Santos' spill spoils goodwill

Just hours earlier, the company was basking in much-needed kudos from the community after signing an agreement protecting landholders' rights.

Santos and AGL inked an historic access policy guaranteeing farmers the right to say no to CSG mining activities just this morning at Parliament House, earning praise from community action groups.

Now the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is on site in the Pilliga investigating the latest incident.

Water was leaked from storage pond 2 at the Bibblewindi site, located within the forest, on Tuesday, March 25. Pond 2 is separate from pond 3, which was responsible for the aquifer contamination incident last year.

Water leaked from the pond into a diversion drain, which Santos said had been blocked to prevent the produced water leaving the site.

"The water was contained within a surface diversion drain onsite and was captured and returned to the holding pond," a Santos spokeswoman said.

"There was no impact to any nearby water source and no risk to the environment.

"A very small amount of salty water (approximately two bath tubs) was released."

Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham said Santos’ good news "didn’t last until dinner”.

“They promised that their new management regime would ensure pollution would stop.

“This incident proves that this industry is unsafe and no matter who runs it.”

Mr Buckingham is questioned the timing of the release, which occurred on Tuesday and was announced following the today’s signing.

“Did the government know about this when they signed the agreement today?

“The Greens and community are united in calling for a complete halt on CSG operations."

The Wilderness Society’s Newcastle manager Naomi Hogan said the company had a "history of failure".

“Santos has a long tragic history of failure in the Pilliga forest, with at least 20 toxic CSG waste water spills, including uranium contamination and continuing leaks from evaporation ponds” Ms Hogan said.

“These spills were from just 56 exploration wells, and Santos has plans to drill 850 wells throughout the Pilliga and productive Narrabri farmlands. The coal seam gas farce must end.”