Narrabri Gas

I am very concerned about the potential environmental impacts of this proposal. I am not a scientific expert in this field, but I am not convinced that we need this project, and am sure that there are alternatives that should be considered.

I have visited the Pillaga many times over the past 5 decades. During this time I have been witness to massive clearing of vegetation in Victoria, NSW and QLD and the consequent loss of species and biodiversity resilience. We can not continue to destroy our wild places for short term gain. We are here for such a short time but our impacts can reverberate down through countless generations. The Pillaga should be retained as a development no-go zone, protecting the many threatened (and potentially next-to-be threatened species) in the ecosystems it represents.Please do not allow mining or other destructive activities in The Pillaga.

We only have one world and we only have one chance to protect it for our future. There are numerous resources such and wind and water to generate power so I don't know how you can justify something that has been created over millions of years in under a decade. Please look in side your heart, you know this is wrong and we need to keep this for future generations!

Money and greed are the only things driving this.
STOP AND THINK.
There's no need to destroy our planet, your planet, your grand children's planet. If anyone in this decision process gave a shit this would not go ahead.

Stop destroying the Earth.

Wake up to yourselves..

To whom it may concern,
As an Australian citizen who is passionate about preserving our remarkable and unique home, I wholeheartedly reject and condemn the prospect of yet another fossil fuel travesty being inflicted upon our natural and cultural treasures.
How much pristine forest, how many sacred sites, how much f*#king money will it take before our government respects the will of the people they are supposed to represent, instead of kowtowing to the forces of big business??
Australia should be the leading force in renewable energy, and we would be already if our leaders showed a millimetre of backbone and stood up to the fossil fuel companies who are so desperate to suppress renewable technologies.
All decent Australians must reject Santos and their greed-driven ideology.
MG

The artesion basin across Australia supports agriculture and the outback farming industry and respective communities. Coal seal gas and fracking will destroy the water carrying capacity. The short term financial advantages will destroy the outback

Disgusting that this would even be considered. Completely reckless in terms of how disruptive this will be to the natural surroundings and polluting fresh water.

It has taken millions of years for mother nature to create and maintain the region. I has taken humans hundreds of years to work effectively with mother nature. Now the Australian Government is going to agree to something that will destroy all of that overnight and cause untold devastation to the environment and the humans who look after and take great pride int he region! Those supposed to be looking after our nation are not working for the people nor the country, they're working for themselves. We have a such a large and resourceful country why is this even an option?! Disgusting and thoroughly disappointing.

Saying that wealth is more important then the sustainability of our country's environment is the very ignorance that is destroying our earth, Let's wake up and stop letting corporations exploit our beautiful land ! Wake up Australia 🇦🇺

Please put a a.halt to this corporate take over of our natural environment. Everywhere CSG has been is broken where no human can fix. Our water tables and rivers. Investing in renewables is a longer term option with lower profits perhaps but much more sensible for our progeny. Ban Santos and all CSG development please. Andrew Zemek

STOP!!! Care for the earth & care for the people!!! Don't care for profits

Not only is the Pilliga forest home to many native and endangered species, including the iconic koala, but the Great Artesian Basin supplies countless agricultural families and businesses with water. Coal seam gas mining has proven time and again to be unpredictable and unsafe, contaminating ground and surface water in Australia and the US (and probably in many other countries), making in unfit for consumption by people or livestock. Why risk a sustainable resource which is irreplaceable for short term gains for multinational companies that will take the majority of the profits overseas. Even if the profits were going to stay in Australia it would be a stupid, short sighted decision. Our long term future as a community and a nation is more important than short term gain.

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.
Aside from that, Nobody or nothing should be messing around with our last and most precious water supply. The Artesian basin is Australia's, the earths', greatest filtering system. It must not be tampered with.

When our children look back to what we have done to their environment I want to be able to hold our heads high and say we protected it for you. As Australians we hold the very precious responsibility of caring for our environment and we will be judged on our actions. Now is the time for real leadership that protects our forests, waterways and children's futures.

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.

I wish to oppose the Narrabri Gas Project. Extracting CSG and the fracking process itself is clearly harmful to the environment, particularly the water table located beneath the surface. This is another example of what is obviously harmful and if allowed will no doubt prove to be extremely harmful some time in the future. I don't want my kids and grandkids to have to try to fix environmental issues caused by this generations greed. The worst part is the damage will be irreversible and they won't be able to fix it. Stop this and all CSG now and forever! You owe it to us all.

We need to stop taking from mother earth and start giving back to her so she can rejuvenate back to a sustainable earth as we are killing her and in the process killing ourselves.
How selfish are humans we aren't even going to try and keep the earth livable for generations to come!
I am strongly against the project and do not believe it should go ahead

My submission is that I want to see my grandchildren have available to them a world that will sustain them beyond that which money would provide.

These proposals are to satisfy a push for monetary profits on the short term at the cost of a total environment which rightfully belongs to all citizens and the future generations of their families.

The Planet has provided everything we need to supply our future power needs without the destruction that this proposal will effect.

Our government representatives have no rights to over ride the wishes of the people who have placed their trust in them to act on our behalf for the good of the society in which we live.
That's what the word "representative" means.

Please do not allow this to happen. There are other more environmentally friendly was to provide energy!! This archaic method is a killer in more ways than one!!

I would like to add my stand against the exploitation of Australia's wilderness and farming areas for the purpose of coal seam gas drilling. I say NO to mining of any sort in the Pilliga region.

I greatly object to this proposal, as there will be no benefit and only damage to the proposed lands. It is time for you (the government) to stop this archaic and controversial method of fossil fuel attainment, and cease to destroy lands and indigenous grounds for little profit to anyone apart from the mining company.
Please consider investment into safer, cleaner and smarter renewable energy systems that will undoubtedly become the standard in the very near future anyway.
You are merely prolonging the inevitable.
Everyone will stop opposing you when you do! (Everyone except backward thinking government officials)