AQUIFER HEALTH: Balnaves vineyard manager Pete Balnaves, Coonawarra, says the sustainability of groundwater in the region is vital to his industry."There's two aquifers in the region, the unconfined aquifer and the confined aquifer below that," Pete said. "While there is some natural leakage between the two, we wouldn't like to see any human-induced leakage."
LARGE swathes of agricultural land in the South East, Far North, and the Lower and Mid North have been named as potential targets for a controversial gas extraction technique that has been banned in France and Vermont in the United States.
The State Government's draft Roadmap for Unconventional Gas Projects in SA, released last week, reveals exploration for coal seam gas, shale and tight gas is well under way in the regions and lauded its potential as an alternative to coal-fired electricity production.
This is despite hydraulic fracturing, or fracking - the process by which gas is released from coal seams and shale through high-pressure injection of chemical-rich water to fracture and open up the earth - remaining suspended in New South Wales while an independent review into the process and standards is concluded.
The SA exploration licences - which cover parts of the Coonawarra wine region and are adjacent to the Clare Valley - are being driven by more than 20 companies and joint ventures responding to the success of unconventional gas in the US, the processing and sale of which has rocketed in the past few years, due mainly to shale gas extraction.
Stock Journal
No comments:
Post a Comment