APPEA: Study Shows Gas Industry to Have Little Impact on Great Artesian Basin (Australia)

An independent study conducted by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and released today by the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) shows the coal seam gas industry will have little impact on either the Great Artesian Basin or aquifers relied on by agriculture.

APPEA’s Director – CSG, Ross Dunn, said: “This study, which was conducted at arm’s length from industry, backs up what we have consistently said; that the coal seam gas industry will not compromise the future of extensive agriculture”.

The study was initiated in 2010 by the four major coal seam gas (CSG) companies operating in the Surat Basin to provide a greater understanding of the industry’s cumulative groundwater impacts in the area. The USQ was commissioned in September 2010 to manage this study, with RPS Aquaterra engaged to undertake the independent assessment of cumulative impacts, based on information from published impact assessment reports and other information made available to USQ and RPS Aquaterra by the four CSG companies to undertake the study.

The overarching aim was to collate and present the existing groundwater modelling data to provide both the Government and the public with a greater level of understanding and confidence regarding the cumulative groundwater impacts from the development of CSG projects within the Surat Basin (the report does not cover the Condamine Alluvium). The study assessed a “high impact” and “low impact” case and found very little difference in the extent or magnitude of impact between these except in the deep underlying aquifers, which are not major aquifers for agriculture.

Mr Dunn said: “The study shows previous estimates of cumulative water extraction by the industry have significantly overstated the volume of water to be extracted.

“Water is extracted to depressurise the coal seam and enable gas to flow but the major projects in Queensland are all positioned next to one another, so the drawdown of water by one project will also reduce the pressure in adjacent projects meaning the adjacent project will not need to extract as much water for gas to flow. Previous estimates of cumulative water extraction have merely been the sum of project groundwater extractions that made no allowance for the impact of adjacent projects.”

“This study is further evidence of the CSG industry’s commitment to add to the already extensive body of science on groundwater and take every step necessary to ensure the industry develops sustainably.”

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Source: APPEA, August 3, 2011;