Drillers and the GAB
Anne Kennedy
(Ian Hansen (water driller) in QCL – re problems with csg industry.)
Ian Hansen wrote an excellent letter about this subject in the QCL of 16/9/10 - and I rang him, as I wanted to talk to him about the views he'd expressed in this letter. (I couldn't find the letter online, to forward a link). He's a bore driller from Dalby, and obviously very experienced and with huge knowledge about the GAB and all its multiple layers and networks. He said has been growing increasingly deeply concerned for a long while, about how the csg industry is completely unregulated, unsupervised, and that the miners leave test holes unsealed (and not 'de-commissioned') everywhere etc. He said he's often asked by people 'Can he come and turn their "hole" (that the mining companies left behind) into a bore?' - and when he goes out there, there is just a hole in the ground, like in the picture in this article. He also said, there's quite a lot of the bore drillers today, who are as bad as the mining industry - but no-one is inspected or regulated. He said there are only a handful of drillers in Qld. now, who really understand the GAB.
He said he just worries about the GAB, he worries about its future, as he knows what is happening down below. He said you just never ever see inspectors or anyone at all. He raised his concerns with DNR and they said there is nothing they can do!! In a U.S. article I read, they said (in America) that it was far too expensive to supervise it (or 'oversee' it, or whatever), that it would cost too much each well, to check and test what they were doing - is that why our miners are totally unsupervised here?
While I was talking to Ian, his wife brought in the new QCL, and this story (above) of his, was on Page 7! When he had taken his letter into the QCL office in Toowoomba, James Nasen had happened to be in there. He had started talking to Ian, and wanted to do an article about his letter - and he did.
These drilling practices are a complete disaster for the GAB and other aquifers. Can you imagine the inter-aquifer leakage, the connectivity, the pollution? and most of all, how all the fracking chemicals and drilling fluids will be migrating? As Ian said, the "cross-contamination" as the drilling goes through all the multiple layers, then doesn't seal them off - would be disastrous. As Mike Atkinson said in his report, "all the damage is done in the testing stage, without their ever having had to apply for an EIS or anything".
How can we find out if NSW is as unregulated as Qld.? Or do we just presume?
So now we know that it's not just all the water that the mining and extractive industries are taking from the GAB, that will destroy it - this will destroy it too.
Regards,
Anne
Rosemary Nankivell
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Rosemary Nankivell
----- Original Message -----From: Anne KennedySent: Monday, October 04, 2010 6:39 AMSubject: {Australian Water Network:2529) Drillers and the GAB
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