AS THE debate about coal seam gas continues to heat up, a prominent Sydney University academic has weighed into the debate
In an upcoming article in the Environment and Planning Law Journal Agricultural and Resource Economics, Alan Randall claims the mines will have a dramatic impact on communities living nearby.
Professor Randall said that given the potential impacts of coal seam gas mining, the state government must slow down on approving the mines and do more research on their potential impacts.
"Coal seam gas development has a much greater footprint on the land and environment than the fairly modest area devoted to its well heads would suggest, given the need for accompanying infrastructure, such as roads, pipes, processing and waste storage and treatment facilities," he said.
He said coal seam gas mines would impact rural and community ways of life and reduce agricultural productivity everywhere they operated.
However, NSW Resources and Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said the government had already implemented stringent controls to address community concerns about the impact of the mines.
Mr Hartcher said the controls had a strong emphasis on protecting water resources. He said the government, unlike its Queensland counterpart, was taking "a steady approach" to the issue of coal seam gas mining.
Mr Hartcher said it had already placed a moratorium on the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), ahead of an independent review, and banned the use of evaporation ponds and BTEX chemicals.
But Northern Illawarra Sustainability Alliance spokesman Peter Turner said the government must rule out any mines in Sydney's water catchment if it was serious about protecting the state's water supplies.
"As yet, there is no known way to reliably assess the cumulative impacts of a gas field on an aquifer system and no way to assess the cumulative impacts of a gas field deployed over a catchment area already damaged by longwall coal mining," he said.
Mr Turner said it was ironic that Premier Barry O'Farrell was prepared to stop mining in Dharawal National Park but had done nothing to protect the Woronora water catchment. "If the health of the Georges River is important enough to ban mining in the Dharawal National Park, surely protecting the health of our drinking water catchments is important enough to ban mining in the special areas," Mr Turner said.
