Narrabri Gas

Not until the all the trees are cut down, our rivers are dry and our food is poisoned will you realise you cannot eat money.

Shame on your greed and total lack of disrespect of this country, our forests and unique wildlife.

Karma will come to those who move forward with this

Stop it now!

Fugitive gas emissions and the combined amount of land clearing make CSG detrimental towards climate change and biodiversity. I do not think this project should go ahead.

I am opposed to this project as there is too much at risk.
Ten points are listed below, with references.

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.

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?utm_source=phplist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FEB_17_wildnews-%5Bmessageid%5D&utm_content=story1#sthash.Ba19NSQD.dpuf

If we disregaurd the importance of clean water for the accumulation of meager profit we disrespect life and doom our children to an inhabitable planet. The artisian water basin is essential to all life on earth....
It really seems so foolish to polute the last remnants of clean water, when all life is dependant on it, we must act with morality and respect for life. We must halt the destruction of the natural world in the name of greed to ensure health and wellbeing for future generations and all life on earth.

Please do not interfere with such a magnificent area of land that should be listed as a natural trust heritage area with national Parks. This is scred land, like our whole country is. Please do not destroy.
Sincerely Raymond Bove

1. The Narrabri Gas Project risks precious water sources, including the Great Australian BasinÂ--AustraliaÂ'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 areasÂ--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 RiverÂ--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 waterÂ--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 Â`biodiversity hotspotsÂ' 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 pipelinesÂ--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 nationÂ'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 Â`dark sky parkÂ'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 PilligaÂ'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.

Unconventional hydraulic fracking is a short-term extractive method with little long term return. This is in addition to an elevated risk to groundwater supplies.
The gas market has little regulation within this country and so such projects offer little advantage to domestic supply.
This is lazy business, establishing methods that offer small chance of remediation for the terrain and little opportunity for employment.
The state would be better served by seeking investment in long-term sustainable technologies perhaps focusing upon the unique terrain only found in this part of the world.

I am against the Narrabri Gas Project as i believe the risks to the environment outweigh the potential commercial benefits.

I oppose to the gas project-
Australia needs to be moving forward into renewable energies that we have so much potential for. Not moving backwards and creating new gas mines. Sure, maybe the ground will give you more money, but the people will be angry, and you are ruining Australia's future. Not only that, it is an embarrassment to the rest of the world who are moving a lot faster in implementing renewable energies.

Australian nature and bush land is the most precious thing we have in this country, and we cant spare to even take a percentage more of it. Killing lives, killing culture, and killing communities. Think about it.

Please keep the wellbeing of future generations at the forefront of your minds in making this decision.

Gas is an obsolete, excessively expensive, doomed technology and any profits that can be extracted from it will be incredibly short-lived. Mining operations like these have a track record of under contributing to national revenues and leaving substantial degradation and waste with no plan to pay for clean up and remediation except to consume the little of any taxes they paid and more besides.

Young Australians, their children and grandchildren, on the other hand, will reap compounding rewards of social, cultural, environmental and economic (tourism) benefits for untold generations.

As a small child we would often drive through the Piliga Scrub as it was known then. It was a wonderous place and we would sometime stop and collect "everlasting daisies" from the side of the road. Kenibrai was a particularly exotic place for us.
Please do not destroy this special place by allowing coal seam gas exploration, drilling and/or mining in this area. Its biodiversity is unique. Very few places like this are left, especially as fires become more prevalent.
The water supply once contaminated can never be fixed. This water helps water the food bowl of our country and our exports. We don't know the long term effects of the chemical used in the cracking process
Santos and the previous miner have a very poor environmental record and their has already been environmental damage to the area.
Please think of your grandchildren and the others that will come after them.

I oppose the proposal based on several of my own informed reasons.

1) The process of assessment and approval is inherently biased toward the proposal. My assertion is based on the EIS and it's tendency to diminish the cost and foreground the benefits. It does this by championing modelling which demonstrates that there is minimal damage. I find this a restricted framing of a terms of reference. In this frame there is no consideration of the body of empirical evidence of negative impacts to human and environmental health from similar existing gas field projects. A survey and elicitation of this evidence would provide a fairer, more considered scope.

2) As mentioned above the benefits of the proposal are highlighted and the costs are diminished, if not completely ignored. The proposal and the EIS starts with the assumption that the proposal will have the benefits we want. Indeed it props up the imperative for the proposal to go ahead in order for it to meet future demand. It does not consider the bigger threats of climate change and the imperative for us to transition away from fossil fuels. Starting with this assumption will see the benefits of leaving the gas in the ground outweighing the costs. A choice to leave the gas in the ground and avoid the threats associated with extracting it will expedite a transition to cleaner energy supplies.

My conclusion is that the EIS is inherently biased. It should be based on a fairer, broader scope which includes the threats posed by expanding fossil fuel industries to clean air. It also should include a survey of the impacts to human and environmental health from similar existing and past projects.

My final remark is that there are alternatives to our dependency on gas as an energy supply namely renewable energies and better demand management. There is, however no alternative to clean air and water.

Please stop this from happening, We do not want the coal seam gas in our beautiful forest. No more destroying the environment and our future.

The amount of proposed wells within the forest can only have - in the long run - an adverse effect upon the whole area/region; mainly from soil displacement and water contamination, with inevitable effects upon the flora within that area. Forests are not open fields with limited settings. However carefully prepared, Impact Statements cannot take into consideration the TIME factor. And it is there that the whole issue hinges upon, since we cannot foretell the long term consequences of development.

This area of Australia is so uniquely Australian.To allow Santos and coal seam drilling in this Pilliga region is an absolute travesty and it is hoped that enough people lodge submissions to make the present and future governments aware that this region is not up for grabs or financial gain. This government has to start listening to the people who put them there.

Areas such as the Pilliga should not be mined. I strongly condemn the proposal to extract CSG from this area.

On behalf of my family and the future members of my family I cannot support this proposal.

I submit that NO FURTHER New CSG operations should be approved anywhere in Australia until such time as further independent testing of the environmental impact surrounding ground leeching of Methane and any other toxic gasses in existing CSG sites is conducted... Further more, NO such activity should be carried out in or adjacent to any Forested or Wilderness areas...
I Further submit that this technology has proven to be too problematic for the purpose of being a benefit in any way to society in general. The negative risk value is more than what it is worth...
Thus so I am strongly opposed to CSG operations in the Pilliga...

Put the energy into renewables, we need the forest.

no gas