Coal seam gas will be ‘essential’ for NSWCoal seam gas explorer fails standards: adviser
Business Spectator 22.2.2011
Chemicals linked with the production of coal seam gas have not been evaluated by the national regulator, a chemical management specialist says.
As expansion in the coal seam gas industry continues to boom, fears grow that the groundwater of Great Artesian Basin will be poisoned.
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, an adviser to the federal government’s National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS), said environmental applications by the Queensland Gas Company (QGC) contained out of date and deficient safety data. QGC is a coal seam gas explorer and producer.
“I’ve had a look at the application and what is of concern – the manufacturer’s safety data sheets, or the material safety data sheets they include, they are certainly not the Australian standard and as such they are in breach of both the Queensland Act and the national code for material safety data sheets,” Dr Lloyd-Smith told ABC Television.
Dr Lloyd-Smith said two of the 23 most commonly used compounds in fracturing fluids had been assessed by NICNAS, but their evaluation was not for that particular purpose.
“So you can basically say of the 23 major chemicals used in this process, they have not been assessed by any national regulator,” she said.
A principal hydrologist for 13 years with the Queensland government, John Hillier, said he had concerns about the impact of the coal seam gas industry would have on the Great Artesian Basin.
We attended the film Gasland in Scone NSW last night (7/3/11) put on by the Thoroughbred Society. We found it extremely alarming. We have drilling propopsed in the Wybong valley which is in the Upper Hunter . As land owners in this wonderful grazing & national park area we would like to know how we can stop this happening. We only have one planet, one lot of land & a limited amount of fresh water. Our governments seem to want to surge forward with abandon to pollute & damage everyhting we have.