List of Recommendations
Recommendation 1
1.72 The committee recommends that
federal and state governments conduct a thorough review of the appropriateness
of 'adaptive management' in the context of regulating the industry, given the
significant gaps in information regarding cumulative and long term mpacts of
the industry.
Recommendation 2
1.85 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth Government, through the Council of Australian Governments, or
Standing Council on Energy and Resources (SCER), take the initiative in
promoting a consistent national regulatory framework for all aspects of the
coal seam gas industry.
Recommendation 3
2.58 The committee recommends that,
given the degree of uncertainty about the long-term consequences of the CSG
industry on the water resources of the Great Artesian Basin, that the
Commonwealth not give any further approvals for production of CSG in that part
of the Murray-Darling Basin overlying the Great Artesian Basin pending the
completion of the Queensland Government's regional groundwater model and the
CSIRO & Geoscience Australia basin scale investigation of water resources.
Recommendation 4
2.59 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth await the completion of the Namoi Catchment study before
considering any applications under the Water Act or the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 for approvals to
undertake coal seam gas production.
Recommendation 5
2.60 The committee recommends that
all future CSG development approvals should be preceded by the development of
"... a regional-scale, multi-state and multi-layer model of the cumulative
effects of multiple developments" of ground and surface water as
recommended by Geoscience Australia.
Recommendation 6
2.70 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth take the necessary steps to amend the Water Act 2007 to
include that part of the Great Artesian Basin that underlies the Murray-Darling
Basin within the definition of Basin water resources.
Recommendation 7
2.75 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth take the necessary steps to amend the Environmental
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to include the
sustainable use of the Great Artesian Basin as a 'matter of national
environmental significance'.
Recommendation 8
2.81 The committee recommends that
all future approvals require independent comprehensive monitoring of regional
earth surface movements to assess whether any measurable subsidence is
occurring. Where subsidence occurs and has an adverse effect on land management
or the natural environment, for example by altering drainage, the responsible
gas companies would be liable for any necessary remediation. Further all gas
exploration and/or production in an area subject to subsidence or impacts from
subsidence not foreseen in the EIS should cease until action is taken to ensure
that no further damage will occur. Where subsidence occurs in a gas producing
region the onus lies with the gas companies to demonstrate that the subsidence
is not a result of gas production activities.
Recommendation 9
2.85 The committee recommends that
it be a requirement of all exploration or production approvals that the fluids
extracted from wells after fraccing are kept isolated in secure separate
storages and prior to disposal are treated to the highest standards.
Recommendation 10
2.96 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth provide funds to NICNAS to enable that organisation to
undertake a comprehensive review of the chemicals used in fraccing, having
particular regard to the quantities, combinations of chemicals and the way in
which these chemicals are used and to confirm safe levels for their use. This
study should be completed within the next two years. The Commonwealth and state
governments should act promptly to ensure all fraccing activities comply with
any NICNAS recommendations.
Recommendation 11
3.64 The committee recommends that
all CSG water should be included in the calculation of the total withdrawal
from the ground and surface water systems. Seepage into depressurised coal
seams, reinjection into regulated formations and virtual reinjection or surface
disposal must be monitored and recorded if a complete picture of the state of
artesian and sub-artesian water is to be maintained.
Recommendation 12
3.65 The committee recommends that
where any aquifer used for the supply of stock or domestic water is depleted as
a result of coal seam gas activities, the relevant company or companies should
be required to pay for that water at the prevailing rate or make good the loss
of water by virtual reinjection or reinjection where water to be reinjected is
of an environmentally appropriate standard. The onus should rest with the gas
companies to prove that, where an aquifer is depleted, it is not the result of
coal seam gas extraction.
Recommendation 13
3.69 The
committee recommends that as a general principle it should be established that
where a gas company supplies treated CSG water for beneficial use to an
existing water user in agriculture, industry or for domestic use that supply
must be as a substitute for an existing allocation.
3.70 Where treated water is
supplied to landholders (including on a company's own land) to develop a new
crop or enhance existing production, that supply should be clearly understood
to create no entitlement, above a pre-existing water licence, to water from any
other source once the supply of CSG water ceases.
Recommendation 14
3.72 The committee recommends that
comprehensive water management plans, and the capacity to implement those
plans, particularly with regard to the disposal of salt and brine, be a
requirement before any further production approval for coal seam gas be
granted.
Recommendation 15
3.74 The committee recommends that
all salt and brine residues that cannot be disposed of within the short term,
either as part of an industrial process or by safe injection into a suitable
aquifer, should be required to be removed from agricultural areas and water
catchments. No controlled landfills for the disposal of salt should be
permitted in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Recommendation 16
4.70 The committee recommends that
the Commonwealth, in cooperation with the states, establish an independently
managed trust funded by the gas companies to make financial provision for
long-term rectification of problems such as leaks in sealed wells or subsidence
and erosion caused by collapsing pipelines.
Recommendation 17
4.91 The committee supports the
concept of strategic agricultural land and recommends that, when identified,
exploration for, or production of, coal seam gas be banned from land identified
under defined criteria.
Recommendation 18
4.99 The
committee recommends that the Commonwealth, through the Council of Australian
Governments, or other appropriate forum, request the States to insert in the
relevant legislation a requirement that arbitration bodies charged with
resolving disputes between landholders and the holders of exploration or
production titles – the Land Court in Queensland; the Land and Environment
Court in NSW – must give priority to the maintenance of agricultural production
with minimal disruption in deciding any dispute.
4.100 Similarly, where a ministerial
discretion such as that exercised under s.71 of the NSW Petroleum (Onshore) Act
exists, the exercise of that discretion should be required to give priority to
maintaining agricultural production with minimum disruption to the existing
land-use.
Recommendation 19
4.107 The committee recommends that
draft access agreements between landholders and gas companies include a
requirement that company employees must have a landholder's approval whenever
they wish to enter a property and that companies must maintain logs of staff
entering private property.
Recommendation 20
4.108 The committee recommends that
draft access agreements clarify the gas companies responsibility with regard to
fire safety and require the gas company to advise landholders of all chemicals
that are brought on to the land.
Recommendation 21
4.112 The committee recommends that
legislation governing compensation to landholders include provisions that
recognise as compensatable effects the involuntary nature of landholders'
dealings with coal seam gas companies and the social impact of coal seam gas
exploration and production.
Recommendation 22
4.117 The committee recommends that
States' include in the relevant legislation as a compensatable effect the costs
incurred by a landholder in seeking independent arbitration of a dispute over
an access and compensation agreement, except where it can be demonstrated that
the landholder had not negotiated reasonably and in good faith.
Recommendation 23
4.122 The committee recommends the
Queensland and New South Wales governments establish mechanisms that provide
where a landholder, having an access and compensation agreement with a coal
seam gas exploration or production company, believes that that agreement was
entered into without proper advice or understanding of its implications, then
the landholder be entitled to seek a review of the agreement.
Recommendation 24
4.124 The
committee recommends that the position of residents of small regional
communities and on small blocks of land also be clarified and that enforceable
conditions, including a buffer zone around houses, are included in exploration
or production permits to ensure that, despite having no development on their
land, they are not subject to excessive interference from coal seam gas developments.
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