CSG inquiry comes to town

A meeting at Corndale Hall on Saturday night was told that representatives from Arrow Energy have been back in the region requesting access to properties in the Numulgi/Woodlawn/Corndale area. The company, which is owned by Shell/Petrochina, holds Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 445 that covers several thousand square kilometres from Byron Bay to west of Woodenbong. In the past few years they have sunk 15 exploration wells, but president of exploration Tony Knight told The Echo in March that the company's focus would remain in Queensland in the Surat Basin (around Dalby) and in the Bowen Basin (around Moranbah) for many years because the gas is easier to get out of the ground.

However the meeting at Corndale was told of one farmer being offered $2000 for access to his property for a drilling site. When he refused the figure increased to $15,000. He still refused, but another person said they had heard of one landowner being offered $100,000 for the right to put a drilling site on their land.

A spokesperson from Arrow Energy said they were having "targeted consultation meetings with stakeholders" in the area later this week, but would not comment further.

Next week (Wednesday, September 21) the NSW parliamentary inquiry into coal seam gas is coming to the House With No Steps in Alstonville, where it will hear from local councils and people who have made written submissions. The meeting is scheduled to run from 1.30-6.30pm.

The inquiry will also visit the Casino and Kyogle areas for site inspections and to meet with some landowners.

Kyogle Council will make a presentation to the inquiry and recently passed a number of motions in relation to the regulation of the industry.

They are calling for a moratorium on all CSG drilling until the impact on the water supply and environment is properly understood; they will advise the parliamentary committee of the concerns of the Kyogle community in regards to the CSG industry and the proposed Lions Way pipeline and "the potential adverse impacts on the headwaters of the Richmond River from which the majority of the community depends upon for human, irrigation and stock use".

General manager Arthur Piggott told The Echo the Council is also calling for "the industry to be subject to the same processes as any other development, including comprehensive environmental impact statements which address all the issues and provide for community input and the onus on the industry to provide scientific proof of the safety aspects".