SOME Darling Downs landholders are still concerned about coal seam gas impacts on groundwater across southern Queensland, despite the release of a draft underground water impact report.
While the resource sector and the State Government are heralding the draft underground water impact report (UWIR) as a milestone in understanding cumulative impacts of CSG production, many farmers argue there is still not enough certainty in the report.
Downs' landholders say the broad-scale focus of the Surat Basin model does not provide enough certainty about detailed impacts on localised, high risk areas, particularly those dependent on the Condamine Alluvium.
Darling Downs irrigators have worked around the clock during the past two months, juggling the competing demands of a record cotton harvest with the time-consuming task of responding to Arrow Energy's daunting environmental impact statement, which will determine the fate of their farmlands.
Cecil Plains farmer and Save Our Darling Downs committee member, Ruth Armstrong, said landholders should be concerned that data now being collected for detailed studies into the impacts on specific regions was insufficient.
She said more intensive studies into localised high-risk regions was essential.
The Surat Basin, which forms most of the huge cumulative management area studied in the report, covers more than 180,000sq km from Emerald, across the Darling Downs to Goondiwindi.
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