Narrabri Gas

I am against the construction of the Narrabri Gas Project because it has been proven time and time again that coal seam gas fields cause serious environmental damage. Australian citizens who live on that land do not deserve to suffer the environmental cost of the project while the mining company profits. It also threatens the unique and vital Pilliga. I personally come from Ashford, just north of Narrabri, and I consider this an unforgivable incursion into the rights of nature to exist without human intervention for profit. Please don't build these 850 gas wells - it will destroy the region for longer than the 20 year envisaged project.

I am writing this submission to voice my extremely strong objection to the Narrabri Gas Project.

The Pilliga makes up most of the area with the highest recharge rate for the Great Artesian Basin and to risk contaminating this irreplaceable asset is foolhardy at best and greed fueled insanity at its worst. Santos, who have already contaminated a fresh water aquifer and reported over 20 toxic spills are not worthy of the publics trust.

Not only the Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are in opposition, but an average of 96% of people in the surrounding communities in the area are opposed to this project.

This development threatens endangered wildlife, will contribute to perilous climate change, and will adversely affect the health of those living in close proximity of the gas wells as we have seen and has been clearly documented in areas affected by this industry in Queensland.

The so called "benefits" to the economy and surrounding communities becomes a sick joke when compared to the potential catastrophes that could occur.

Again, I reiterate my strongest objection to this proposed project and hope that sanity and common sense will prevail and this industry will be banned, not just in NSW, but in the entirety of this most precious country.

Sincerely

John Graham

I have known and loved the Pilliga scrub for years and value all its small details and ecological systems. I know it has existed for tens of thousands of years. its species and its water underground are precious.

No mining of any type is good for the Pilliga.

So refuse fracking with its dangerous consequences and poor respect for people and land.

Imagine this: 850 gas wells on up to 425 well pads over 20 years, and the construction and operation of destructive gas processing and water treatment facilities. Is this the world we want to live in? The fracking industry has evidently devastating effects on the environment, on all life living there and depending on it, not only for the time it is operating there, but for a very long time into the future. It will have ongoing direct and indirect impact on nature, animals and human life into the future. It will diminish the life support systems, it will have systemic effects on the culture and economies of the region and beyond for a long time to come. We cannot risk this to happen. It is our responsibility to make sure that the region has a prosperous and flourishing future ahead of it. The Narrabri Gas Project will destroy this.

The Narrabri Gas Project threatens Australia's largest groundwater aquifer, the Great Australian Basin--Australia's largest, and other important water resources. Local communities are opposed to the project for fear of their future including the Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians, farmers and other local communities, all of whom depend on it directly or indirectly, culturally, economically, socially, and health-wise.

The company Santos who is seeking to exploit the gas resources 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.

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.

NSW needs to take its responsibilities seriously to contribute to the global effort to reduce climate altering gases. 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.

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.

Even 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 pollution. The area has been internationally recognised as a `dark sky park' and the 50m high gas flares proposed by Santos threaten the viability of the facility.

Thousands of tonnes of salt waste will result from the project. Between 17,000 and 42,000 tonnes of salt waste would be produced each year, a toxic legacy in NSW far into the future, far beyond the lifetime of the industry planned there.

The Pilliga is prone to severe bushfires. If this development went ahead, there would also be much higher risks of fires would 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, highly flammable gas would be extracted, transported and stored right within this extremely fire-prone forest, a catastrophe waiting to happen.

All in all, the social, cultural, geophysical and also the long-term economic realities make it clear that the Narrabri Gas Project must be rejected.

Can we please do not drill for CSG since there are to many stakes at risk!
Please consider the environment and all the farmers in the area who rely on a clean/water environment.
Water is a very precious commodity in Australia we can not risk to pollute any of it!
Here in Australia we have a very unique wildlife and all will be at risk by drilling in to a sensitive habitat.
We also have a cultural aboriginal background to respect!!

I strongly support the protection of the entire Pilliga region
and I absolutely totally oppose the development of The Narrabri Gas Project.

Stop companies destroying our environment and contaminating our water resources for the sake of their short term profits.

We need to put our environment first always
We can't drink coal seam gas!

We can develop different forms of energy - ones that aren't destructive or rely on the contamination of our land air and water.
We can't replace or redevelop a natural system back to its original complex

Its really simple - protect the environment and its biodiversity first and foremost - its not just morally right to do so but we RELY on it for clean air, clean water and food production. Its so obvious and so so simple!

To go ahead with CSG mining is to commit a most destructive form of environmental vandalism upon OUR earth - you do not have the moral right to give companies the go ahead to do that.

More damage to the environment, more flogging of a dead horse. The truth about CSG and the damage done to the surrounding environments is now common knowledge, as well as proven. Yet the mining corporations think they can just give donations to political parties and everything will be hunky dory. It's time to put our future as a nation and as a species above the greed of the wealthy few.

There is no justifiable reason for SANTOS or any Company to perpetrate Coal Seam mining in our fragile country, let a lone in the Pilbura. We are still a resource rich country with an abundant supply of natural energy in the form of sun & wind. These do not require violating the earth to make money. SANTOS should investigate these forms of energy if it wants to grow as a Company with the Public's support. It is time cars turned to other non polluting methods to run.

We must care for OUR HEALTH, WILDLIFE HEALTH and the HEALTH OF OUR FUTURE!!!!!!

The reason there is a gas shortage for local consumption is that of greed by the suppliers in that most of our gas is sold overseas thus pricing australians out of the market.
The inherent problems associated with extracting coal seam gas are well known. To ignore these problems is morally and ethically wrong and leaves future generations of Australians the problem of a contaminated subterranean system.
I urge you to reject this proposal to mine coal seam gas.

How much do we have to destroy before our environment is truly devastated? Why is the short-term financial greed and profits held better by dumb politicians than the only place we all have to live in and share.
Why is there a crisis - because the forward thinking of the inept pollies and public servants refuse to see alternatives. From massive land clearing for marginal farming, to the constant threat of polluting the water our dry country so desperately needs to survive, why aren't these taken into long term consideration.
I want to share my country with my grandchildren - not a dug-up polluted mess that the short-term visionaries have for us. So please REJECT this massive potential destruction of the Pilliga now, for all our sakes - even those greedy and unenlightened

I spent time in the Pilliga in the early 1980s. I now live in the city in an electorate which is for the time being, Liberal; I am female and over 60 years. I have no connection with the Pilliga or its people these days.

Many important decisions are made within large organisations such as governments that are poorly informed by lived experience. Facts, figures, statistics, reports, science are absolutely essential but can take us only so far. The "aha" moment, the realisation of what matters most, comes from the imagination, from lived experience and from our inherent ability to conceptualise based on these and upon science.

I submit my lived experience and my conceptualising as an aid for responsible decision-makers who may be less well-placed.

It is incredible to me that anyone would permit further difficulties to be introduced in managing the fragile and at
times exceedingly harsh area of land known as the Pilliga.

Anyone who has seen the Pilliga in drought knows the insult from csg mining will destroy any chance of the land being usefully productive and so destroy the rural community too.

The toll on biodiversity and those wild creatures we all view as Australia's own, will be devastating and irredeemable.

Australia does not need more csg for its own use. It needs investment in renewable energy and cost-effective hydro storage of renewable energy, as recently espoused by a professor at ANU.

It is patently wrong by ourselves as a nation and by our descendants to risk ruin of productive land for generations, in an effort to make foreign sales today.

Australia is already affected by climate change, placing biodiversity, food security and water security at risk. We cannot eat or drink coal seam gas.

Remediation, on the scale needed after csg mining, is very unlikely to be successful, particularly in such fragile and rugged country as the Pilliga. If full remediation costs were included in requirements for approval, no company would be interested in mining csg. It would not be cost-effective to mine.

Lost opportunities, during and following csg mining is another area of great loss that ought to be costed and allocated to the activity.

Allowing csg mining is allowing miners to take all the value and leave the damage for others to pay in lost opportunities and actual clean up costs.

There are sites all over Australia where the legacy of earlier generations of miners has destroyed rural communities and the prospect of later generations using that land productively again. Remediation is either not possible or so costly as to make any scheme to fix it unviable. Such structural ruin of Australia's rural areas cannot continue as we will need all arable land to feed a future larger population, in an ever harsher climate.

Respect is necessary for the people of the Pilliga; for their knowledge, skill and effort in working difficult land productively and in caring for it so the next generation can do the same.

I object most strenuously and passionately to the harms old-world mining in the form of csg mining, poses to the Pilliga.

Do not push forward with the coal seam gas destructions.

Using more fossil fuels are adding more teeth in the jaws destroying our global civilization. Not just humans but especially all animals with shells and bones.

Over population and Increasing acidification of our rain and oceans add to the rising incidences of flooding, fires and wild weather.

When will we acknowledge the harm being done in 2040, 2060, 2080 or never?

I can't see any way of going back.

The sooner and more strenuously we act the better it will be for the global population in 2100.

I am deeply opposed to this project.

It is a tragedy that such a devistating plan could even be considered. Such a beautiful natural wonder should not be put at jeopardy just to fill the pockets of big gas coperations. Please for the love of Australia do not let such an evil project take place.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to lodge my objection to this project on the basis of the following points:

1. The Pilliga Forest is the largest intact woodland in eastern Australia, stretching across half a million hectares in north-western New South Wales, and the sandstone below is a recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin. In such a place how is an industrial scale 850 well CSG project justifiable?
CSG has never been proven to have no effect on aquifers and once they are poisoned by the toxins released by CSG wells, no amount of human intervention will rectify it.

2. The ground water and creeks in the Pillga area also feed the Murray-Darling Basin. So any toxic effects from CSG that occur in the Pillga will not only affect the environment and agriculture in this area but will have disastrous flow on effects downstream.

3. The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians are opposed as 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.

4. Farmers and local communities are strongly opposed, in fact surveys show that an average 96% of the local population is against the project. Hundreds of farmers have participated in protest actions unlike any previously seen in the region.

5. Santos cannot be trusted to manage the project safely due to a long history of spills and toxic leaks of CSG water. They have 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.

6. The Pilliga is a known haven for native Flora & Fauna. It 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.

7. CSG fields contribute to climate change through the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas. Methane is by far the major component of natural gas, and is a greenhouse gas 72 times more powerful than CO².

8. The health of the local communities will also be affected. 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. Releases of these substances can never be eliminated by CSG operators.

9. The viability of Australia's premier optical astronomical observatory is at risk from light and dust pollution. The Siding Springs Observatory, situated in the Warrumbungles and adjacent to the Pilliga will be affected by the 50m high gas flares proposed by Santos.

10. 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.

11. The Pillga area is prone to severe bushfires and even on total fire ban days the 50m high methane flare stacks will run day and night. The project would increase ignition sources as well as extracting, transporting and storing a highly flammable gas right within this extremely fire-prone forest.

This proposed gasfield from Santos is now the last CSG project in NSW and quite plainly Santos does not have a social licence to proceed. It is time to put a to stop this unjustifiable project once and for all.

Kind regards,
Scott Shade

I urge you to abandon Coal Seam Fracking all over Australia. This technique is causing irreversible environmental damage where ever it has been applied.
Look at the USA and their pollution problems.
Look at Germany, where CSG Fracking was forbidden because the devastation it causes.
Just because our continent is larger and our population is not nearly as dense in country areas, DOES NOT GIVE ANYBODY THE RIGHT TO GO AND DESTRUCT OUR LAND - BE IT PRECIOUS FARMLAND, NOT SO FERTILE FARMLAND OR PRESTINE NATURAL AREAS LIKE THE PILLIGA !

HANDS OFF.
SANTOS HAS DONE MORE DAMAGE IN THE PILLIGA THAN IT SHOULD EVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO DO !!!

I'VE SEEN MUCH OF IT MYSELF ALREADY.
To see that Water Treatment is on the agenda !
That is sheer sarcasm !
I've seen the toxic mess - free accessible to all forms of wildlife that might be thirsty enough to have a taste.

YOUR SCHEME IS A NATIONAL , NO - INTERNATIONAL DISGRACE.
WE ALL DEPEND ON OUR ALTESIAN BASIN !!!

PLEASE - Don't allow any more of this utter destruction!!

The Pilliga forest is the largest intact woodland in eastern Australia, stretching across half a million hectares in north-western New South Wales. It is a unique ecological refuge, home to 25 nationally listed and 48 state-listed threatened species, such as the Pilliga Mouse, which rely on the Pilliga for survival.

The sandstone under the Pilliga is a vital recharge area for the Great Artesian Basin, and creeks that flow through the Pilliga provide clean water into the Murray Darling Basin. These water sources are the lifeblood of farming communities throughout the southeast and inland Australia.

I visited the Piliga Forest while on holiday last year and enjoyed the bush and evidence of aboriginal use of sandstone caves. I do not want the area damaged by any fracking with the use of damaging chemicals injected into the ground, and 850 wells is a mind boggling number. The damage would be irrreversible. We need some wilderness.
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First - Water Matters The Narrabri Gas Project risks the Great Australian Basin-- our largest groundwater aquifer
I understand that In a worst-case scenario, this project could end the free flow of waters to the surface at springs and bores across the whole Great Artesian Basin and negatively impact the Murray Darling Basin.

Second Key community stakeholders are not re-assured that this project is safe. Many Farmers, Members of The Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians and Locals are opposed they do not want their country and water sacrificed for a coal seam gas field. There is evidence that 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 or address problems.

Third our Pilliga is a haven for threatened wildlife
The Pilliga is one of 15 nationally listed `biodiversity hotspots'.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. To add to this impact coal seam gas fuels dangerous climate change and costs more that cleaner renewable alternatives. Human lives can also be harmed by exposure to coal seam gas waste. Thousands of tonnes of unmanaged salt waste will result from this project. Alarmingly the risk of fires would increase throughout the Pilliga's tinder-box conditions already prone to fire extraction and transport of highly flammable gas could spark fires outside of natural events.

Fourth, I have just learned that the nation's premier optical astronomical observatory is at risk due to light and dust pollution - unintended and unmanageable impacts are significant and read together these impacts are too great to continue with this project.