I am writing to express my concern and opposition to Fracking in the
Territory. You only need to look to the history of this practice in
other parts of the country to assess the risk to our aquifers and
environment. Our sole reliance on underground aquifers as drinking
water in lower NT should be enough to halt this practice altogether
Right now, Santos have 56 test wells operating in the north-west New
South Wales area. From these wells alone, they have reported 16 spills
or leaks, including the one which poisoned an aquifer 1 ,
contaminating a catchment of groundwater, after years of insisting coal
seam gas mining poses no threat to the water supply.
Now, it's filled with uranium at 20 times the safe drinking water
levels, and has elevated levels of arsenic, lead, aluminium, nickel,
barium and boron. And the penalty handed down to Santos? A paltry $1500
fine.
This isn't the only time Santos' CSG projects have damaged
the environment. In the Pilliga Earlier this year, 10,000 litres of
untreated toxic CSG waste was spilled into the forest. Worse still,
Santos failed to report the incident to authorities2 .Alongside
uranium, chemicals pumped deep into the ground for CSG mining include
methanol, used for explosives; naphthalene, used in napalm; and
hydrochloric acid, used to strip metals.
The stakes are simply too high to have these projects run by any company anywhere near our precious groundwater.
[1] Santos coal seam gas project contaminates aquifer. Sydney Morning Herald. March 8, 2014
[2] Govt urged to act after Santos CSG fine. Nine News National. March 8, 2014
Regards
Tavis Wilkinson and Louise Stokes