THE Bligh Government insists new laws passed in Queensland Parliament last week will help strike an effective balance between protecting landholder rights from coal seam gas mining impacts while enabling the emerging CSG industry to fulfill its multi-billion dollar economic potential.
The South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 passed through Queensland Parliament last Tuesday night and included petroleum industry related amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EPA), the Water Act 2000 and the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008.
A press release from the Minister for natural resources, energy and mines, Stephen Robertson, last Wednesday said the legislation would help ensure the rapidly growing coal seam gas industry was environmentally sustainable.
CSG companies would be subjected to the "most stringent environmental regulations to ensure the interests of the environment and rural communities are protected", he said.
The amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1994 include requirements for the environmental management plans of coal seam gas projects to include details about the quantity, flow rate, quality and proposed management of coal seam gas water produced by the projects.
The changes also require CSG companies to detail how they will monitor and assess the effectiveness of their water management processes, pertaining to the quantity and quality of water produced, the protection of “environmental values” and the disposal of waste including salt.
CSG companies will also have to explain the action they propose to take if any of the management criteria are not satisfied, to ensure the criteria will be able to be satisfied in the future.
The amendments also require that CSG environmental management plans must not provide for the use of an evaporation dam – that is unless the plan includes an evaluation of best practice environmental management for managing the coal seam gas water, alternative ways for managing the water, or when there is “no feasible alternative to a CSG evaporation dam for managing the water”.
Section 661 of the Act also allows CSG companies to continue with the construction of evaporation dams where construction of the dam has “substantially commenced before the commencement day”, which is when that section of legislation takes affect.
Landholder groups are highly concerned that these clauses allow enough room for coal seam gas companies to continue with the controversial use of evaporation dams indefinitely into the future.
In announcing the changes Mr Robertson said the amendments were designed to “provide a more consistent and transparent process to improve landholders' rights when their land is accessed for coal seam gas exploration".
"The resource and agricultural sectors are the backbone of the rural and regional Queensland economy and their co-existence is critical to the long term economic prosperity of the State," he said.
"The CSG industry has major potential to create job and investment in Queensland which is why we must get the balance right between supporting this growing industry and protecting valuable farmland, ground water supplies, and the environment generally."
The Friends of Felton group challenged the Minister’s statement that the legislation provided an effective balance between landholder and CSG company interests.
“How can farming co-exist with coal seam gas if groundwater aquifers are drained and contaminated, and millions of tonnes of salt is dumped on the surface?” it said on its website.
“How can the Queensland Government claim to be 'getting the balance right' when not a single mine or CSG project has been rejected because of its impact on farmland?”
The lack of certainty at Government level surrounding the CSG water impacts was highlighted in Queensland Parliament last week when Mr Robertson admitted in response to a question from LNP member Howard Hobbs that the Government did not know how gas extraction activity would affect existing bores.
“Nobody can answer that question at this point in time,” Mr Robertson answered. “Some will say there will be no impact and others will rightfully raise concerns.”
Mr Robertson said he was very keen to see the development of the LNG industry continue in Queensland, but said that development could “not come at any cost”.
“The development of that industry must be sustainable and it must be environmentally sustainable,” he told parliament.
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