A Senate Inquiry has been called into a controversial pilot proposal to store waste carbon dioxide in the Great Artesian Basin by the Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation - a subsidiary of multinational mining giant Glencore.
The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee must report by May 1.
Among its terms of reference, the project's potential socioeconomic impacts on agriculture and regional communities relying on the basin for water will be assessed, including the project's impact on existing and future water use rights, and Australia's strategic interests in preserving its largest groundwater system.
A closing date for submissions has yet to be decided and it is not known if there will be public hearings.
The basin lies beneath parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory and is an essential source of freshwater for many primary producers and communities.
The project has been under fire from farmers and environmental groups who believe it will cause significant and permanent damage to the basin's water quality, while Glencore claims its foundations are set in robust science.
In referring the matter for inquiry earlier this week, Senator Pauline Hanson said the three-year carbon capture and storage trial contained environmental risks and could have "profound implications for the future of regional Australia" if approved.
"This project is a bit of a canary in the coalmine," she said.
"We know there are already some existing applications. Glencore is just the start. Glencore is the first, but how many others will be given the right to dispose of their CO2 in the basin?" she said.
Meanwhile, CTSCo has been waiting for the Queensland state government to tick-off its plans to inject liquified carbon dioxide emitted by the Milmerran coal-fired power station on the Darling Downs into underground water aquifers at Moonie.
AgForce has also requested a judicial review of a February 2022 decision finding it was unnecessary for the trial to be assessed under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as it fell outside the legislation.
However, the senate committee is able to scrutinise the project's environmental impact assessment processes, including the "adequacy" of its approval by federal and state regulatory bodies.
This includes the decision not to classify the project as a controlled action under national environment law.
It can also assess the project's potential risks and impacts on the groundwater quality within the basin, especially concerning findings related to the "dification of groundwater and mobilisation of heavy metals such as lead and arsenic."
It will also be able to assess the scientific basis and transparency of claims made by Glencore, along with the adequacy of previous community consultation processes and the potential precedent set by allowing CCS projects within the Great Artesian Basin. and its implications for future projects,
Ms Hanson said "we don't know the risks" of allowing waste carbon dioxide to be dumped in the basin.
"The science is not clear on this. If you allow this to happen, you could destroy the Queensland farming sector, communities, towns' drinking water - we don't know," she said.
"Are you prepared to play around with that? Are you prepared to take the risk?"
The Local Government Association of Queensland last year called on the Queensland government to reject the plan while the Queensland Conservation Council also opposes the project.
The federal government have been asked to include requirements to include mandatory assessments of carbon capture and storage projects using underground aquifers in a planned overhaul of the EPBA Act.
The committee is chaired by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young with Labor Senator Karen Grogan is deputy chair.
