COAL seam gas mining poses just as big a threat to the Murray Darling Basin’s agricultural production base as the Murray Darling Basin Plan, according to the NSW Irrigators Council which represents more than 12,000 irrigation farmers.
Speaking at the Federal Senate hearing last Friday on coal seam gas mining’s impact on the Basin, Council CEO, Andrew Gregson, said any mining permits should only be issued on a “no regrets” basis.
The Council is concerned coal seam gas mining threatens the quality and accessibility of ground and surface water resources, with mining projects causing increased salinity and adding chemicals to water sources.
“The preservation of sustainable resources in agriculture – including water – must be absolute in addressing mining exploration or operational licence applications,” he said.
“NSWIC advocates a strict “no regrets” approach to the licencing of both exploration and operations in mining in respect of water resources.”
Mr Gregson said his advice to the committee and associated mining companies was to proceed with caution, questioning why there was such a rush to issue mining permits.
He said co-existence between mining and agriculture may be possible - but until it was proved that agricultural production and water resources can be protected beyond any reasonable doubt, no permits should be issued.
The hearing heard from a range of witnesses including mining companies Dart Energy and Origin Energy.
Origin Energy, the largest subsidiary of Australia’s largest coal seam gas operator Australia Pacific LNG, said the impacts of coal seam gas mining on prime farming land are manageable.
Origin Energy corporate affairs manager, Ken Horton, said only a minor part of the company’s exploration was conducted on cropping land, which could affect its quality.
Australia Pacific LNG’s submission said a range of regulatory regimes require a “rigorous, public assessment process” for major projects against comprehensive terms of reference or other statutory requirements, which are underpinned by the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
The submission said these assessment processes are open and transparent and project proposals are only allowed to proceed if appropriate environmental, social and economic outcomes are assessed.
But Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) said many unknowns were associated with the various chemicals used in hydraulic fracking.
In addition, poor information on how the chemicals potentially interact with each other, meant it was difficult to make definitive statements on the overall environmental and health impact of their use in the Basin.
DEA, a voluntary network of doctors working to address diseases caused by damage to the earth’s environment, says coal seam gas mining may have adverse impacts on human health through the potential contamination of drinking and agricultural-use water, and air.
“Contaminants of concern include many of the chemicals used for fracking, as well as toxic substances produced through this process and mobilized from the sedimentary regions drilled,” DEA submitted.
“Some of these compounds can produce short-term health effects and some may contribute to systemic illness and/or cancer many years later.
“One of the biggest problems with understanding the potential health impacts is the lack of transparency and consistency around the chemicals used and the lack of monitoring under the normal protections afforded to drinking water supplies.”
The National Toxics Network (NTN) called on Federal and State governments to implement a moratorium on drilling and fracking chemicals used in coal seam gas and shale gas extraction, until they have been fully assessed for their health and environmental “hazards” by the national regulator, the National Industrial Chemical Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS).
NTN Senior Advisor, Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, said State and Federal governments needed the resources and political will to ensure any chemicals used in the mining methods, were properly assessed.
The NTN said industry representatives claimed fracking chemicals were safe because they are similar to ‘food additives’ and are used in ‘household products’.
But it said those claims were “misleading for several reasons”.
“A number of the chemicals used in fracking fluids would never be permitted as food additives or household products due to their toxicity,” NTN submitted.
“As well, there has been no comprehensive hazard assessment of the chemical mixtures used in fracking fluids nor their impacts on the environment or human health.”
Hearing Chairman, NSW Liberal Senator, Bill Heffernan, said each witness gave “stunning evidence in their own way”.
He said NSW appeared to be in a position to “pull the game in a bit” but QLD had succumbed to the “allure of royalties” and convincing public relations spin about the broader economic benefits delivered through the coal seam gas industry.
Senator Heffernan said the long term impacts of coal seam gas mining needed to be at the forefront of any legislative considerations, so in years ahead farmers don’t wake up and say, ‘what happened here?’.
“Developers want to get approvals for mining and flick it but that’s not the attitude of farmers who are responsible to the environment and want to make sure that when they do retire one day, they hand over the farm to their children in better condition than when they started,” he said.
“We need to plan for sustainable agricultural production and preserve that future but not be ignorant of energy needs.”
Senator Heffernan said the Senate inquiry was alerting the public to broader issues about the longer-term impacts of coal seam gas mining on agriculture and food production.
He said some mining companies had even started changing their attitudes.
“Some are saying, ‘we probably won’t be going here or there because there will be another repeat of the Franklin Dam episode’, and good luck to them if there is,” he said.
“Santos gave evidence (to the inquiry) saying they’d like to have the regulations plain; they’d like to know what the rules are; and they’d like to know where they can and can’t go.
“To their great credit, they said that they won’t be entering farms where they know they are not wanted.
“But others have said they will be doing it and have a different attitude and that would especially apply to the cowboys who want to assess the value of exploration rights and then flick it.”
Senator Heffernan said the NSW Irrigators Council had a sensible attitude in calling for governments to err on the side of caution, agreeing the precautionary approach was preferred.
“We want to make sure we don’t look back in future and say, ‘how did we let that one go?” he said.
“This is as big a challenge to the industry as the Murray Darling Basin plan which the NSWIC said (at the hearing) and I know is a big statement.
“But hopefully politicians will have the courage to look at where we are going to be in 50 years time and how that fits in with global food security challenges, rather than just the next election.
“They also have to understand we need to balance what’s in the fridge with what’s in the garage.”
The inquiry is examining economic, social and environmental impacts of coal seam gas mining on the Basin and the property rights of landholders.
It is due to report on November 30.
