AgForce mining taskforce chairman Ian Burnett said the new regulatory trigger thresholds through amendments to the Water Act 2000 were welcome but long overdue, and only a small step.

"AgForce has been lobbying for over a year to see the introduction of measures that will monitor how CSG activities impact on underground water source levels," Mr Burnett said.

CSG extraction in regions like the Surat Basin is dependent on removing large amounts of water from aquifers, often the only water source for farms.

Mr Burnett said the introduction of the trigger thresholds to protect aquifers went only a small way towards closing "a massive policy gap which has been glaringly apparent for over five years".

Under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004, companies must document anticipated impacts their activities will have on underground water and the environment.

But Mr Burnett said the Act failed to set trigger thresholds until now and reports had not been lodged. CSG operators had operated "almost unchecked for the past five years".

The Environment and Property Protection Association said CSG operators planned to extract up to 350,000 megalitres a year from Great Artesian Basin aquifers in southern Queensland. There was already evidence of bores going dry.

EPPA chairman and Dalby irrigator Ian Hayllor said EPPA planned to start a public website to allow bore owners to log the levels of their bores.

"We will be writing to the CSG companies to ask then to participate with their extensive data to date, and future data, and to the Government asking that their extensive historical data be made available," Mr Hayllor said. The system would be "totally transparent".

"The Queensland Government and CSG companies should have extensive records of bore levels over a long period of time and I am confident these groups will readily commit their data in the spirit of open and frank discussion," he went on to say.

"The system will be totally transparent and inclusive, and with the data from the CSG companies and Government, will be a valuable database for the whole community."