Whiporie is about 50 km north of Grafton on the Summerland Way.
Red Sky has successfully applied to
move to the second stage of its Talma coal seam gas project to operate a pilot
production well at Whiporie for a period of no more than 18 months. This has happened despite the State
Government claiming no new production licences would be granted until
investigations into coal seam gas are complete.
But this is only a pilot production well – some more
hair-splitting!
That approval did not happen without
some major changes to Red Sky's original Review of Environmental Factors
(REF). However, not surprisingly the REF
still claims the single well will have minimal impact.
There are inferences throughout the
document that the drilling at the Talma site is aimed at determining the gas
levels in Kangaroo Creek sandstone, and not for the purpose of developing a gas
field there. These include statements
like:
"Due
to the limited duration of the activities, no cumulative environmental impact
is anticipated",
and
"The
site is expected to be restored to its prior condition within a short time of
abandonment."
Likewise under the heading "Rehabilitation Works", we
are assured that the program will last a maximum 18 months and that "At
the conclusion of the program, complete environmental restoration of the site
will be undertaken."
However, the penultimate sentence of
the REF states " A
future gas project may, if commercial, have some favourable long-term impacts
on the economy of the local community
(no mention of future environmental
impacts) and (then the big lie) provide energy alternatives that
reduce greenhouse impacts from those currently available. "
As a result of that statement, I
believe the proponent has a serious credibility problem.
Of course we believe the entire process
is seriously flawed. It is widely
acknowledged that once an exploration licence is granted, the mining company
has an expectation, if not an outright legal right, that it will be allowed to
mine any viable fields it finds. With coal
seam gas, this means a fully blown gas field.
While the Talma site is on a small
area of cleared land, it is surrounded by a large tract of native forest. So a gas field around the site would see
massive destruction and fragmentation of wildlife habitat.
Therefore, if the discovery of a
viable resource leads to a licence to mine that resource, we believe the full
impacts of that entire extraction process should be assessed up front.
Adapted from
a report by J Edwards in the Clarence Environment Centre's Winter 2012
Newsletter.
