Coal seam gas opponents in the Gloucester district have described a land access agreement signed last month between farmer representative groups and two major gas companies as meaningless.
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AGL and Santos signed an agreement with NSW Farmers, Cotton Australia and the NSW Irrigators Council that allows landholders to say no to CSG operations on their land.
According to the document, the gas companies will respect a private agricultural landholder’s right to say yes or no to CSG drilling operations on their land.
This means companies will not take farmers to arbitration to gain property access.
Gloucester Groundswell spokesman John Watts said, in the Gloucester district, AGL owned virtually all the land where they proposed to undertake CSG drilling.
“Plus their other CSG drilling sites are on land owned by coal mining companies Gloucester Resources and Yancoal, and one would hardly expect those landholders to reject a request from AGL to develop gas wells,” he said.
“So for us in Gloucester, the land access agreement does nothing to protect our community from this environmentally dangerous industry.”
Mr Watts said stages one through three of the AGL gas well development would not be affected at all by the land access agreement.
“The document may help people in other districts, which is good news for them, but locally it will have no impact on the current AGL proposal,” he said.
Mr Watts said expert scientific evidence clearly stated the gas well’s integrity could never be guaranteed, which meant the wells were guaranteed to leak.
“Fracking will damage our water supplies there is no doubt about that and in the Gloucester Valley we have a complex geology and no one really fully understands the connectivity between the upper and lower regions,” he said.
Gloucester Groundswell has requested that AGL prepare an environmental impact assessment before it is allowed to carry out fracking in four wells at the Waukivory Pilot.
“The Environment Defenders Office sent a letter in November 2013 to the Office of Coal Seam Gas concerning the lack of a full impact assessment on the Waukivory Pilot.
“To date we have not received a reply, despite repeated requests,” Mr Watts said.
The other major concern for the group was that the state government has brought in CSG two-kilometre exclusion zones around residential areas and certain villages, but has allowed CSG development within 350 metres of houses at Gloucester.
“Why are our residents of lesser risk from CSG gas development than say someone living in Camden?” he asked.
A spokesperson for AGL said their company respects farmers’ wishes in relation to their land. The Agreed Land Access Principles reflect this."
"AGL already has more than 200 land access agreements with landholders across NSW and has never needed to exercise the arbitration rights available under law. Therefore signing the agreed principles of land access was formalising what we already do. Building long-standing relationships and working with farmers and landholders is what AGL does every day.”
“The Waukivory Pilot Program, which falls within the Gloucester Gas Project area, is properly characterised as petroleum exploration, which requires the preparation of a Review of Environmental Factors (REF). AGL submitted its REF in October 2013 and a comprehensive addendum in December 2013. The REF took more than 12 months to prepare and at 1000 pages, is one of the most detailed assessments of hydraulic fracturing ever conducted in NSW.
“It is important to note that the Gloucester Gas Project is a Part 3A project, which has already been the subject of a full environmental assessment and has Part 3A project approval under the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Approval was granted by the independent Planning Assessment Commission and upheld in the Land and Environment Court. The Project also has approval under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.”
Commenting on the Gloucester Valley geology and connectivity the spokesperson said “The Waukivory Pilot Program will give us an even greater understanding of the different groundwater systems across the region. "
Internationally renowned hydrogeologist and independent peer reviewer selected by the Gloucester Community Consultative Committee, Dr Rick Evans, reviewed AGL’s surface and groundwater studies in 2012.
He noted that the Waukivory flow testing program should proceed as soon as possible. It is a critical investigation to build knowledge of the different groundwater systems across the region and a key part of AGL’s basin-wide water studies program. The flow testing will provide valuable information about potential gas reserves, rock formations and the water cycle.
“With only five percent of the state’s gas needs coming from NSW, AGL is committed to safely delivering gas to homes, business and industry," the spokesperson said.
