South Burnett producer Damien O’Sullivan, pictured with wife Neralie, said there was confidence in the community the Cougar Energy UCG project had seen its final days in the region.
IT has taken more than three years of meetings, a sea of placards and a continuous stream of letters to the State government, but South Burnett residents are finally feeling confident there will be no underground coal gasification (UCG) in their community.
In the latest in a series of decisions that have reaffirmed the government order to close the controversial project, the Planning and Environment Court has rejected an appeal by Cougar Energy against the shutdown of the company's Kingaroy-based UCG project.
Delivering his ruling, Judge Richard Jones rejected Cougar Energy's repeated assertions that no environmental harm had taken place due to the UCG trial, adding that the contaminated water at Kingaroy could be a potential future source of potable human drinking water and that the precautionary principle must apply.
He ruled that the company must recommence decommissioning and rehabilitation on the site, even though it is still appealing the Department of Environment and Resource Management's decision to permanently close the operation.
QCL
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