JUST 15 years ago there was no coal-seam gas extraction in Australia.
The realisation of this vast resource and the rapid expansion of the industry to exploit it has been dramatic. Hundreds of gas wells have been drilled annually and there are now 2800 productive wells connected by more than 4000km of pipeline, supplying 90 per cent of Queensland's domestic gas. The industry is set to expand tenfold as $60 billion is invested in projects to liquify and export the gas, creating close to 20,000 jobs. The CSIRO estimates there is enough CSG in eastern Australia to power a city of a million people for 5000 years.
The statistics are mindboggling and help to explain why landholders, communities and regulators have been struggling to keep up. The Senate's rural affairs committee interim report on the industry's impact on the Murray-Darling Basin provides a timely opportunity to assess progress and prepare a sustainable plan. A range of significant issues has emerged over recent years, such as the right of access to properties for exploration, and the appropriate planning procedures to determine land-use priorities.
Concerns about environmental issues are also prominent, with fears that extraction could reduce or pollute groundwater supplies. There have also been cases of contamination from fracking chemicals, and the disposal of saline water extracted from wells could damage agriculture.
The Australian
No comments:
Post a Comment