The Narrabri community had the opportunity to voice their concerns about Santos’ recently-released Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) at two public consultation sessions this week.
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More than 40 people attended the information sessions run by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The sessions were an opportunity for the community to find out more about the assessment process now that Santos has lodged its EIS and provided a chance for members of the public to raise their concerns about the impact of the Narrabri Gas Project.
The exhibition period for the 7,000-page EIS opened on February 20 and was recently extended for an additional 30 days, until May 22, giving community members, landholders and key stakeholders a total of 90 days to make a submission.
The Department of Planning and Environment has already received more than 1,000 submissions, which director of resource assessment Mike Young said is reflective of concern about the project, not just locally but statewide, nationally and even internationally.
“It reflects that people have been waiting a long time for the document to be finalised by the company and to have their say,” he said.
“Some of the concerns are impacts on water, climate change, human health and safety, impacts on agriculture, impacts on the Pilliga forest and traffic concerns.”
People for the Plains is one group opposed to the project which plans to make a comprehensive submission and will also be assisting individuals who wish to have their say.
The biggest concern for People for the Plains is the uncertainties within the report and whether the project can meet the triple bottom line – the balance of economic, social and environmental factors.
“Ultimately what it boils down to is water health, the impacts on the economy and on the social fabric and social cohesion – does Narrabri end up being a nice place to live?” spokesperson Rohan Boehm said. “There’s a lot of inconsistencies and nowhere near the amount of rigour that we believe it ought to have and that creates more uncertainty.”
Narrabri farmer and North West Alliance spokesperson Sally Hunter will be making a personal submission about the social impacts of the project which she believes aren’t adequately covered.
“[The report] slices out potential impacts like housing but I don’t believe it takes into consideration the whole life cycle of the project and the implication of that,” she said.
“Their mitigation solutions are weak and not holistic.”
Meanwhile, the Narrabri Business Chamber is fully supportive of the project, not only for the money Santos has invested in town, but the creation of jobs and diversity of the workforce it will bring.
“Narrabri is one of three growth centres in Northern inland NSW and one of the reasons for this is because of diversity; agriculture will always be our number one focus and rightly so, however agriculture now is only number 11 in the hierarchy of employers,” president Russell Stewart said.
“If we are to retain young people and offer our young people a meaningful career going frowards, then we have to have diversity and a variety of occupations … this is what coal seam gas is offering.
“The build-up phase is expected to create 1300 jobs, only 10 per cent local – but that’s still 130 local jobs.
“After the build-up phase it’s expected to create 200 full-time permanent positions and most of these will be living in Narrabri and many will be local people.”
Yes2Gas also supports the project for the boost it will provide to the local economy and will be making a submission outlining the benefits to town.
“It’s all about the positive aspects of the project – jobs, developing industry and the flow-on effect,” spokesperson Louise Tout said.
“When Santos were drilling their exploratory holes, it was a very positive time for Narrabri.”
Submissions can be made at www.majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au.
Once the exhibition period closes, Santos will have the opportunity to respond to submission, before a whole of government assessment is undertaken.
This will involve the government seeking advice from a range of independent experts and government agencies before the decision is passed to the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC).
A final decision isn’t expected until about mid-2018.
