Residents
in the Camden and Gloucester areas have concerns about the proximity of coal
seam gas wells to their homes. Elsewhere
in NSW most residential areas have 2 km buffer zones between them and gas
wells.
In
Camden there are gas wells within 200 metres of homes. These wells were approved before the Government
introduced the 2 km buffer zone in response to a long public campaign to keep
wells away from residential areas.
Camden residents are concerned that cracks in walls and subsidence may
be due to the proximity of the gasfield.
Their concerns
about the gasfield increased on August 31st when a well near Spring
Farm homes leaked noisily for several hours forcing residents to call in the
fire brigade. AGL's comments following
this incident are unlikely to have reassured local residents.
Last
month the State Government gave AGL (the same company operating the Camden gasfield)
permission to frack four gas wells less than a kilometre from homes. (Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a
process for releasing gas trapped in rock.)
An
independent hydrogeologist, Professor Philip Pells, has warned of the high risk
of fracking at Gloucester. AGL's own
hydrogeologist , John Ross, has also commented on the high risk associated with fracking in
these four wells.
There is
a major risk of aquifer contamination. Gloucester's position at the head of the
Manning River means that any contamination could cause problems for the river and
the drinking water for 75,000 people.
The
approval of these wells is inconsistent with Government buffer zone policy. Why
have a policy that you disregard?
The Lock
the Gate organisation is calling on the NSW Government to provide the same
rights and protections for Camden and Gloucester residents that everyone else
in the state has.
They are
urging the government to do three things.
The first is to suspend AGL's approval to frack at Gloucester and to
review all CSG approvals there. The
second is to decommission all existing wells within 2 km of homes at AGL's
Camden gasfield. The third is to
investigate and prosecute all pollution incidents at AGL's Camden gasfield.
-
Leonie Blain
This article was published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on Monday 8th September, 2014.
