A farming community has reacted with shock and anger to a coal seam gas giant’s plan, supported by error-ridden documents, to build a massive industrial processing facility near the agricultural hub of Cecil Plains on Queensland’s Darling Downs.
Shell and PetroChina joint venture Arrow Energy quietly uploaded plans for the 120 terrajoule gas processing plant earlier this year, and initially sought to lodge the project as a minor amendment. See page 5. This would have meant there would have been no public consultation period.
However, the Queensland Environment Department determined the gas plant constituted a major amendment, meaning it would be subject to a public consultation process. That process is yet to begin.
Arrow also appears to have copied information from a related but different gas project it is building near Miles, with numerous errors found in its application.
The new gas plant, known as the “Lynwood Field Compression Station”, would be located within the borders of Toowoomba Regional Council, however Arrow’s supporting information only refers to the neighbouring Western Downs council, and the more distant Banana Shire Council. In November 2023, Toowoomba councillors voted in favour of a moratorium on new coal seam gas activities within the local government area, citing concerns over impacts to water and agricultural production.
Arrow’s application also lists Miles and Wandoan as being the closest towns, despite both being more than 100 kilometres away. The town of Cecil Plains is roughly eight kilometres from the project site, and Toowoomba is about 80 kilometres. See document screenshot below.
As well, documents show Arrow says the air monitoring system at Miles, about 130 kilometres away, could be used “to estimate background air quality levels for assessing cumulative impacts”.
Community advocates say Arrow failed to inform local residents, who live on the very same road that the facility would be constructed on, of its confirmed plans for the Lynwood gas plant.
Company documents reveal the facility would:
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Increase local noise, particulate matter, and nitrous oxide pollution;
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Create 1.2 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas pollution (See table 4.12);
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Include four compressor units, its own gas-fired power station and a multi-point ground flare;
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Involve a disturbance footprint of 15ha with an additional 18ha earmarked for ancillary infrastructure (laydown, dams, stockpiles, etc).
Cecil Plains farmer Liza Balmain said, “This gas plant, mere kilometres from the township of Cecil Plains, risks upending our peaceful rural lifestyles and turning this region into a toxic industrialised zone. Our current air quality and rural amenities are greatly valued, but they will be completely turned on their head with the increased traffic, noise and noxious emissions this facility will create. Relying on desktop studies and monitoring stations 130 km away is disrespectful to the ongoing wellbeing of local residents.
“It is astounding that Arrow Energy has tried to pass this major Gas Processing Facility off as a mere minor amendment. This was no doubt done under the radar to avoid public scrutiny.
“It makes an absolute mockery of Arrow Energy’s claims of genuine community engagement when the company doesn’t even have the common decency to notify neighbouring landholders of its confirmed plans to build this polluting gas plant on their doorsteps.
“When such a well-resourced international company can make such glaring mistakes in its applications, by cutting and pasting sections from their Retreat Road, Miles, project, it makes you wonder what mistakes the company is capable of making in more high-risk aspects of its mining activities.
“The Queensland Government has a duty of care to make decisions in the public interest and in accordance with human rights obligations. When there is to be no effective public air quality monitoring, no health impact baselines, and no long-term health monitoring for the affected gasfield areas, this duty of care cannot be assured.”
ENDS
