CATTLE REFUSE TO DRINK FROM CREEK NEXT TO AGLs CSG TREATMENT PLANT

CATTLE REFUSE TO DRINK FROM MENANGLE CREEK! From a Resident living next to AGL Gasfield: My family acquired Mount Gilead during the Second World War and to our knowledge there has been no salt problem. In October 2006 I noticed that cattle were refusing to drink from the Menangle Creek, which forms the boundary between Mount Gilead and AGLs Rosalind Park Gas Plant. Water samples proved to be highly salty in various ponds on Menangle Creek and in creeks on Rosalind Park. At one point I saw water bubbling up through a crack in the rock of Menangle Creek bed. It was at a point near where the Moomba gas pipeline crosses Menangle creek and about 50 metres further up on the Rosalind Park side of Menangle Creek there was an operating gas well. I contacted AGL about the salination in Menangle Creek but they denied any responsibility for causing it and suggested it must have been caused by “the prolonged drought”. From memory the matter was reported to the Department of Primary Industry and they took water samples which confirmed that the Menangle Creek and other creeks on Rosalind Park had a salt problem but I was unable to get anywhere with it and the matter was dropped. There has been no follow up to determine if csg mining is responsible and the salt water continues to ooze down Menangle Creek to the Nepean River. I was horrified that even historic land such as the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute at Menangle, which was part of our old family property, Camden Park, was not immune from having wells. I understand that the EMAI did not want the wells but being a government run organisation was unable to reject them. Monitoring and reporting on the development is another area that needs significant adjustments. In the court decision over the Rosalind gas plant the judge ruled that noise monitoring was to be conducted by independent assessors, but they were being paid for by AGL. When I questioned the ‘independence’ of such an arrangement I was informed that this was standard practice. Over the last few years of monitoring, the practice has been that AGL informs me when the assessor is coming to Mount Gilead to do a reading. I have noticed that when readings are being taken the noise from the generators/compressors seems to be noticeably less and have commented upon this to various assessors who have arrived, but to no avail. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/6cdd14ba274b6a80ca2579650082df6d/$FILE/Submission%200904.pdf In November 2006, a DECC officer inspected Menangle Creek with both AGL and the complainant. Water samples were collected for analysis and a report presented to Macoun Environmental and the Department of Planning.