Executives of some of the major coal seam gas (CSG) miners have faced questioning at a committee hearing in Canberra over the damage being done to farming land.
CSG producers sought to assure farmers and politicians that the operation does not threaten the environment and can coexist with food production in rural regions, but Senators do not appear to be convinced, the ABC reports.
Santos vice president James Baulderstone said he wants critics of CSG to recognise that he has agricultural roots.
“I grew up and went to school in a small rural community in the Murray-Mallee.
“My father is a third generation farmer.
“With this background, I have a personal interest in and commitment to ensuring that Santos treats the landholders with whom it works as I would expect my father to be treated.”
The ABC reports Senators at the committee hearing yesterday did not seem convinced of the good intentions of CSG miners and along with local communities are still concerned about the possible contamination of aquifers used by farmers.
But Mark Macfarlane told the ABC communities and Senators should not be concerned.
“Water used by farmers, they are separated from the coal seams by hundreds of metres of impervious rock,” he said.
“There can be no contamination of the surface aquifers.”
Senator Bill Heffernan, who is leading the Inquiry into CSG in Australia to end what he calls “cowboy regulation” said the major concern is the use of fracking to break up the coal seam.
He said some fracking material has been discovered in acquifers, calling into question the claims from CSG companies that the process is safe.
Heffernan asked a company spokesman how a contaminated aquifer can be fixed, and he replied “Go back firstly to the well construction tanks –“ before Heffernan interrupted, saying it was unknown how to solve such a problem.
“No, no, but if it happens, how do you fix it?” he asked
“The answer is you don’t know, I don’t know. There’s no known technique.”
The companies faced questioning from the Senators about how they would enforce their right to access farming land, and Baulderstone claimed Santos would not be forcing farmers to allow them onto land.
“We have to have respectful relations with our community,” he said.
“We employ locals, if a farmer does not want us on his property, we will not be going through that gate.”
But Deborah Kerr from the National Farmers’ Federation told the committee Australia is facing a crisis where the ability to farm is being threatened by mining and urbanism.
“The amount of land that we’ve had for agriculture is declining because all of those things and yet we haven’t had a discussion about the value of our food production because quite frankly, we haven’t starved here in Australia.”
On Monday a medical doctor and expert on environmental health, climate change and world civilisation says the regulations governing mining in Australia are outdated and it’s damaging the food industry.
Image: Drill Blast