How will CSG manage the salt time-bomb?

One of the most significant unresolved questions as coal seam gas wells expand rapidly across eastern Australia is how the industry will deal with the huge volumes of salt it produces.

CSG production involves removing water from coal seams to free-up trapped gases. The water typically contains high quantities of salt which has to be managed in an environmentally acceptable way once brought to the surface. 

Community groups have long been concerned that CSG companies are being granted environmental approvals to proceed by Governments eager to generate royalty flows and new jobs before they have solid plans in place to deal with the contaminated water and salt their developments will produce.

After studying the Environmental Impact Statement of Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project in Southern Queensland, Darling Downs landholder and rural community group Save Our Darling Downs says it is clear the company has “no idea” about how to handle the vast tonnages of salt it will generate.

Arrow Energy has rejected the criticism, stating that it is committed to removing all produced salt from the local landscape, and that it is considering several options to to deal with the problem. 

Save our Darling Downs says figures contained in Arrow Energy’s EIS show that the company plans to pump around 770 gigalitres of water from the region’s coal seams – one and half times the volume of Sydney Harbour – which will contain 3.5 million tonnes of salt.

The group says the options being considered by Arrow, which include ‘disposal to watercourses’ and ‘ocean outfall’ (pumping the water to the ocean), would have serious environmental implications.

The use of reverse osmosis to allow “beneficial re-use” of water is also cited, but the group points out that this is not a workable solution to handle the massive volumes of water involved.

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Editor's Note :  "After studying the Environmental Impact Statement of Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project in Southern Queensland, Darling Downs landholder and rural community group Save Our Darling Downs says it is clear the company has “no idea” about how to handle the vast tonnages of salt it will generate.

Arrow Energy has rejected the criticism as they would, stating that it is committed to removing all produced salt from the local landscape, and that it is considering several options to to deal with the problem.

Save our Darling Downs says figures contained in Arrow Energy’s EIS show that the company plans to pump around 770 gigalitres of water from the region’s coal seams – one and half times the volume of Sydney Harbour – which will contain 3.5 million tonnes of salt"