The latest from AGL on its plans for the Hunter Valley wine-growing region, emphasis my own:
AGL announces property purchases in Hunter
Media release: 17 October 2011AGL Energy has today confirmed the purchase of two properties
in the Hunter as part of its Hunter Gas Project.The properties are the Poole’s Rock Vineyard located at 229
Wollombi Road, purchased from the Clarke family, and the Yellow Rock Estate located adjacent to Poole’s Rock at 121 Wollombi Road, purchased from James Smiley.AGL Group General Manager Upstream Gas Mike Moraza said the various agricultural activities currently carried out on these properties, including viticulture, cattle grazing and cropping, would be continued.
He said, “AGL believed that ownership of the properties would clearly allow us to demonstrate that the natural gas industry could co-exist with other agricultural and viticultural land uses and users.
“I know there has been considerable speculation about our intentions for the Poole’s Rock property, I apologize for any concern this may have caused in the community, but until the purchases were finalised we were unable to talk about the transactions in any detail,” Mr Moraza said.
“I also acknowledge that the late David Clarke, whose family has sold us the Poole’s Rock property, expressed some concerns about the CSG industry in the Hunter. We spoke to David directly about his concerns late last year so we do understand his points of view.”
AGL has a long term commitment to the development of the Hunter Gas Project.
The purchase of these properties now provides the Hunter Gas Project with more certainty, allowing us to continue to demonstrate coexistence of the natural gas industry with the communities in which we operate. We recognise that there has been concern in the community about the lack of information on our future plans and moving forward we will be able to address this.
“We have some very high expectations to meet and we expect and understand that our activities in the local area will be closely watched and questioned by the community,” Mr Moraza said.
“But it is our belief that over time we will demonstrate to the community that our industry is low impact, it is safe, it is clean and that it can coexist alongside farming, wine-making and other agricultural industries.
“We have already shown at our existing properties at Windermere and Spring Mountain, where we operate a lucerne farm and vineyard alongside a number of exploration wells, that CSG can coexist with agriculture. We know the Hunter is a beautiful place and we promise to keep it that way.”
Mr Moraza said that Australian Horticultural Management will continue to manage the Vineyard. AGL will strive to demonstrate how responsible companies like AGL operate in Australia’s growing and important natural gas industry.
As part of the purchase of the Poole’s Rock Vineyard, AGL committed to the Clarke family that:
• The property’s 35 acre Chardonnay vineyard will be maintained and preserved as a working vineyard in a manner consistent with its original design; and
• The property’s visitors will be informed of the Clarke family’s important history and association with the development of the Vineyard.
As part of the purchase of the Yellow Rock Estate, AGL committed to James Smiley that:
• Any natural gas exploration or development on the Yellow Rock Estate will be done only after consultation with a landscape architect to ensure future operations do not interfere with the visual amenity of the local area;
• AGL will protect any buildings or items of heritage value including those significance to the life and work of the English artist Conrad Martens;
• The historic Picton family graveyard on the property will be preserved and maintained and accessible to the Picton family members;
• AGL will continue to provide the community with access to facilities on the Yellow Rock Estate for local scout groups, Landcare groups and other community activities.
Mr Moraza said AGL would keep the local community informed of its gas exploration and groundwater monitoring activities on these properties throughout the Hunter Gas Project area.
“We will continue to communicate with the local community through our staff, AGL’s Singleton Information Centre, the Hunter Community Consultative Committee as well as through advertorials in local newspapers, updates on our project website, newsletters, media releases and advertisements.
So there you have it… keep an eye on the AGL media releases so that you can learn all the latest, once it’s happened.
The fundamental question that still has not been answered, is whether AGL or any other energy company for that matter, will give an ironclad guarantee that hydraulic fracturing, if used (I’m sure it will be!), will not result in coal seam gas along with the mixture of mostly toxic chemicals used for the actualy hydraulic fracturing getting into the water table, and also what will happen to the bulk of the water used in the fracturing process when it returns to the surface via the build-up pressure from the coal-seam gas being released?
No energy company will say anything at all about those two issues and they are perhaps the most serious matters over and above everything else.
As we have seen with numerous documented accounts from the USA where the Hailburton-developed (Haliburton is owned by former US goverment vice-president Dick Cheney) hydraulic fracturing technique has been used, around 75 to 80 percent of the water pumped into the ground with the fracturing chemical mixture comes back to the surface, and of course that water is highly comtaminated and extremely hazardous to any living organism. In a lot of cases it is left in surface drainage ponds and we all know that those ponds are never properly maintained so contaminated fracturing water is almost certain to escape and leach into the soil, further exacerbating the soil and water table contamination caused by the underground part of the process.
Another area of concern is the network of pipes and compressor stations. Not only do energy companies have to located wells, they also have to locate pipe networks, compressor stations, and provide power sources to run all this infrastructure. I don’t yet know of any coal-seam gas operation where the gas extracted is used to generate electricity on site to run the equipment. So there is even more demand on the already over-stretched electricity generating industry (which yes will mean more coal mining and/or construction of gas-fired power stations).
Regards,
Craig.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/navarzo4 http://www.23hq.com/navarzo4
What will be left of the Hunter once all of the energy / mining companies have had their way?
To give you some example of what is 20 mins up the road from Hunter wine country http://g.co/maps/emvnm
Previously small scale mines provided an income for locals now they are taking down whole mountains to sell coal and gas overseas to make billions for the companies.
The lie is this is necessary for the economy, but it is pure BS. The mining industry is bringing in skilled migrants to keep up with overseas demand and the profits stay in the hands of the bosses.
We should measure our economy based on something more than dollars in the pockets of mining bosses. Because the people don’t get a cent of it.
The next scars showing up on radar images will be Broke, followed by Wollombi.
You can grow grapes in the ground for an eternity, but cut down a mountain and blast the water with chemicals and you are left with nothing. I was born in the Hunter and thought I would be showing my children’s children the hills covered in grapes now I will be showing them a great big whole in the ground.
If the Google map doesn’t shock you I suggest you drive down there and have a look yourself. Only billions of dollars could make you indifferent to that sort of destruction.