{"id":21492,"date":"2014-09-02T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T03:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=21492"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:56:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:56:32","slug":"thom_mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/thom_mitchell\/","title":{"rendered":"Santos on water transparency countdown: @Thom_Mitchell reports on #Pilliga"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Farmers<\/a>

Farmers are worried about the impact of CSG on agriculture.<\/p><\/div>\n

Coal seam gas (CSG) company Santos has until October 31, 2014, to disclose water and soil test results\u00a0after legal action by farmers seeking information relating to the contamination of water bores on a property in the Pilliga Forest, near Narrabri, resulted in a\u00a0NSW Land and Environment Court order.<\/p>\n

The court order is a win for the Mullaley Gas and Pipeline Accord (MGPA), comprising\u00a0local farmers concerned about whether CSG activity led to the contamination of the water bores.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Pilliga farmer Tony Pickard was alerted by Santos that his bore, located around 1.5 kilometres from exploratory CSG wells, was unfit for drinking or domestic use. The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), who represents the MGPA, said a second bore has since shown possible effects of contamination.<\/p>\n

The Pilliga Forest is at the centre of the CSG industry\u2019s plans for growth into NSW, with an 850-well gas field being considered by the state government for the forest and surrounds. Santos\u2019 Narrabri Gas Project would be the largest gas field in the state, and Santos says it could provide up to half of the state\u2019s gas demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cSantos remains confident that there is no connection between our operations and the bacteria identified in Mr Pickard\u2019s bore,\u201d a spokesperson for the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSantos notes that Mr Pickard has grazing animals, a disused collapsed bore and a septic tank system all in close proximity to his bore, which may be the source of the bacteria,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

However, EDO NSW principal\u00a0solicitor\u00a0Sue\u00a0Higginson said water testing and expert scientific advice indicate CSG activities may have caused the contamination.<\/p>\n

The case comes after \u201cnumerous requests from the farmer, whose bore was contaminated, over the past two years and a request from EDO NSW for this information,” a spokesperson for the EDO said, “but Santos declined to provide all the requested documents”.<\/p>\n

Chairperson of the MGPA David\u00a0Quince questioned why Santos was reluctant to provide the information.<\/p>\n

Mr Pickard has \u201cimpeccable [groundwater] records that go back years, all tested by the very best of authorities,\u201d Mr Quince said. \u201cWhen he found out his bore had been contaminated and went to the CSG industry that\u2019s cropped up next to him for certain information, he had to go to the courts to find out basic stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have thought being such an open and transparent industry, as they say they are, they would readily give that information out,\u201d Mr Quince said.<\/p>\n

However, Santos claimed\u00a0that many of the documents requested by the EDO were not relevant to the case regarding Mr Pickard\u2019s bore, and that the court confirmed that: \u201cAt all times Santos has acted transparently and in good faith to provide Mr Pickard with the information he has requested. This includes test results and samples,\u201d the Santos spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The preliminary discovery case is the first brought against a CSG company which compels production of water quality testing and groundwater monitoring results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case highlights the problems of a largely self-regulatory system, which relies on CSG\u00a0companies doing their own water monitoring and reporting, and does not require this\u00a0information to be made public,\u201d Ms Higginson said.<\/p>\n

The MGPA and EDO said\u00a0they may use the data to launch civil enforcement proceedings against Santos over water pollution which, if successful, would vindicate anti-CSG activists\u2019 claims that the industry contaminates aquifers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coal seam gas (CSG) company Santos has until October 31, 2014, to disclose water and soil test results\u00a0after legal action by farmers seeking information relating to the contamination of water bores on a property in the Pilliga Forest, near Narrabri, resulted in a\u00a0NSW Land and Environment Court order. The court order is a win for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":21506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,1986,1739,585,1582,2004],"tags":[2080,802,2079,2078,2003,1365,2659,1485],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CSG-COWS.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-5AE","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}