AgForce policy director Drew Wagner said the QGC announcement was misleading to suggest that the water treatment plant will benefit the local farming community.

“This plant is not treating new water – it is actually removing very old water from one of Australia’s most precious resources, the Great Artesian Basin,” he said.

“At the heart of this is the conflict between the Water Act which recognises water as a resource which must be sustainably managed through licences and allocations, and the Mineral Resources Act which treats water as a waste product from CSG activities.

“In actual fact, gas is the by-product of the CSG industry which does not know how to manage its primary production system of water,” he said.

“It is appalling for this water treatment project to be presented as a massive opportunity for landholders when in actual fact the water will only be available for five to ten years.

“Local farmers and communities will not be able to use this water as a basis for long term investment in infrastructure or management practices without a guarantee of long-term security of volume and availability.”

Mr Wagner said the unknown environmental implications of extracting this water during the CSG process should be a serious concern for all Australians.

“This extraction process is occurring without any knowledge of inter-aquifer relationships or possible contamination or draw down by depressurising the very high saline coal seams in this area.

“Nor does it address with how the primary waste products – mainly salt – that are brought about through this treatment process will be responsibly managed.

“The CSG industry has the potential to produce millions of tonnes of salt if the complete development as currently proposed is fulfilled.

“We need to work towards getting the right balance between agriculture and the CSG industry.

“There is not yet any scientific data and proof as to where this balance lies and indeed Queensland may have already exceeded it with nearly 3500 wells currently in operation – just a fraction of the 40,000 wells which have the potential to be established.”