Mr Scott said he will be calling on the incoming Minister for the Environment after the August 21 federal election, regardless of which party wins power, to establish an independent panel of scientists to assess proposals for Coal Seam Gas and Underground Coal Gassification projects.

“It is in the national interest that we have the EIS peer-reviewed by an independent panel of scientists,” Mr Scott said.

“Quite frankly we don’t know what the impact will be on underground aquifers. We know it is water coming out, and we know that free flowing bores did deplete the GAB and many bores stopped flowing.

“They are now being rehabilitated and capped, but if you look at Coal Seam Gas extraction, it is the equivalent of having free-flowing bores taking that water out from underground.

“I don’t believe that is good enough and with the limited powers that the Commonwealth on this issue we should be peer reviewing science in the national interest which underpins State Government decisions to give these mining licenses the go ahead.”

Mr Scott said he had written to Federal environment minister Peter Garrett last month calling upon him to withhold support for the CSG extraction process until science could conclusively confirm that aquifers of the GAB would not be seriously impacted upon.

He said the minister’s reply to his letter noted that under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, Mr Garrett as the Minister had the powers to make decisions about CSG projects if they had significant impact on the environment.

“Minister Garrett noted that the decisions made on current proposals by Santos and British Gas could have ramifications for future projects,” Mr Scott said.

“I hope that this means a big step will be taken in utilising federal legislation for the protection of our Great Artesian Basin aquifers and to help prevent problems like the recent concerns over Cougar Energy.”