Narrabri Gas

Lodge your objection to Santos' Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga.
Go to the Narrabri Gas Project page on the NSW Department of Planning website.
Choose `I object to it' in the dropdown menu and fill in your personal details.
Add your comment against the project. We have suggested some key points to be included in your submission below. Please consider using these points as a basis and expressing opposition in your own words--your own voice is more powerful.
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Suggested points for your submission

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.

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The area is so pristine it should be preserved for future generations. With the cost of renewable energies coming down and the technological advancements in the area the use of csg and other such polluting forms of energy should no longer be established and explored.

why? seriously now, why? Why do you not want to retain what nature has taken so long to perfect? This is a disgraceful intention towards humanity and the environment and one which is seemingly illogical. If the legacy you wish to leave is a trail of devastation and destruction, please, I implore you, think of others and not of yourself and your corporate agendas for a change, seriously now. Enough is enough, The people are coming together - the tyranny must end.#RIPCSG.

Species are at risk of extinction. Many ecosystems are on the brink of collapse. Climate change and pollution are both major factors here, and coal seam gas is a major contributor to both. Innovative countries are exploring clean energy technology and creating new, sustainable industries into the future. Informed Australian people want to end fossil fuel dependence, want to be global leaders in sustainable power technology, want to have a viable planet for our survival, and want biodiversity restored and/or protected in these vulnerable, but vital areas like the Pilliga.
Voters are tired of short-term revenue goals over-riding our responsibility for the land and oceans that we depend on. It is time for policy to represent our wishes.

Santos is rolling the dice on the health and well being of the future generations of the Artesian. The odd will not be forever in our favour. Yes, we need energy but this is not the way to get it. Santos Board and the CEO must see reason, not dollars signs as should our Government. I'm sure in 99% of cases everything with CSG works just fine however it the 1% of over 700 drills that has my concern.
I and my family are not in favour o this project. We respectfully request that this enterprise is reviewed and not rushed. A proper consultation has not occurred and the last news I read about this is the mainstream meadow was in 2015 when it had been mothballed. Now I'm seeing this news appear all of a sudden in my social media stream.
Please take my and all these other requests very seriously. The Pillaga is a beautiful recharge point for the Artesian Basin and once that is tainted there is absolutely no way we have the finds, time, technology or resources to return it back to its present state.

Let's come to our senses before it is too late. Stop destroying the land.

Leave the piliga alone
We don't want CSG

The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Australian Basin--Australia's largest groundwater aquifer - See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.xwlzwZYy.dpuf

I oppose this submission for mining!!

This project would pose a risk to the great artesian water system. This project disrupts the wildlife in the area and threatens many species. This project is not conducive with reducing emissions and is not environmentally sound. This project could affect local farming practice by undermining the safety of the underground water system. Investment in renewable energy sources should be the future for Australia and we should lead the world in finding better ways to source energy rather than methods that have been proven unsafe.

E should be prioritising investments and innovation in long term sustainable infrastructure and energy, not environmentally destructive and rapidly outdated major CSG projects. Until australia demands a higher standard of its private investments, projects like this are a risk to our workforce's continuing global relevance as much as they are short sighted environmental catastrophes.

Keep Australia whole, don't mine the Pilliga! Keep something for our children and children's children.

Australia needs clean energy for now & the future. We do not need projects that compromise the health of the water supply, the local population, agriculture & the environment.

Look at renewables, this is the way of the future, it will have to take place regardless, so we need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels now. Mining companies will have to restructure their operations to accommodate the changing energy market environment regardless, doing so now will give them a competitive edge.

This issue has social, environmental, economic & ethical impacts at its core. Most importantly, we need to look at the ramifications for future generations& not the ecomic viability of a particular company or industry. We have a large natural gas field in the Timor Sea, that should be able to supply current & emerging demands, as well as through renewables.

I would like to see no further gas exploration or new wells created for coal seam gas. It is wasteful of our natural resources and any escaped Meghan is 100 times more damaging than carbon to the environment. Our natural resources of forests and national park are infinitely more precious than fossil fuels.

I do not want CSG mining in the Pilliga region. The enviromental impacts are more devastating than the monetary benefits of having more gas.

The Piliga is a rare and important area, that needs to be kept as wilderness for the health of the citizens of New South Wales. This land is an inappropriate area for any kind of mining activity as the risk of polluting the artesian basin is unacceptable and detrimental to the north western New South Wales agricultural lands that adjoin the Piliga. Food and water are more important than profits for foreign owned mining corporations who avoid paying tax for destroying Australia's natural heritage.

This is one of the worst proposals I have heard in recent times. Take a beautiful inland forest ecosystem and ruin it to look for a way extract a gas that can be burnt to produce poisonous, climate-change inducing fumes, and risk contaminating the country's largest reservoir of underground water in the process. This sounds stupid enough already. Add on top the fact that this is just being done so that a multinational company can cash in on an asset before the Carbon Bubble finally bursts and there are more than enough reasons to stop this catastrophic idea in its tracks.

I wish to convey my complete opposition to coal seam gas exploration especially in the Pilgara region. Coal seam gas exploration and its methods are toxic to our environment and unnecessary as a future fuel option.
It beggars belief that this most harmful poisonous method of extracting coal can be considered. It is a sad reflection on the character of the people proposing this goes ahead. They should be held accountable for their destruction and intention.

I object to this proposal and I hope the government gets the message that we need to start looking at other ways to seek resources that don't amount to the distraction of land, water and wildlife.

Coal seam gas has a proven history of polluting our underground water systems. This particular project threatens our largest aquifer system, and creeks in the area feed into the Murray-Darling, a river system that is already critically stressed and dying.

The Pilliga is a haven for threatened wildlife and Santos has a track record of environmental failures in the area, having already contaminated a local freshwater aquifer with uranium, lead, aluminium, arsenic and barium.

The methane that is released during the coal seam gas production is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

This region is prone to serious bushfires. Producing highly flammable gases in the middle of such a region is extremely hazardous to say the least.

Regardless of your beliefs about climate change, the fossil fuels we currently rely on will run out at some point and renewables are inevitably going to be required. Doing more and more damage trying to squeeze the last out of a dying industry is criminal and only serves the interests of the rich, not the public that you serve.