Three years after Barry O'Farrell promised to ban coal seam gas (CSG) mining in Sydney's drinking water catchment, the NSW government’s gas plan says nothing about protecting this sensitive area.
The plan, aimed at defusing community anger about CSG approvals and mining in the lead up to the March state election, has done the opposite.
Jess Moore, spokesperson for Stop CSG Illawarra said: “Under the plan, CSG projects can still be considered in drinking water catchments, and land holders have no right to say 'no' to drilling on their land.
“CSG mining always involves drawing water out of the ground that is high in salt and methane, and can contain toxic and radioactive compounds. It involves methane leaks and industrial development. The risks [to our drinking water catchments] are unacceptable.
“It's wholly inappropriate to even consider allowing this industry to operate near the source of our drinking water”.
The five catchments under the protection of the Sydney Catchment Authority — Warragamba, Woronora, Upper Nepean, Blue Mountains and Shoalhaven — cover less than 2% of NSW. However, they supply drinking water to 60% of the state’s population.
The new plan includes the extinguishment of 10 CSG mining applications — another four were refused in August — but none that are in the water catchment. While there is a temporary freeze on CSG activity in the special areas of the catchment, it is still covered by live licences and some were renewed as recently as March last year.
Lock the Gate spokesperson George Woods said that the government's gas plan had failed the people of Gloucester, Narrabri, Camden and the Northern Rivers, who are directly threatened by unconventional gas mining right now.
“The entire plan is based on the false premise that there is a gas supply shortage, when it is abundantly clear that eastern Australia has vast reserves of gas slated for export, and there are plenty of options for NSW to access energy without putting our land and water at risk.”
Lock the Gate has also criticised the plan for failing to implement the Chief Scientists' recommendations.
“The NSW Government claims to have agreed to implement all 16 recommendations of the Chief Scientist, but their actual detailed response does no such thing,” said Woods.
“The plan does absolutely nothing to protect important areas within existing CSG licence areas. There are no new protections for water resources or farmlands … There are no improved safeguards for human health in this plan and rural families are still going to be forced to live just 200m from CSG wells.”
Activists are also critical of the gas plan for its approach of trying to buy community support through “compensation”.
“The NSW Government seems intent on using compensation to buy community support, but they've done nothing to stop landholders and communities being forced into giving access against their will,” said Woods.
“It's as though money could fix the poisoning of our land and water,” said Moore.
Lock the Gate is also concerned that a standing expert body has not been set up, as the Chief Scientist recommended, and that approvals for exploration will now be given by the Minister for Resources and Energy.
“It's like putting the fox in charge of the hen house,” said Woods.
The Baird government has made no secret of its support for the growth of the CSG industry in NSW.
“Do we want coal seam gas? Absolutely we do,” Baird reaffirmed shortly before the plan was made public.
It is telling that gas miners AGL and Santos have welcomed the government's gas plan. A week after the announcement Santos revealed its plan for gas fields to stretch from Goondiwindi on the NSW-Queensland border down to Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter — a 62,500 square km tract — taking in parts of the Moree, Narrabri, Gunnedah, Tamworth and Liverpool Plains council areas.
It is a clear indication that the industry is not worried about the government's push for greater regulation of the CSG industry.
But the rising community opposition, which is getting more vocal and united across city and country — will continue to put the brakes on the industry and government's push for full-scale CSG production in NSW.
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