeater and the Pilliga Mouse.

I would like to call to the attention of the Inquiry the following reports on the topic of methane emissions from unconventional gas production:

1). "A review of current and future methane emissions from Australian unconventional oil and gas production" (October 2016, Lafleur, Forcey, Sandiford, Saddler)
http://climate-energy-college.org/review-current-and-future-methane-emissions-australian-unconventional-oil-and-gas-production

2). "The risk of migratory methane emissions resulting from the development of Queensland coal seam gas" (Lafleur, Sandiford)
http://www.tai.org.au/sites/defualt/files/P320%20Migratory%20emissions%20FINAL_0.pdf

3). "Infrared video-recording methane emissions in the Queensland coal seam gas fields" (February 2017, Forcey)
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/lockthegate/pages/3861/attachments/original/1495068484/FLIR_Report_FINAL_20170501_Small.pdf?1495068484

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. These two research reports highlight (amongst many other things) that:
"Despite Australian Government greenhouse-gas reporting requirements having been established in 2009 and Australia's unconventional gas industry operating at significant scale since 2010 and rapidly expanding since, there has as yet been no comprehensive, rigorous, independently- verifiable audit of gas emissions. Indeed, to quote CSIRO, "reliable measurements on Australian oil and gas production facilities are yet to be made."

"In the United States [...] emissions ranging from 2 to 17% have been reported."

"If methane emissions from unconventional oil and gas production are being significantly under-reported, this could have a large impact on Australia's national greenhouse accounts."

These reports indicate and recommend that a significant research effort must be done before it is known the full extent to which methane emissions occur as a result of unconventional oil and gas extraction. These reports highlight that significant methane emissions do occur as a result of unconventional gas extraction and that further field-work is needed to understand and quantify methane emissions in Australian oil and gas fields.

As operator of coal seam gas fields in Queensland, Santos' Narrabri EIS should provide detailed information, operational data, and methane emissions measurements obtained from actual operations ongoing in Queensland. This information is absent from Santos' Narrabri EIS.

I would also like to call to the attention of the Inquiry the following report on the topic of gas and electricity supply and demand in eastern Australia: "A short-lived gas short-fall: A review of AEMO's warning of gas-supply shortfalls" (May 2017, Forcey, McConnell) http://climate-energy-college.org/short-lived-gas-shortfall

This paper describes how shortfalls in gas supply to eastern Australia are very unlikely to occur and that there is no need to expand gas-supply infrastructure.

As author or co-author of 3 of the above reports, and with 35 years of experience as an engineer and manager in the oil and gas industry, I would be happy to brief the inquiry on what is known about methane emissions from unconventional gas and oil extraction; and also on the current state of gas and electricity supply and demand in eastern Australia.

Regards,

Tim Forcey
Energy Advisor
Sandringham, Victoria
0419 019 864

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.

I was part of the Lismore community that fought matagasco's attempt to frack Bentley.I don't want anyone in the Pilliga to be concerned about their water quality,land values,children's health,the threat to the farmers livelihood
We should be fighting climate change not encouraging more greenhouse emissions.

I believe the future of Australia and my grandchildren will not be well served by Coal Seam Gas Mining. I have made a study of other areas and countries where it has been introduced and it is very destructive, in fact I HATE IT!!!

To whom it may concern

I am a long term resident, farmer and ratepayer in Narrabri.

After initially being sceptical and cautious about the Narrabri Gas Project we are now in support of the project because:

(a) We believe that the long term benefits to our region far outweigh the low probability of any downside

(b) We know that Santos is a good company and we have been impressed with all the hard work they've put in to employing locals and supporting local businesses and organisations

(c) We do not believe that the Pilliga has ever been regarded as prime agricultural land

(d) We are tired of all the huge outside environmental lobbying organisations harassing our friends and paying protesters to spit on anyone who disagrees with them

(e) We know that the gas project will employ lots of locals long into the future

(f) We need the jobs in town and outside town since many of the huge industrial farms do not employ many young workers any more

(g) We believe that the science is sound and that future of our aquifers will be ensured because of the very good construction that Santos will do (more than is required of farmers like me!)

(h) We believe that there are great benefits for farming friends of ours near the Pilliga who have struggled a lot over the past few years. Finally they will get the break they deserve

(i) We know that opening up new gas supplies will be good not only to the northwest but also the rest of the state

My final comment is that this needs to put some gas into our local town. Why can't we have a gas supply here instead of just using LPG? This could open up new industries for Narrabri. Narrabri brickworks? Narrabri bread? Narrabri energy hub?

I am writing to submit my objection to the coal seam gas drilling in the Pillaga scrub. Fracking is well known to poisom the water table, in the USA where it is prevelant many people have experienced problems with drinking water. This particular area is home to many rare species which need an intact ecosystem to survive. Water from the great artesian basin flows from these areas into the Murray Darling catchment area. On the dryest continent on earth you want to allow Santos to drill 850 sites that will contaminate the great artesian basin. I say no way, stop letting these unethical companies destroy the environment for a quick buck . Alternative energy such as wind and solar or geo thermal, are so much better. Please consider these alternatives instead. thank you.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I respectfully wish to declare my opposition to Santos' project in the Pillaga on 2 grounds. The first ground is the impact on Australia's water supplies namely the Great Artesian Basin. We are the driest continent on earth and Australia's water supplies cannot take a back seat to the interests of a gas company. Secondly, I fear for the many unique and endangered species that inhabit the Pillaga region.

I thank you and the committee for taking the time to read my submission.

regards
Steven Hyem

I strongly object to the Narrabri Gas Project for so many reasons.
For Health Reasons..CSG mining is harmful to our health. There is peer reviewed evidence of this in the United States which has not been investigated by Santos or the NSW Government. It is also harmful to the wildlife and cattle that drink the produced water.
For Environmental Reasons..CSG mining is also unhealthy to the environment. There is methane gas bubbling up in the Condamine River and the surrounding countryside. The river can be set alight.
The many toxic elements which are safely stored in the coal seam underground, like arsenic, lead, mercury and uranium are released through the fracking process into the water contaminating the cattle and anything else which drinks it.
No insurance company will insure CSG mining and if the cattle are contaminated they are condemned, it is the farmers which carry this loss, not the mining company.
We live on the driest continent on earth and the Great Artesian Basin is a hugely important resource. By diverting so much water for fracking, not only is there a huge risk, almost inevitably of this aquifer being poisoned, the enormous amount of water used will affect the pressure which is necessary to access this water which is so relied on by our farmers. At a time on earth when it is predicted that wars will be fought over water it is just irresponsible to take this risk.
On top of this, nearly 1000 hectares of our precious Pilliga woodland will be cleared, fragmenting it and threatening its unique wildlife.
For Economic, cultural and social reasons and more (the light pollution which risks the observatory)this is just a disasterous Project. Please don't let this happen..put resources into developing clean renewable energy. And finally, this project and any other CSG initiative just has no social licence which puts the people at odds with the government which is paid to represent the people and NOT the mining companies.

1 Water
The Narrabri gasfield poses a real risk to two important water resources: the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. Recharge for the Great Artesian Basin is concentrated in the Pilliga East forest. The vast amounts of water which will be 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. I have visited springs along the Oodnadatta track at different times and it is clear that withdrawal of water reduces the capacity of the springs.

2 Indigenous owners
Gamilaroy people, who identify hundreds of cultural sites in the Pilliga, are opposed to CSG. They have told Santos they do not want their country sacrificed for a coal seam gas field. Their views should be respected.

3 Local farmers
Around 96% of farming communities oppose CSG -- from 3.2 million hectares of country surrounding the Pilliga forest, including 99 communities. Hundreds of farmers have protested, unusual for farmers in this area or any other.

4. Environmental and dangers of contamination
Hundreds of thousands of litres of waste water will be produced, contaminated with heavy metals and salt. 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 (Santos coal seam gas project contaminates aquifer, Sean Nicholls, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/santos-coal-seam-gas-project-contaminates-aquifer-20140307-34csb.html .) In addition, there have been over 20 reported spills and leaks of toxic CSG water from storage ponds, pipes and well heads. No assurances can be trusted. These leaks are endemic in all kinds of mining and drilling operations where storage ponds are never sufficient to meet unusual rainfall events.

The Pilliga is one of our 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 also home to over 200 bird species and is internationally recognised as an Important Bird Area (BirdLife International, 2017, Important Bird Areas factsheet: Pilliga http://www.birdlife.org). 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. The benefits are not worth these ill effects.

In short: Please don't permit this destruction!

I object to the Narrabri Gas Project

I strongly reject Santos plans to industrialise the Pilliga with 850 coal seam gas wells, and threatening this natural refuge, and compromising our precious groundwater, and the communities who rely on it.
If we're to maintain a safe climate and keep global warming below 2 degrees, projects like this cannot go ahead.
Please think about long term detrimental environmental impact this sort of project will have to our environment and protect our community and our globe from this disgraceful destruction of our precious natural resources.

There is ample evidence from global experience that gas mining, espcially fracking, has a detremental effect on the land aand the water table and ground water. It is also unfair to the farmers upon whose land this work goes on. I wish it to stop immediatley

I think that the Narrabri Gas Project should not go ahead, as it is not safe.

It is clearly a risk to the underground water supply, and is environmentally destructive, causing pollution and fire danger.

The local communities don't want it, and environmental and conservation groups oppose it. If there were significant financial or infrastructure benefits from the project for the local community, then one would expect the locals to support it, but this is not so. Rather, it is a danger to the farming industries of the area. Thus, the project is exploitive.

Research indicates that the Project's risks and destructive side effects greatly outweigh any benefits.

MY DAD WOULD ALWAYS SAY IF IN DOUBT DON'T & there is so much doubt here. I cannot believe that the Santos Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project was not stopped permanently long before this. How can we jeopardize such productive and sustainable agriculture land and put at risk this invaluable water source? Wake up and make a decision to stop this destructive and disastrous project before it's too late. Once the damage is done it CANNOT be undone. Think about future generations and catastrophic effect this will have on them. Think about the legacy you are leaving!!! With the world looking at renewables don't let this project go ahead -make a stand and DO WHAT IS RIGHT!!!! Stop Santos and save the land and the water and the livelihoods of so many generations of farmers to come.

RE: Narrabri Gas Project (SSD 6456)

I am writing this submission although I am still undecided.

My property has been identified as being within the development application area for the Narrabri Gas Project.

I have attended both the Department of Planning and Environment and the Santos information sessions. These were helpful and informative and I was advised to make a submission.

In principle, I support the proposal. My reasons being;

1. The land to be used is not prime agricultural land.

2. The need for power generation will only increase and gas-fired power stations could fill the gap.

3. It will increase the opportunities for local employment while not reducing the number of families that own farms.

4. I am satisfied that Santos have stringent controls in place and use industry best practice.



My concerns are;

1. If Santos leaves for any reason, will another company take over and continue with the same goals.

2. If Santos does decide to work on my property, the access road runs past my house and raised dust and traffic noise could pose a problem. (I do understand they would need my permission)

3. I am wary of the risks to the underground water supply.

4. I am uncertain about risks associated with industry legacy issues.


I love Narrabri and love living here. It is a small country town with a beautiful country feel and I don't want Narrabri to lose that country feel.


Thank you for considering my submission.

I oppose all methods of unconventional gas mining and exploration. Until it can be scientifically proven beyond any doubt that these methods being used are 100% safe then it should be banned.

I support clean water and a ban on fracking in NSW

We need to protect our earth for the long term, and not be driven blindly by economics.