SANTOS has installed an extensive groundwater monitoring network at its Narrabri Gas Project, which the company says will provide confidence local water resources will not be impacted.
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However, coal seam gas critics said they remain concerned until a formal Environmental Impact Statement is created for the project.
Santos senior hydrogeologist Glenn Toogood said while independent studies had shown Santos’ operations near Narrabri would not have an impact on farmers’ water, the real-time monitoring network in place provided additional assurances.
In a video explaining the system, Mr Toogood said ongoing monitoring was the tool by which Santos ensured its activities did not impact local water resources.
“We test our groundwater pressures every 30 minutes right across the monitoring network. We do this because we not only believe it’s good science, but it’s the right thing to do,” Mr Toogood said.
Lock the Gate Alliance NSW co-ordinator Georgina Woods said the “public relations video” from Santos was a distraction from the core concerns of farmers and landholders about the potential impacts of CSG on their land, water and communities.
“We are still waiting for a formal Environmental Impact Statement about this project, which can be used by government and communities to evaluate the risk to local groundwater and farms,” Ms Woods said.
“An analysis of the EIS by independent water experts is vital to figuring out impacts on groundwater and farms, not PR spin.” Santos general manager of energy NSW, Peter Mitchley, said the water Santos would extract through the Narrabri Gas Project was not the water accessed by agricultural and community bores.
He said water would not be taken from the Great Artesian Basin, but from coal seams that lie much deeper underground.
“We drill through the sandstones down into the coals and that’s where we take our water from – so it’s not connected in any way to the shallower zones where farmers and agricultural users are taking water from,” Mr Mitchley said.
“In fact, within the project area lies hundreds of metres of impermeable rock which acts as a natural barrier to the movement of water between the deep coal seams and the overlying shallow aquifers used by farmers and the community.
“We know that water resources are important and we are 100 per cent committed to protecting those water resources.”
Former CSIRO water expert Dr Richard Cresswell said even in drought conditions, a farmer’s water would not be impacted by any of the drilling that goes through the Great Artesian Basin to get to the coal seam gas.
