NSW EPA Chief Executive links with Whitehaven and AGL – a red flag

NSW EPA Chief Executive links with Whitehaven and AGL – a red flag

As the first year of Tony Chappel’s tenure as Chief Executive Officer of the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) draws to a close, his close personal links with two of NSW’s most notorious polluters in recent decades, Whitehaven Coal and AGL, warrants close examination. The Perrottet Liberal-National government’s decision to appoint him as CEO in May 2022 has placed the fossil industry insider at the pinnacle of power within the environmental regulator, jeopardising the EPA’s exercise of its statutory objectives and powers. Despite his brilliant educational background in law, management, environmental engineering technology…continue reading →
Santos flags expansion beyond the Narrabri Gas Project and PEL238 in Document 34

Santos flags expansion beyond the Narrabri Gas Project and PEL238 in Document 34

A document procured under GIPA has revealed Santos’ intentions to go beyond the footprint of PEL 238 and the Narrabri Gas Project and proposes to link the Permian Coal Seam Gas Prospects by way of drilling a corehole. David Close from Santos and Tamboran Resources expresses in Document 34 – GIPA 23-39 Regional NSW (a Prospecting Title Works Program document likely supplied as rationale to renew PEL238): Exploration Rationale This area (PEL 238, PAL 2, PPL 3) is the most advanced of the prospective resources in the Gunnedah Basin in terms of appraisal…continue reading →
Government relaxes gas leak reporting requirements for coal seam gas industry

Government relaxes gas leak reporting requirements for coal seam gas industry

By Johanna Evans The requirement for coal seam gas operators like Santos to report significant wellhead leaks has been dismantled by the NSW Government with a quiet update of the Code of Practice for Coal Seam Gas Well Integrity which has been replaced by a newer code that combines Well Integrity with the Fracture Stimulation Code. Released in February 2023 just weeks before the NSW State Election, it is now called the “NSW code of practice for construction, operation and decommissioning of petroleum wells”. The new Code ceases to require reporting to the…continue reading →

Coal Seam Gas – Rapid Landscape Transformation

Coal Seam gas transforms the landscape profoundly. This time lapse, courtesy of Google Earth Engine, visualises the change in landscape from 1984 to 2020 on Queenslands’ Western Downs. The Condamine State Forest is located top left of the image – in 2003 you can begin to to see the footprint of construction and gradually the landscape is gridded as the industry expands. Please be aware that this is just one section of extensive gas fields. The industry is on track to drill 30,000 wells in Queensland. In Australia, the regulatory frameworks set by…continue reading →
Nine Lives for our Planet drills down into community activism

Nine Lives for our Planet drills down into community activism

A fascinating panel discussion between Sue Higginson MP, Shay Dougall, Jo Evans and John Watts discussing the vital role of community activism in protecting the environment and the threats to our right to protest. This is a recording of the Avid Reader hosted event of the Brisbane Launch of Nine Lives for our Planet by author John Watts. Thank you to Christina Meyer for AELA for Mc’ing the talk, Sue Higginson, NSW Greens MLC, Shay Dougall, Landholder Advocate and Jo Evans, unconventional activist, for attending and answering questions on the night. https://youtu.be/ZXH_7fFy85w Timestamp:Welcome…continue reading →
Regional Interests Development Approval (RIDA) to face challenge from farmers

Regional Interests Development Approval (RIDA) to face challenge from farmers

The concerns of four farming families have been submitted to the Queensland Palaszczuk Government – the situation facing these families is that 14 coal seam gas wells are proposed to go underneath their properties via the process of deviated drilling between Dalby and Wandoan. The main concern is that the Palasczuk government’s planning rules for protecting prime agricultural land and farmers have failed. A regional interests development approval (RIDA) is required when a resource or regulated activity is proposed to be in an area of regional interest. Shay explains what is happening here: https://youtu.be/4ZBDOrX8ZkA https://youtu.be/4ZBDOrX8ZkA…continue reading →
Maules Creek Coal Mine faces more criminal charges: Knitting Nannas report

Maules Creek Coal Mine faces more criminal charges: Knitting Nannas report

When Whitehaven Coal recently faced serious criminal charges brought by the NSW EPA in a NSW Land and Environment Court trial, observers expected the Namoi region’s worst polluter to plead guilty and cop a fine. That is what Whitehaven did when its Narrabri underground mine was prosecuted in 2020 for 19 charges of causing significant harm in Pilliga Forest during coal exploration, and again when it pleaded guilty to a polluting blast at its Rocglen mine (near Gunnedah) in 2019. However, faced with nine separate blasting offences at its Maules Creek coal mine,…continue reading →
DPE rejects Santos bid to limit pipeline assessment but more scrutiny needed 

DPE rejects Santos bid to limit pipeline assessment but more scrutiny needed 

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment has rejected a bid by Santos to avoid cumulative impact assessment of its planned Narrabri Lateral Pipeline. In its Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (“SEARs”) issued on 9th February 2023, the Department called on Santos to consider “the potential cumulative impacts due to other developments in the vicinity (completed, underway or proposed)”. This is despite Santos claiming in its Scoping Report for the 60km gas pipeline that there would be no cumulative impacts in relation to atmospheric emissions (deliberate or accidental), biodiversity and bushfire risk, with other…continue reading →
Groundwater Q&A with the EPA

Groundwater Q&A with the EPA

During 2021 as Santos applied to vary their Environmental Protection Licence 20350 to downsize monitoring of groundwater in the Pilliga Forest we contacted a hydrogeologist at the EPA for answers to some of our questions. The EPA could not explain why the pH of Monitoring Point 13 rapidly dropped by 5 points (see Question 1). To date we have been given no explanation for this worrying downwards trend from alkaline to acid within a formation that Santos characterised as alkaline. The EPA state: “The neutralizing trend of pH observed at Monitoring Point 13…continue reading →
Santos ignores cumulative impact of Pilliga gas pipeline

Santos ignores cumulative impact of Pilliga gas pipeline

Santos, the South Australian gas company, has lodged a Scoping Report for a new methane gas pipeline to connect its proposed Narrabri Gas Project (approved in 2020, but not yet commenced) with the yet-to-be built Hunter to Queensland Gas Pipeline some 60 km to the south east at the small town of Baan Baa. The 50-55 cm diameter steel pipeline will be approximately 55km in length and result in clearing an estimated 120 Ha of native Pilliga Forest vegetation. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s government declared the proposed “lateral pipeline” critical state significant infrastructure,…continue reading →