Can CSG coexist with ag?

Federal Water Minister Tony Burke said proposed amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, to assess mining developments where national water resources may be impacted significantly, will help to achieve that coexistence.

“You can't talk about impact on water without talking about both environmental and other productive uses," Minister Burke said.

“I think those involved in agriculture will be very pleased to see this (legislative proposal), simply because there has been an understandable frustration.

“A lot of people say to me they'll live either way with the final decision but they want to know that the (approval) process has taken everything into account and to have the current circumstance where we've stepped up to the mark.”

Demands for a moratorium on coal seam gas (CSG) mining reignited this week after the ABC’s Four Corners program broadcast damning allegations on Monday that the Queensland government approved two large projects, despite insufficient information on environmental impacts.

Greens mining spokesperson and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters said CSG mining can’t coexist with agriculture because the science doesn’t say that mining is safe for groundwater.

“Where you’ve got two sets of stakeholders relying on the one set of resource – that is our precious groundwater – you simply can’t coexist,” she said.

“There’s no science that says we can coexist with CSG and farmers but of course the (mining) industry likes to claim that they can and that they will pay compensation.

“But there’s no amount of money that will compensate for the fact your water resource has just dried up and you can’t farm your land anymore.

“There’s no amount of money that will compensate for the fact that our regional communities rely on this groundwater and if it’s not there it will change our environmental and community landscape in Australia.

“We have an awfully long way to go with the science before we can make any claims that CSG can coexist with anything; my hunch is that it can’t.”

Caroona Coal Action Group lobbyist Tim Duddy said nobody actually knows what coexistence means.

Mr Duddy said the mining industry had always exercised cheque-book coexistence whereby they destroyed water supplies for farmers and then bought them out.

He said the new commonwealth CSG legislation removes the ability for mining companies to justify harming water with a cheque book.

Mr Duddy said it was the first example of the federal Labor government actually applying the precautionary principle in approving CSG mining activities in sensitive areas where water supplies and farm land may be threatened.

He expected an outcry from the mining companies to the proposal but said at the end of the day many good, effective mines have been built in appropriate places.

Mr Duddy said the only issue agriculture had with mining was when the wrong mines are located in the wrong places.

He said the Independent Expert Scientific Committee can only make recommendations but the legislation has now given the government teeth to enforce the Committee’s recommendations, regarding any environmental threats to water resources from mining, through the EPBC Act.

On coexistence, Independent MP Tony Windsor said the new commonwealth regulations have been designed to provide objectivity in the mining approval process, based on science and risk.

Mr Windsor said if science “proves up” the risks to water are relatively low, mining projects should proceed.

He said where enormous volumes of ground water exist, that provide income and activity for many people in rural Australia where mining is occurring, “that’s when I think we need objectivity”.

“The science will prove-up whether there’s coexistence rather than people across a table saying ‘you go here or don’t go there’,” he said.

The National Irrigators Council CEO Tom Chesson coexistence had to be achieved between mining and agriculture, to service rural communities economically and safeguard their longevity by protecting water supplies.

“Mining and agriculture are two key industries that have underpinned the building of this nation,” he said.

“There was a time when we rode on the sheep’s back and now it’s mining’s turn to carry the national economy.

“Communities need to coexist with both industries - it’s not a question of if we can co-exist.

“Irrigators usually have more in common with agriculture than mining but we need to be aware of adding more green tape onto both industries that usually comes from a lack of understanding from our city based counterparts.

“Ideally farmers and miners should be able to sit down and broker sensible compromises.”

Mr Chesson said the NIC’s CSG mining policy declared a moratorium on mining, until the full impacts on underground and surface water supplies were known.

He said more research was needed to clearly understand the science and any potentially irreversible impacts on water, from CSG mining.

Mr Chesson said it was difficult to evaluate the current research as not enough work had been done independent of the mining companies and others with vested interests to understand impacts on water and agricultural production from CSG and open coal mining.