I’ve been out to the Pilliga forest in the state’s north a few times now, to see the land, and the coal seam gas (CSG) operations that are now ongoing. Today I’m headed back to the region, to Walgett, a small town on the far side of the Pilliga.
The town has just formed its own community action group, Lock the Gate Walgett, out of concern about local CSG development. The Santos project in the middle of the Pilliga is currently in exploration and pilot production phase, and there is a proposal to drill over 1000 production wells in the operation’s next phase. The Pilliga CSG project was initially licenced to Eastern Star Gas.
Lock the Gate Walgett is holding a meeting to discuss CSG and amongst the speakers will be Carmel Flint from Northern Inland Council for the Environment who will talk about the test results released last week that reveal the impact of CSG operations on the water in the Bohena Creek (in the Pilliga). Santos (and ESG) release treated waste CSG water into the water systems in the forest. One part of the test results showed elevated levels of ammonia in water sampled from a location where the CSG water is released into the river.
Other speakers at the town hall meeting will be Don Ramsland, Managing Director of the Walgett Shire Council, Tony Pickard, a local resident of the Pilliga, and Jacinta Green from Stop CSG Sydney and Lock the Gate.
It’s all happening Thursday December 15 at the Walgett RSL Memorial Hall from 6pm-9pm, swing by if you’re in the area.
