Lock the Gate Alliance says a new fact sheet released by CSIRO this week vindicates its concerns by identifying CSG activities as one of three likely causes of the Condamine River bubbling methane in south-west Queensland. However, the fact sheet ignores climate change impacts.
"This latest fact sheet from CSIRO states unequivocally that CSG is one of the three likely causes of the Condamine River bubbling, due to it causing reduced pressure in coal seams” said Carmel Flint, spokesperson for Lock the Gate Alliance.
"Whilst this vindicates our long held concerns about the cause of the bubbling, other claims in the fact sheet that there are limited environmental impacts from the bubbling completely ignore climate change impacts despite methane being a potent greenhouse gas.
"We are also deeply concerned at the scanty information that has been released and the fact that the investigation to date of the Condamine River bubbling has been left almost entirely to the gas industry or the gas-industry funded centre within CSIRO.
"We are now calling for all of the data which has been collected to be released to the public in full so that it can be independently reviewed and assessed, including any data on the full volume of methane that has been emitted.
"The Queensland Government needs to step in now and take full control of this investigation, independent of the gas industry, if it is to have any hope of restoring community confidence.
"No further gasfields should be approved in Queensland until a government investigation has been completed, because methane emissions at this scale may well blow any chance the government has of meeting its climate targets," she said.
