We are barely a 3rd into the year 2012 and the Coal Seam Gas (CSG) issue is bigger than ever.
The year started off with a bang, or rather a leak. In February, Energy giant Santos reported 3 spills from their operations in eastern NSW. The spills consisted of water contaminated with heavy metals after being used in the gas extraction process.
CSG extraction uses vast amounts of water, forces it under pressure into deep coal seams and cracks them open, releasing valuable methane which is extracted. The water used is then supposed to also be extracted and put through a reverse osmosis process which clears it of any chemicals etc, that were used.
More often than not, the water is either left down there to seep even deeper into the earth, or left untreated on the surface in massive ponds where, you guessed it, the water seeps deeper into the earth, potentially polluting groundwater.
The spills occurred in November 2011, immediately after the acquisition of the facilities previously owned and operated by Eastern Star Gas.
Independent tests of the sites have shown high levels of arsenic, chromium and lead, Santos has not disputed these findings.
March 15 may very well be a date that shall live in infamy, as Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham moved to place a moratorium on all CSG projects across the state of NSW.
Thanks to the Coalition, Christian Democrats and the Shooters and Fishers parties, the motion was defeated 16-19.
According to Lock the Gate president, Drew Hutton, this move has allowed the government to ‘literally sell the farm to the coal and gas companies.’
A lot of focus has been given by the government to what it calls the ‘gateway process’, which aims to bring in independent panels to assess the potential for CSG mining in certain agricultural areas. If the independent panel is for a site, this swings the gate wide open and ‘the miners can drive right through’, according to Hutton.
The NSW Farmers Association have pointed out that nearly 100% of NSW is covered by applications and titles for mineral, coal or CSG exploration, and that Wollemi and Yengo National Parks have been earmarked as having ‘high and moderate CSG potential’.
All this is on top of increasing public backlash towards the CSG industry. In the past month alone, we have seen protests all over the country, with up to 1000 people protesting in Brisbane on March 15.
A petition of 20,000 signatures calling for a moratorium on CSG exploration, a Royal Commission to investigate the affects of CSG and an immediate ban on fracking, was also handed in along with Jeremy Buckingham’s motion. Sadly, this came across as a futile gesture.
The Coalition was of course, against the proposed moratorium, calling it irresponsible and that the government needed more facts before attempting a move such as that.
Perhaps they should look at the increasing number of studies coming out of the US, which show that gas leakages around shale gas wells are almost double the amount the of industries own figures.
CSG is also being sold to us as a cheap, low-polluting energy source, and to a world obsessed with Carbon Dioxide emissions, it may very well appear to be. But lest we forget that the gas extracted is methane, which contributes much more to climate change than carbon dioxide.
Also, the Australian Governments Carbon Tax come in later this year, and given the environmental cost CSG seems to be having across the world, it may very well prove to be too costly in the long term to maintain.

By Chard Core
(chardcore.com)

References:

Coal seam gas: People’s power can stop it!
Paul Benedek
Green Left Weekly
Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Santos confirms three spills from former Eastern Star Gas operations
Rebekah Kebede
reuters.com
Friday, Feb 10, 2012
Government fails the people of NSW on coal seam gas
Green Left Weekly
Friday, March 16, 2012

 

The mining of Coal Seam Gas in Australia is a very heated and much-debated topic.

Films such as Gasland have helped propel the issue to the world wide stage, and now with major mining companies around Australia relentlessly pursuing coal seam gas, even going so far as to potentially drill exploration wells in city suburbs such as Sydney’s St Peters, the topic has attracted much attention from the public, politicians, and miners themselves.

But what exactly is so dangerous about coal seam gas mining? A lot of people look to one of the main methods of getting gas out of coal seams, which is called ‘Hydraulic Fracturing’, or ‘Fracking’.

Coal seam gas (methane) is what is known as an ‘unconventional’ gas, whereas mining companies have to take special measures and methods to get at it.

Coal seem gas lies deeper than other ‘conventional’ gas, and is harder to mine, so mining companies use Hydraulic Fracking, a method where millions of litres of water, chemicals, mud and sand are forced at high pressure down an already-sunk mineshaft.

The water/chemicals etc, are forced literally into the coal seam lying deep underground, cracking it open and freeing the trapped methane gas, which is then pumped up to the surface for use.

Fracking induces seismic activity (little earthquakes), in order for it to work, not to mention the environmental threat if the water, chemicals, mud etc is left down there, seeping through the newly formed cracks in the earths crust, and threaten to find their ways into the local groundwater supplies. One can only hope the waste will make it to the storage ponds, where they will most likely leech into the ground water anyway.

If poisoning the water we drink is not enough, fracking is also done around farms, therefore potentially poisoning the food we eat.

The Great Artesian Basin sits under almost a ¼ of Australia, and supplies water to an area even larger than that, many areas are home to diverse and endangered wildlife, not to mention, humans. It also feeds many local aquifers, such as the Wallon Coal Measures, an aquifer Queensland uses for most of the states’ coal seam gas mining.

CSG is often painted as a ‘greener’ fuel for energy than coal, with many pro CSGers claiming it releases far more green-house gases than dirty old coal. But this is not the case. According to Beyond Zero Emissions, an Australian based energy think-tank, the CSG life-cycle in the atmosphere is up to 45 times greater than coal.

Another strike against CSG.

With the Labour governments’ recently approved Carbon Tax, CSG may become an outmoded form of energy, to expensive to mine and too taxed to sell.

The CSG debate has stirred emotions in people all over the world, and in Australia, the voices have been loud and clear. Organisations like Lock The Gate have successfully stood up against mining companies wanting to drill on farmland, while wide spread activist groups continue to keep discussion alive on al levels.

The Greens recently tabled the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which will leave it up the Federal Government to judge the impact on water by the methods used, thereby side stepping the state governments, to the delight of conspiracy theorists everywhere.

Along with the sustained public backlash, the industry itself is in very real danger of the three year study launched by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States of America. The EPA have reportedly found chemicals used in the fracking process in wells in Wyoming. Benzene, diesel-based organics, and methane were present in groundwater wells, and also in the agencies own test wells, which were situated around waste-water ponds.

Industry reps and politicians in the U.S have voiced their own anger, with the senator of Oklahoma, James Inhofe, saying,

“It is irresponsible for the EPA to release such an explosive announcement without objective peer review.”

The report is expected in 2012.

 

By Chard Currie

Email: chard.currie@gmail.com

 

Sources:

‘Fracking pollutants detected in water wells.’ – Jennifer Doiuhy

Sydney Morning Herald, December 10, 2011

 

‘Greens tackle coal seam gas impacts.’ – Tony Moore

Sydney Morning Herald, November 2, 2011

 

LockTheGate.org.au

‘Viability of coal seam gas mining under carbon tax questioned’ – Olga Galacho

The Herald Sun, November 19, 2011