Lock the Gate Alliance calls on the new QLD Government to make good on its promise to protect a critical groundwater source from the impacts and risks of expanding coal seam gas drilling.
LNP Condamine MP Pat Weir promised that a LNP Government would require gas companies to prove “beyond any reasonable doubt” that their activities would have no detrimental impact on the Condamine Alluvium, which communities on the Downs rely on for drinking water and crop irrigation.
Farmers have long feared that the next stage of Arrow Energy’s massive Surat Gas Project will damage the shallow aquifer, which is part of the Murray Darling Basin and sustains the nationally-significant food bowl of the Cecil Plains and Dalby districts.
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Nick Holliday said, “The reality is that coal seam gas drilling depletes aquifers and poses an inherent contamination risk to groundwater. The Condamine Alluvium is so invaluable to this farming region - its vitality, its rich agricultural production and economic prosperity. It must be protected from gas mining which undeniably threatens its ongoing integrity. If the alluvium were to be compromised, it would adversely alter the future of the Darling Downs forever.
“We thank the LNP for promising to protect this vitally important groundwater source in the lead up to the election, and call on the new Crisafulli Government to prioritise making good on this commitment.
“This is the power of local-led resistance. Farmers whose properties cover more than 30,000 hectares united against this multinational petroleum company and declared their properties gasfield free.
“Arrow Energy relinquished its gas tenements in the Scenic Rim in 2022 following sustained community opposition, and we look forward to seeing Arrow’s incompatible tenements disappear from the government’s maps in this critically important QLD food bowl as well.”
ENDS