Narrabri Gas

I do not wish for this to proceed.

I've seen the effects CSG mining has on the land and water people are drinking and getting sick from and I honestly think it's so wrong it's even considered an option of harvesting energy when it's so detrimental to the earth and there are much better options for energy out there than this!

After witnessing the effects CSG acquisition has on the environment, animals and humans, I am horrified this continues to be used as viable source of energy. I object to this proposed development

The Pilliga and Great Artesian Basin are too important to risk the 850 gas wells planned to be drilled.

No way guys!

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.
- See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.wPWlDArM.dpuf

To whom it may concern,

The risks to the many overwhelmingly outweigh the benefit to the few with this project.

If you go ahead with this destructive endeavour many of us will do whatever we have to do to influence those around us to ensure they never spend a single cent on the byproducts of this terrible business.

Please shift your attention to renewables and leave our beautiful landscape alone.

Regards,

Paul Clissold

I believe the southernmost flowing artesian bore in the Great Artesian Basin is on my property.It supplies all the stock and most of the domestic water on my farm, Any large drawdown by Coal Seam Gas mining will probably result in bores on the edge of the Basin to stop flowing.However I strongly believe that mining cannot be carried out without contaminating the water in the aquifer and perhaps destroying for along time a very valuable resource.

Enough is enough. We are all guardians for future generations. Keep the Pilliga Region out of the hands of Santos.

Hi i believe this project shou not go a head sure we are making a little bit of money off the gas but what about our tourism soon no one will want to come to this country because it will just be a gas mine all rivers will be toxic killing off native wildlife

I cannot believe how short sighted you pollies are!? We have renewable energy that can be safely harnessed - so why play around with our Great Artesian Basin - why cannot we learn and take heed from America where tap water can be ignited - imagine if that happened to our great artesian basin??? We need to think about the future for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren - think further than 5 years and profit! Please!
I say NO to the Santos!!!!

I don't see any tangible or worthwhile benefit for NSW residents from extracting CSG within NSW forrests. This gas will be shipped overseas and will have a mnimal effect on local prices.

The risks to water tables and resulting food production are not worth the comparitively small number of jobs and even small royalty income NSW would receive.

Additional CSG wells does nothing to address the structural problems in Australian energy policy and any such suggestion is either misguided or malcious.

We are opposed to the Oil and gas company Santos pushing on with its unpopular proposal to place 850 coal seam gas wells in the heart of the Pilliga forest in North West New South Wales.

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.

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.

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. - 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.tzZyovPk.dpuf

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.

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.

We are very concerned that the damage caused by these csg wells will be irreversible and have long lasting consequences to us all. Please do not allow any company to put any coal seam gas wells in the heart of the Pilliga forest, including Santos.

I object to it

I am writing this submission because I oppose this proposal to build 850 wells for coals seam gas. We do not need coal seam gas as Australia has many reserves of natural gas and coal seam gas is a threat to environments and communities because of the potential damage to water tables and release of dangerous gases which contribute to climate change.

If this proposal goes ahead great damage will be done to the Pilliga forest because 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.
- See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.8KP2Osu7.dpuf

Santos, an energy company, has plans to industrialise the Pilliga with 850 coal seam gas wells--threatening this natural refuge, the precious groundwater, and the communities who rely on it.

In addition if we're to maintain a safe climate and keep global warming below 2 degrees, projects like this cannot go ahead. - See more at: https://www.wilderness.org.au/final-push-pilliga#sthash.8KP2Osu7.dpuf

It is imperitive that this project does not go ahead as there is too much at stake for people and the environment.

Your sincerely
Narelle Patterosn

John Sawhill, of The Nature Conservancy, said "In the end our society will be defined not only by what we created but by what we refused to destroy."

Allowing the extraction of coal seam gas in the Pilliga would damage or destroy:
* The Pilliga itself, a biodiversity hotspot and home to several threatened animal species and no doubt some plants as well. Fragmentation of ecological communities is a well-known damaging process, along with the reduction in area of the Pilliga due to clearing for well pads, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure
* Precious water sources, including Australia's largest groundwater aquifer the Great Artesian Basin, which is already under pressure from human extraction
* Cultural sites of the Gamilaraay Traditional Custodians
* The health of the humans who live and work in the area
* The nation's premier optical observatory and the internationally recognised "dark sky park".

Santos' safety and environmental record in the region is not good, with a history of spills and leaks, including contaminating a freshwater aquifer that was no doubt part of the whole system keeping the Pilliga running, not just from a human point of view but from a whole ecosystem point of view. Further, Santos apparently has no real plan for safely disposing the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of salt that would be produced. This toxic legacy would add to the damage and destruction caused by extracting coal seam gas in the Pilliga.

Coal seam gas contributes to climate change through the removal of carbon sinks, otherwise known as old-growth ecosystems, the leakage of methane during the production, transport, processing and use of coal seam gas. Australia needs to become more serious about reducing our carbon emissions and opening new coal seam gas fields is going in the wrong direction.

We don't need the gas. In 2011 researchers at the University of Melbourne and the not-for-profit Beyond Zero Emissions published an article showing how Australia's energy could be from 100% renewables in just 10 years, Matthew Wright and Patrick Hearps, "Zero Carbon Australia 2020:Stationary Energy Sector Report - Executive Summary" (2nd ed.), University of Melbourne Energy Research Institute and Beyond Zero Emissions, August 2011, pp. 1-6. We could be nearly 100% renewable by now if there was sufficient political will.

Victoria has declared itself coal seam gas free. It is time for NSW to join it. Please reject Santos' application to further destroy the Pilliga in particular, and NSW in general.

I agree with what Anne Kennedy President of the Great Artisan Basin has said about the vulnerability of this area and the potential threat of contamination of water in this area by CSG mining. Considering protecting future sustainability of the Pilliga Region for our children and grandchildren, no risk can be taken! Benefits of resources gained from CSG mining will be wiped out and will prove short-term only, if there is long-term damage. The result could be catastrophic!

I have a science, economic & geological background, and this process is unacceptable and not a sustainable way forward for Australia. The future of our special country is in your hands, treat it with respect.
Totally OBJECT to this project.

i oppose this. the damage can never be reversed. it is ill thought out and dangerous. you must learn from the mistakes around you and never ever ever let this happen.

I strongly object to this proposal! Santos and this development must be stopped please! The degradation of the environment is SO unacceptable! No! No fracking and no destroying our bush and animals and also ruining our water. Horrendous on so many levels.