ENVIRONMENTALISTS are calling for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining in the NSW, after toxic chemicals were detected in the Pilliga state forest six months after a toxic spill.
Soil and water samples taken by the Wilderness Society showed high levels of a number of metals, in the wake of a June 2011 saline water spill at Santos's coal seam gas project near Narrabri, in northern NSW.
The samples showed lead at five times the acceptable drinking water standard, arsenic at twice and chromium at 3.74 times the acceptable standards - a toxic cocktail the Wilderness Society says could still be leaking from the gas project.
"Our tests of the Pilliga spill have revealed for the first time just how toxic this coal seam gas water is - it is a cocktail of heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic, plus salts and petrochemicals," Naomi Hogan of The Wilderness Society said in a statement.
Herald Sun
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