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"Who Cares about Cessnock's Environment?" Survey Community news for Wollombi and surrounding districts Issue 302 - Our Own News - September 2008 As part of an exciting new program called "Sign up for Sustainability" about to commence in the Cessnock LGA, Council is undertaking a survey to assess the knowledge, awareness, attitudes and actions of the community towards our local environment. From this survey a program of educational activities will be developed to take to local service clubs, P&C Groups, youth groups and community events. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete with 10 short, tick box questions. The survey is available online through Council’s website at www.cessnock.nsw.gov.au Alternatively contact Tricia to have a printed version mailed. Have your say now! "Sign up for Sustainability" A system of pledges will be incorporated into the program whereby residents will 'sign-up' to undertake specific actions to change their behaviour and improve their sustainability impacts. These pledges will then be tracked for evaluation purposes to see if actions are being undertaken and savings achieved. The programs objectives are to: 1. Gauge level of the community's knowledge, awareness, attitudes and actions on urban sustainability issues. 2. Decrease participant household energy and water usage by at least 10%. 3. Increase participant knowledge of biodiversity and dryland salinity issues. 4. And, enable existing community groups to develop sustainability skills If you have any questions about this program please contact: Tricia Donnelly Sustainability Programs Officer Cessnock City Council Ph: 4993 4236 LAGUNA MARKETS @ Old Northern Trading Post 3rd Sunday of every month 9.30am till 1.00pm Sept 21 / Oct 19 / Nov 16 LOCAL produce: veggies, free range eggs, fruit, herbs, plants, flowers, tubestock, olives, olive oil, preserves, lavender products, as well as: hand spun wool/beanies/scarves, jewellery, vintage linen, bric-a-brac, secondhand books, etc… together with: Wollombi Valley Landcare's landholder resources stall Tim the Barber, coffee and refreshments available Snow Day? Scott and Clio Hamilton skiing down their front yard after the freaky hail storm on 29 July 08. 20
✄ Gas - A Serious Issue OON Subscription form Community news for Wollombi and surrounding districts Issue 302 - Our Own News - September 2008 The extraction of methane gas from coal seams as an energy source is very new in Australia and the science remains uncertain. The first step to developing a Coal Seam Methane Gas (CSM) field is to drill core holes from which you take geological core samples of the coal seam; which is what Sydney Gas are now doing in the Wollombi Valley. If a sufficient amount of methane is found in the core sample, then the next step is to put a pilot gas well at the top of the hole they have drilled. The pilot gas well is used to assess the feasibility of establishing a production gas field; which is what they now plan to do in the village of Broke. An established production gas field will typically cover an area of 30 – 40 square kilometres and consist of 200 – 300 gas wellheads, each on top of their own hole with security fences, access roads and methane gas pipelines traversing the landscape. Methane gas is found in the coal seam where it is held in the coal by water pressure. To extract the methane, the pressure must be reduced which is done by removing the water from the coal seam via the wellhead. This water has high concentrations of dissolved salts and other solids such as heavy metals. This water must not be allowed to contaminate the local environment but has to be transported away by road tanker. As each coal seam is effectively a groundwater aquifer, significant volumes of water can be produced from each well; as much as 100,000 litres per day. The total volume of water to be removed cannot be predicted and this dewatering process can take up to 18 months for each well, as has been the case in Queensland where large CSM gas fields have already been established. Imagine the numbers of road tankers coming to and from each wellhead. Extracting such large volumes of water from the coal seam aquifer often depletes natural watercourses, groundwater reserves and other aquifers. Sydney Gas try to downplay this risk, but the evidence shows that the risk is significant and it cannot be predicted what effect it will in fact have on this local environment. As well as dewatering the coal seam aquifer, it is also necessary to fracture the coal seam. The combination of reducing the pressure and fracturing causes the methane to be released from the coal and, ideally, flow up the pipe to the wellhead. However, there have been cases where the methane finds other paths to flow through cracks in the overlaying rock and vent hundreds of metres away from the wellhead as happened at Stroud near Gloucester in 2005 and, most notoriously, at Powder River Basin in USA. If the methane seeps up through the soil it anoxidises the soil, killing all vegetation. If the methane vents into a watercourse, as is now happening in the Cataract River south of Sydney, or into a groundwater reserve or aquifer it will pollute the I would like a 12 month subscription to OON via ❑ Email ($12) or ❑ Post ($35) Name Phone number Postal address water. If the methane vents into an enclosed space, such as a private house or school, it becomes a very serious hazard. Methane gas is odourless and displaces oxygen thereby causing suffocation; methane is also flammable and explosive in enclosed spaces, which is why coal miners have always feared it. The probability of these things actually happening cannot be properly evaluated but they remain a definite risk. The NSW Department of the Environment is extremely concerned that there is a limited regulatory framework for this activity and development has progressed without serious consideration for the environment. In other words, The Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991, which governs the Coal Seam Methane Gas industry in New South Wales, is in need of serious revision. This flawed legislation is further compounded by the reckless attitude of the Minister of Primary Industries and the Minister of Planning who ultimately have the power to issue exploration and production licences without reference to any other authority. Added to these environmental risks, the legislation makes it very difficult to prevent the exploration licence holder from operating on private land. So, regardless of the private individual’s views and their own efforts to safeguard the environment for which they feel responsible as custodian, they would have to expend very large amounts of money in legal fees if they wanted to try and stop such a development. The alternative is a community blockade as seen recently succeeding on Liverpool Plains. Coal seam methane gas does produce about 30-40% lower carbon emissions than coal so it can be argued that it is a considerate step in the right direction. However, there are known to be very large reserves of methane in areas where there are no local communities to be put at risk, where there are no important water catchments already under stress and where there are not pristine natural environments needing protection. Further, coalmines already burn off huge quantities of methane as a necessary precaution for mining coal, so why not make use of that resource? Sydney Gas argues that a gas field is a better option than a coalmine for the Wollombi Valley. Well, you could just as easily say that a gas field is a better option than having a new international airport in the Wollombi Valley. Further background information can be found in the news section of the WAGE website www.wage.org.au Sean Gough Chairperson – WAGE sgough@wage.org.au 02 4998 3103 Peter Firminger Vice-chair – WAGE peterf@wage.org.au 02 4998 3388 Email address Post this form and a cheque payable to WVPA Inc./OON to OONSubscription c/o Wollombi General Store, NSW, 2325 or enclose this form and cash in an envelope and pop into the OON box at the Laguna or Wollombi General Stores. 21
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