Great Artesian Basin protection has support of Water Minister Glenn Butcher

Mr Butcher's views were expressed at the recent Local Government Association of Queensland conference and comes as opposition to the proposal at Moonie by Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation, a subsidiary of multinational conglomeration, Glencore, gains momentum.

At the Gladstone (central Queensland) conference last month, Mr Butcher told ACM Agri he thought "there's a whole lot better places in Australia than where the Great Artesian Basin is" to put carbon capture.

"Not only my department, but the environment department is looking very closely at that project and the pilot that they are setting up," he said.

"It's very early days from my understanding in dealing with what they're looking at and as I said in the meeting just then (in Gladstone) I will be making sure that the information comes through to us that backs these things scientifically and environmentally and that if they don't stack up, particularly for me, I sign off on the water part of these projects with carbon capture into the basin - and to be honest I am quite concerned about anyone putting anything into that fantastic Great Artesian Basin."

When asked if he was on the side of farmers, Mr Butcher said that he was on the side of science and the fact "that we shouldn't be putting stuff into our water table that shouldn't be there".

Recently, CTSCo made public a revised EIS which, according to the QFF, does not include an options analysis for alternative geological targets outside the GAB.

The group mounting the campaign to stop CTSCo's proposal includes the QFF, AgForce, a range of other agricultural groups and businesses, and the Queensland Conservation Council.

Murweh Shire Council Mayor Shaun Radnedge believes the GAB should get the same protection as the Great Barrier Reef.

He said the GAB was the shire's main water source and if anything was to happen to that water they would be "in terrible pain".

"My question alone, whenever I speak to a politician, is 'would we even be thinking about doing this, putting carbon capture, underneath the Great Barrier Reef'," he said.

In a written statement, a CTSCo spokesperson said CTSCo has engaged openly and transparently with the local community and peak agricultural NGOs, including AgForce, since 2019.

"Over the past three years, CTSCo has conducted extensive scientific assessments and concluded that the impacts of the project are local and minor with no impact to existing or future GAB groundwater users. This view is shared by the Australian Government Independent Expert Scientific Committee (IESC)," the spokesperson said.

The CTSCo spokesperson also sounded a warning that if the GAB was protected in the same way as the Great Barrier Reef it could "potentially result in the exclusion of this groundwater resource for agriculture use".

"We believe that both activities of agriculture and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) can successfully co-exist," the spokesperson said.

Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce, however, is not convinced saying he opposed the project absolutely.

"They should not be pumping liquified carbon dioxide or hyper-critical fluid as they call it into the waters of the Great Artesian Basin and compromising those waters and putting at risk the world's largest potable water source," he said.

"It's all got to do with the whole zero net carbon debate. It's also tied to a safeguard mechanism which has been imposed by the federal government on the 215 largest companies, who have to decarbonise by 4.9 per cent every year until 2030 to meet the government's carbon emission targets."

Mr Boyce said the GAB covers about 71 per cent of Queensland and 22 per cent of Australia over four states.

"Many rural towns and agricultural businesses...use the Great Artesian Basin as their primary water source and if we are going to pump hyper-critical CO2 fluid, industrial waste, into those waters we will compromise those waters and Glencore has said that in black and white in their EIS statement," he said.

"And, I think it's a ridiculous notion to be compromising a potable water source on the earth's driest, habitable continent."

The CTSCo spokesperson said the company understood the importance of water access and management to all agricultural producers in the region.

"The project has now been independently reviewed by the IESC, Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) and CSIRO as part of the EIS process. It is important to remember that the project proposes to inject food grade carbon dioxide similar to what you find in soft drinks. We do not believe the project poses a risk to any existing or potential future GAB groundwater user," the spokesperson said.

At the LGAQ conference, a motion calling on the state government to protect the GAB from CCS technology was passed.

CCS is a way of reducing carbon emissions and involves capturing the carbon dioxide produced by power generation or industrial activity deep underground with possible storage sites including saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs.