Gippsland or Gasland?

A presentation on Coal Seam Gas for ‘Lock the Gate Gippsland’

compiled by Dr Chris James. 2012.

COAL SEAM GAS

THE BIGGEST LAND GRAB SINCE COLONISATION!

With 40% of Victoria and 80% of Gippsland under mining

licence, How will it affect you?

WHAT IS COAL SEAM GAS?How is it extracted?

• CSG is extracted through wells drilled into coal seams.

• All unconventional gas resources like CSG require water to be removed from the relevant aquifer and/or the use of stimulation to unlock the gas and allow it to flow to the surface. Stimulation can be done by processes called hydraulic fracturing, or FRACKING which involves creating cracks in the coal seams to increase the gas flow [DPI].

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WATER?

• When CSG comes to the surface, water in the gas is separated.

• The water is then treated…before it is injected back into underground water systems. Sometimes it is used for other purposes such as irrigating crops, watering livestock or for commercial use[DPI].

• Is it safe? we don’t know because nobody has actually measured how much poisonous methane leaks from Australian coal seam gas wells. [Greens Org. greens.org.au/.../department-unable-explain-how-emissions-coal-sea... 14th Feb 2012].

Coal Seam Gas is the greatest threat to land, life and well being Australia

has ever experienced.

THIS IS WHAT A GASFIELD LOOKS LIKE.

• •

• •

WHAT THE GAS COMPANIES DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW…

• Gas exploration starts with one or two wells. Once there is full production there are many more wells and you will lose control of your property.

• Drilling can range from 300m to 1,200; it can go as low as 2,500m below the deep water aquifers.

• Gas mining uses 300 gig litres of groundwater a year, the equivalent of 1 billion litres, that’s 500 Olympic size swimming pools.

Will this impact on water supplies? Yes it will!

HOW SAFE IS CSG?.YOU BE THE JUDGE.

• QLD. KINGAROY: a toxic scare caused bans on cattle sales after the Cougar Energy plant shutdown. Courier Mail

July 21, 2010.

• NSW: Arsenic and lead were found in contaminated water leaking at a coal seam gas drill site. SMH February 10, 2012

• QLD: coal seam gas (CSG) is bubbling to the surface along a five-kilometre stretch of the Condamine River in Queensland. The Australian May 30th 2012.

• QLD: There have been more nose bleeds, vomiting and rashes among people near the Tara gas wells. Weekly Times 5th July 2012.

This is just a small sample of the problems.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT CSG?

• Gas mining produces 3 million tons of salt, a pile 10metres high and 11 kilometres long for an estimated 7,000 wells. There could be as many as 40,000 wells or more across any one state.

• Contaminated water raised is stored in holding ponds despite potential flooding and overflow [Northern Rivers Video,2012].

• Will salt and contaminated water spill onto your land? Very likely!

AND THERE IS MORE…

• Once a well is drilled through the aquifer the aquifer is connected to the coal seam with only the well casting and cement to separate them [www.edo.org.au].

• 50% of wells in Queensland are believed to be leaking [www.lockthegate.org].

WARNING!!!!• There are no limits on water for mining companies.• There are no limits on land to be cleared.

AND MORE… If you live in a small community you could have a drilling operation

100m from your house. Why should this concern you? • Drilling is a 24 hour flood lit operation.• There is noise• Dust• Traffic• Smell• Combustion.• Health and safety Issues.• Insufficient emergency services.

• • • •

IS ‘FRACKING’ OR THE PRESSURISED SPLITTING OF ROCKS FOR GAS

DANGEROUS? • Hydraulic ‘fracking’ causes micro-seismic events or

earthquakes. It is the open pathways that allow the gas to escape. When fractures interfere with fault lines it can also cause gas and fluids to migrate across other geologic areas causing pollution to groundwater, land shifts and subsidence.

• How do mining companies calculate the risks?• We don’t know because mining companies will not

disclose.

ARE CHEMICALS USED IN FRACKING CARCENOGENIC AND DANGEROUS?

Here are some of the chemicals used in fracking! Propanol Complexor; Butoxyethanol; Acetic Acid; Acrylic

copolymer Lubricant; Ammonium persulfate; Boric Acid; Boric Oxide; Carbonic acid; Carboxy-Methyl Hydroxy-Propyl Guar Gelling agent; Crystalline silica (cristobalite) Proppant; Crystalline silica (quartz) Proppant; Citric Acid; Diammonium Peroxidisulphate; Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate Gelling agent; Gas oils (petroleum); Fumaric acid; Gelatine; Hemicellulase Enzyme; Hydrochloric Acid; Hydroxy-Ethyl Cellulose Gelling agent; Hydroxy-Propyl Guar Gelling agent; Magnesium silicate hydrate; Methanol fuel; ethanol. [APPEA] Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

Many of these chemical WILL put your health at risk.

THESE ARE THE CHEMICALS ANTICIPATED FOR USE IN GIPPSLAND: WOULD YOU PUT THESE CHEMICALS IN YOUR DRINKING WATER?

Mono Amine Gelling; Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether Mutual solvent;

Muriatic Acid; Non-crystalline silica Proppant; Poly (oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) Proppant; Polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride [Used in waste water treatment]; Potassium Carbonate; Potassium Chloride [Clay inhibitor]; Quaternary Polyamines; Sodium Acetate; Sodium Borate; Sodium Bicarbonate; Sodium Carbonate (Soda Ash); Sodium Chloride; Sodium Hydroxide; Sodium Hypochlorite with/without Sodium Hydroxide Antiseptic; Sodium Persulfate ; Terpenes/terpenoids/sweet orange oil;

• Tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) Phosphonium Sulfate Antiseptic. • Tetramethyl ammonium chloride Clay control .• Zirconium complex. [APPEA] Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration

Association.

Would you want to risk the health of your family, especially your children?

These are the risks:• Increased asthma • Difficulty breathing• Nose bleeds• Skin burns• Skin rashes• Sore eyes• Insomnia

Photo: www.couriermail.com

cover-up as D-day looms for coal seam gas projects316 x 421 · 15 kB · jpegwww.couriermail.com.au

DO YOU WANT HEAVY TRUCKING ACROSS YOUR LAND?

• For a single horizontal well fracturing requiring 5 million gallons of fresh water expect 100 truck loads of fresh water trucked across your land.

• Then another 700 truckloads of toxic waste could be exported in vehicles across your land [edo.org.au].

• Will this change your daily routine? Very likely.• Will this impact of stock and cropping? Very likely.

WHO IS LIABLE FOR THE DAMAGE AND COSTS?

• It is unlikely a mining company will buy your land because that makes them liable for any damage. You are liable!

• You also have a duty of care to your neighbours.• Your neighbours can sue you if you fail in your duty of care.

• Are mining companies responsible? Many hundreds of incidents across the world tell us mining companies put profits before people. Here are just two examples:

• • • •

Abandoned Woodside-Lakes Oil well head from the 1950s, believed to be still leaking.

AGL bore adjacent to the vineyard village of Broke showing significant subsidence. 2012

•

CAN COAL SEAM GAS CAUSE EARTHQUAKES?

• The extraction of groundwater can alter local underground stress fields, risking subsidence or other seismic events. Fracking has been directly implicated in geological effects such as earthquakes:

• In October 2011 the BGS confirmed that earthquakes in Britain were a direct result of drilling and fracking by Cuadrilla Resources.

• The Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS) and the Centre of Seismographic Information and Research at the University of Memphis conducted a study of the thousands of earthquakes that occurred in Faulkner County in Arkansas, United States, over the course of over a year. On February 27th, 2011, the area was hit with a 4.7 magnitude earthquake...AGS concluded that … there is ‘strong temporal and spatial evidence for a relationship between these quakes and the injection wells’. Seismic activity has almost ceased since the fracking stopped. stop-csg-illawarra.org/csg-risks/seismic-activityity

HOW MUCH MINING IS TOO MUCH?

Gippsland has a history of mining going back to the 1950s. There has already been an extensive burden on groundwater as well as coastal subsidence.

98% of the value has already been removed from some coastal homes.

More than half the rural properties with or near gas mines go up for sale unsuccessfully.

NO ONE WANTS A FARM WITH OR NEAR A GAS MINE!

EARTHQUAKE RISKS: GIPPSLAND’S MAJOR FAULT SYSTEM:[ASP] 2009.

Seismic Data and current well distribution [ASP] Australian School of Petroleum 2009.

Shallow Seismic Activity.

WHAT DO THESE MAPS TELL US?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Clearly, any more stress on an already sinking coast line will put homes and lives at risk; but in assessing the risk the Minerals Council of Australia [Victorian Branch] 2009, in its Vision 2020 document noted that the population is small and aging and governments should discourage further development. The ‘further development’ did not include the mining companies.

WAIT A MINUTE! DON’T WE NEED TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS?

• There is nothing ‘natural’ about natural gas, it’s a fossil fuel and not renewable. The pollution emitted from methane gas is far more dangerous than CO2.

• The only way to lower energy emissions is to turn to RENEWABLE ENERGY.

• The Australian Government cut back renewable energy funding by over $500 million…the renamed Emerging Renewables Program (supposedly $100 million) gets only a total of $2 million over four years, and the Venture Capital Fund allocations will be finalised - wait for it - by 2024 www.novamagazine.com.au/article.../2011-07-renewable-realities.ht...

IN THE MEANTIME…WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF CSG MINING?

Financial ruinPollution Poisoned waterLoss of soil, land and foodSicknessStressLoss of communityDespair, suicide.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT.

January 25, 2007 "Mud Volcano" in Indonesia Caused by Gas Exploration, [Richard A. Lovett National Geographic News].

• Gas drilling on the Indonesian island of Java triggered a "mud volcano" that killed 13 people and has rendered four square miles (ten square kilometers) of countryside uninhabitable for years.

• A report released by a team of British researchers said the deadly upwelling began when an exploratory gas well punched through a layer of rock 9,300 feet (2,800 meters) below the surface, allowing hot, high-pressure water to escape.

IF YOU THINK MINING WON’T AFFECT YOU, THINK AGAIN!

Coal Mining Causing Earthquakes [Richard A. Lovett National Geographic

News]. • The most damaging earthquake in Australia's history was

caused by humans...• The magnitude-5.6 quake that struck Newcastle in New South

Wales on December 28th, 1989, killed 13 people, injured 160, and caused 3.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of damage.

• That quake was triggered by changes in tectonic forces caused by years of underground coal mining, according to a study by Christian D. Klose of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. Could it happen again? Yes it could!

MINE NOW, PAY LATER!

ALMOST ALL THE WORLD’S OIL AND GAS IS USED BY THE MILITARY…

The military uses more fuel than any other

institution. Wars require oil and gas and the need for oil and gas causes wars.

As one of the largest fuel producing nations Australia WILL become a target for terrorism.

____________________________________________ SAY ‘NO’ TO COAL SEAM GAS AND CONTROL BY

MULTINATIONALS. SAY ‘YES’ TO RENEWABLES AND LOCAL JOBS.

THE TIME IS UP! NO MORE FOSSIL FUELS.

We live on one of the driest continents on earth. Don’t risk our water. We are a food producing nation. Don’t risk our food security. Australia is not renowned for seismic activity. Don’t induce subsidence and earthquakes. Autralians are a peace loving population. Don’t put Australia at risk of terrorism.

LOCK THE GATEGippslanders meet to 'lock the gate' on coal-seam-gaswww.abc.net.au

Gippslanders meet to 'lock the gate' on coal-seam-gas www.abc.net.au

Contacts and Credits: ABC http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/07/04/3538450.htm?site=gippsland The Australian http://www.theaustralian.com.au Australian Greens.Org http://www.greens.org.au Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. [APPEA ] www.appea.com.au Australian School of Petroleum www.asp.adelaide.edu.au Brisbane Courier Mail: www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland Environment Defenders Office http://www.edovic.org.au Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au Weekly Times www.weeklytimesnow.com.au Hunter Valley Protection Alliance: http://www.huntervalleyprotectionalliance.com/ Lock the Gate Queensland and NSW: http://www.lockthegate.org.au Lock the Gate Gippsland: http://www.lockthegategippsland.com Minerals Council of Australia Vision 2020, 2009 http://www.minerals.org.au National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com/ Northern Rivers Video; Lock the Gate Queensland.[Available at Lock the Gate]. Nova Magazine www.novamagazine.com.au/article.../2011-07-renewable-realities.ht... Quit Coal: http://www.quitcoal.org.au/fracking-in-victoria The Australian Gov. Department of Primary Industries: http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/ Stop CSG Illawarra http://www.stop-csg-illawarra.org/csg-risks/seismic-activityity Compiled by Dr Chris James www.doctorchrisjames.com Email: doctorchrisjames@bigpond.com