Some of Queensland's top coal seam gas regulators have played down concerns about inadequate oversight of the state's $50 billion CSG industry but have admitted that knowledge around the full long-term impact on water is far from complete.
"This is an evolving space and certainly our knowledge is evolving," Queensland Water Commissioner Mary Boydell told a gas symposium in Brisbane yesterday.
Complex groundwater flow models are based on "the best information currently available" and understanding of how water moves in aquifers is improving as the gas companies drill more wells, she said. "It is a journey of continuous improvement."
The industry's rapid development in the eastern states has led to mounting concerns about potential damage to the Great Artesian Basin, one of the world's biggest artesian basins that covers the main CSG production area in the Surat Basin.
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