Fracking hell: Busting the natural gas mythFree open air screening of GASLAND
A free community screening of the award-winning movie Gasland, to protest against the secretive plans for Coal Seam Gas exploration in St Peters, inner-western Sydney.
Gas-fired Debate
Earlier last year Landline reported on the extraordinary impact the booming coal seam gas industry was having on rural Queensland. The Federal and State Governments have since signed off on multi-billion dollar export projects that will take the industry to a new level of investment and production.
Not enough known on CSG: experts
“If not adequately managed and regulated, the industry risks significant, long-term and adverse impacts on surface and ground-water systems,” Ms Munroe (National Water Commissioner) said.
She said mining should operate under the same rules applied to other water users.
‘Good word’ for gas company
A STRING of Coalition MPs appears to have promoted the cause of a coal-seam gas company headed by former Nationals leader John Anderson.
Mines discharge polluted water
Nine coalmines and two coal seam gas operations have released water “outside of their Environmental Authority conditions” in recent weeks.
The department said it was investigating all of the releases “and will take enforcement action where necessary”.
The government has changed its reporting procedures since facing heavy criticism after 10 mining sites spilled poisonous material when overrun by the biggest floods in decades in 2008.
Media release from Drew Hutton
Queensland’s environmental regulator the Department of Resource Management (DERM) is powerless to stop flood waters creating massive pollution from mine sites across the state.
Message from Tara Meixsell
A message from a member in the U.S. –
“Go Australia, and fight for your water, and land, and rights”.
JP Morgan report raises concerns over coal seam gas industry
ONE of the world’s biggest merchant banks has raised serious questions about the reliability and safety of the $50 billion coal seam gas industry, citing the potential for large, uncontrolled gas releases. The National Water Commission has claimed Queensland underground aquifers could be depleted and take centuries to recover because of gas extraction. Now a […]
Violence behind mining boom revealed
“Work camps have a profound impact upon the patterns of violence in host communities,” Professor Carrington said. “The communities are ill-equipped to deal with this. Regional and remote areas are under-resourced, lacking enough police, medical facilities and other emergency and human services. There’s a real urgency to address these problems.”
“The mining boom is great for job growth, but the dark underlying fact is these practices contribute little to local economies and have serious criminological and social impacts for residents and affected communities, ultimately at the expense of the nation,” she said
Windsor plans new coal seam gas rules to protect water
Companies seeking to exploit the lucrative NSW coal seam gas reserves are likely to face a new federal regulatory barrier as the independent MP Tony Windsor prepares to use his balance-of-power position to require region-wide water assessments before new mining proceeds.
Farmers and environmental groups have called for a mining moratorium until fears about groundwater contamination are resolved.
On Friday the national water commissioner, Chloe Munro, said the coal seam gas industry needed to be better managed because it could have a ”significant” impact on surface and groundwater.
She said the commission believed coal seam gas developers should operate under the same rules as other water users.
Last month the Water Minister, Tony Burke, approved $35 billion worth of coal seam gas projects in Queensland, but documents released later showed his department had ”significant concerns” about it and said the gas extraction could have implications for the Murray-Darling Basin.