Residents petition against coal seam gas drilling
Image: Ironstone residents protest against alleged water contamination from coal seam gas mining
Inner west Sydney residents gathered on Monday to plan a response to Dart Energy’s plans to drill in September.
The residents have joined “Lock the Gate” a national movement of 90 groups who are opposed to coal seam gas drilling. They are aiming for a petition of 10,000 signatures to halt coal seam gas activities in their local community.
Demands of the national petition are to call a royal commission into all impacts of coal seam gas mining, implement a moratorium on the mining until the outcome of the commission. They all want to ban the technique of “fracking”, which residents are concerned might lead to water contamination or other environmental destruction, in particular pollution of the Botany Bay aquifer.
Inner west residents are also calling for no drilling in St Peters.
Dart Energy, the mining company who have the exploration license for the St Peters potential drilling site, have told residents that if they find gas, the company will potentially use horizontal extraction to drill up to a 6km radius beneath the city. This will affect areas including St Peters, Alexandria, Tempe, Enmore said resident, Kate Ausburn to the community meeting, held by activist group, Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas.
Residents worry about water contamination, noise pollution, and the exploration and potential drilling sites’ proximity to local schools and homes.
In another “Lock the Gate” protest, Ironside community residents protested in Martin Place on Monday, to oppose the drilling for coal seam gas in their area, before heading to court, where they are appealing the drilling license of Gloucester Coal.
Amanda Albury, secretary of Ironstone Community Action Group, had brought samples of dirty water from her local watercourse and said that the mining company was pumping discharged water with heavy metals into the river.
“Only because some pinhead has decided that certain amounts of heavy metals are safe for consumption, has this been allowed,” she said.
Australia has a coal seam gas industry of almost $10 billion a year in exports alone, according to government statistics. Should a carbon tax be successful, analysts predict a sizeable shift to electricity production from natural gas, which has a lower emissions level than coal.
Fiona Paul, a Tempe resident said that rather than coal seam gas, opportunities to produce energy through renewables such as solar could be explored for inner city semi industrial areas such as St Peters.
