Submission to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry on
Onshore Unconventional Gas Mining
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Victoria needs your help!

 

Submissions to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry close on 10th July and it is a battle of industry, profits and lobbyists against communities who wish to protect our water supplies and environment for the immediate future as well as for generations to come.

 

PLEASE help to prevent this happening throughout Victoria by sending or emailing written submissions to :

Email: epc@parliament.vic.gov.au

Or Post To: Keir Delaney, Secretary, Environment & Planning Committee Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne  VIC  3002 to make a difference to the outcome of the inquiry BEFORE 10TH JULY 2015.  Set out your reasons for opposing this form of unconventional mining by accessing the Blog site for Freshwater Creek (Freshwatercreek3217.blogspot.com.au) or with the following points:

Aim of Petition & Submission:

To exclude Onshore Unconventional Gas Mining including Fracking from Victoria to protect Victoria's water and environment. 

Onshore Unconventional Gas Mining poses an unacceptable risk to Victoria's water reserves and environment and communities where mining may take place because the risks and management of these risks are not fully understood or are not in place to provide protection. 

There are numerous examples of fracking operations in Australia and across the globe where drinking water, arterial water and waterways have been affected by these mining activities.

There are many reports and anecdotal stories detailing the negative impact on water supplies and the sometimes disastrous impact on local communities.

There are also papers reporting how there is very limited data to suggest Onshore Unconventional Gas Mining does do any damage. And that any problems are due to people not following safety policies and procedures in place.

As with past industrial development including the use of nuclear power, it has taken decades to fully understand the impact of new high risk technology and to develop and manage the necessary safeguards.

This submission contends Unconventional Gas Mining is in the same position as these past issues and at this time poses an unacceptable risk to Victoria's water reserves and environment and communities. In twenty or a hundred years' time it will be too late to use hindsight and said … if only.

Introduction
Exploration wells have been dug throughout Victoria over many years to ascertain where CSG mining is commercially viable.  

CSG mining operations (otherwise known as ‘Fracking’) are highly dangerous to the natural environment; to the personnel performing the work and to those living in the communities affected by these operations. 

1.     Fracking operations involve pumping millions of litres of our precious drinking water down each well that can never be recovered.  As Victoria is prone to drought, an industry requiring such vast quantities of limited drinking water is not sustainable.

2.     The various processes that Fracking use to extract the gas from the rock deep underground require a huge quantity of highly toxic chemicals used to ‘fracture’ the rock.

3.     These chemicals have to be transported along suburban and country roads to their destination.  As there are many trucks involved in transporting the chemicals and later, the toxic wastewater for disposal, the likelihood of an accident occurring that results in a toxic-hazard emergency is very high.  Cleanups do not always eliminate 100% of the spill; so the community affected is often left to endure the after effects from such accidents.

4.     The well liners are not always leak-proof.  This allows not only methane gas (that is a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more potent than CO2) to escape into the atmosphere, but it also allows other toxins to enter the aquifer. 

5.     Reports are available where well liners have exploded out of the wells causing toxic fracking fluid to escape into the environment.

A fracking well operated by Carrizo Oil and Gas out of Texas in Washington Township, Wyoming County, PA malfunctioned and began spewing out dangerously chemical-laden fracking fluid at a rate that peaked at 800 gallons per minute. The spill lasted for hours and when all was said and done, about 227,000 gallons of fracking fluid had spilled.

6.     In a land as dry as Australia, we cannot take any risk that gambles with the purity of ‘our aquifer water’, which is the lifeblood of communities (people), livestock and crops, which we all depend upon.

7.     A bore hole from a frack-well can be directed to go horizontally in any direction – so that if one neighbour allows a mining company onsite to drill a well, the horizontal section could be located underneath the next door neighbour’s property and has the potential to destroy their land and environment if any methane gas manages to leak into the neighbour’s water supply. 

8.     The presence of mining companies involved with Fracking operations restricts the freedom of the local community to move about.  High level truck operations are known to ruin local roads.   

For the sake of the future of Victoria and our lifestyles, please take the time to write a submission to the Parliament urgently BEFORE 10TH JULY 2015 to ensure there is a complete ban on this destructive industry in our beautiful State. 

NO WATER NO LIFE        NO WATER NO FOOD      NO WATER NO MONEY

Please assist this campaign to gain more submissions by signing the Friends of the Earth petition (FOE Ban UCG in Victoria).

By passing this email on to others you know would certainly assist the number of people becoming aware of this Parliamentary Inquiry.