We all understand that Strategic Assessments especially when the state government is the opponent do not work and are a complete and total farce. It's the corporation take over of the science and the distortion of the facts that really is so dishonest and misleading. No, do not worry about your water, we have done the tests, it will be OK. Whales! no they travel way out to sea. Bilbies, well we only found one vagrant one. Ocean currents, no they travel south on northern currents. There are no dinosaur footprints at James Price Point. We have had to deal with these outrageous assertions that has been put out in the public arena as fact. No scientific peer reviews and much much more has been hidden from the public.
We as a community have had to use our own resources to undertake our own community science projects in order to counteract Woodside's and the state government misleading science. By the time Burke makes a decision most of Woodside's science will be out dated or proven to be lacking substantially with real facts.
Governments need to understand that Australians have confirmed and are now insisting that our ecologically sustainable development values are based on our nation's overarching environmental, social and economic principles. The conservation of our biological diversity and ecological integrity are now considered a fundamental right and our moral human obligation to the future.
'Critical information missing' from LNG approvals - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
The environmental assessment process for two of Australia's biggest coal seam gas projects was a "farce", a former Queensland bureaucrat has claimed.
Senior environmental specialist Simone Marsh was part of the Queensland Government team that approved Santos's $18 billion and Queensland Gas Company's (QCG) $20 billion LNG projects in 2010.
She has told tonight's Four Corners program that the final stages of the three-year approval processes were rushed and the environmental impacts not properly assessed.
Audio: CSG environment assessments 'flawed' (AM)
"All the scientific arguments in the world wouldn't have changed things in that situation," she said.
"They had decided they wanted to go ahead with the projects and there was nothing stopping it."
We as a community have had to use our own resources to undertake our own community science projects in order to counteract Woodside's and the state government misleading science. By the time Burke makes a decision most of Woodside's science will be out dated or proven to be lacking substantially with real facts.
Transparency and disclosure of extractive industry is pure lip service. Assessments, approvals, contracts, monitoring, compliance, payments, receipts, governments, and international financial institutions all play a crucial role in this cycle of corruption, poverty, Indigenous land issues, human rights and environmental abuses that plagues our resource-rich nation.
Governments need to understand that Australians have confirmed and are now insisting that our ecologically sustainable development values are based on our nation's overarching environmental, social and economic principles. The conservation of our biological diversity and ecological integrity are now considered a fundamental right and our moral human obligation to the future.'Critical information missing' from LNG approvals - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
The environmental assessment process for two of Australia's biggest coal seam gas projects was a "farce", a former Queensland bureaucrat has claimed.
Senior environmental specialist Simone Marsh was part of the Queensland Government team that approved Santos's $18 billion and Queensland Gas Company's (QCG) $20 billion LNG projects in 2010.
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| Richard Hunter, Goolarabooloo Law Man with a dinosaur track at James Price Point, the ones Woodside and the State government said did not exist in their Strategic Assessment. |
Audio: CSG environment assessments 'flawed' (AM)
"All the scientific arguments in the world wouldn't have changed things in that situation," she said.
"They had decided they wanted to go ahead with the projects and there was nothing stopping it."
Photo Damian Kelly
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Transcript : http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/04/01/3725150.htm
ReplyDelete....
GAS LEAK.
MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: At the head of the Murray Darling Basin, the Condamine River is bubbling gas.
It's mostly methane and it's seeping up all over this area from the coal seams deep underground.
The Condamine River runs through one of Australia's most developed coal seam gas fields in the Tara area of Southern Queensland.
Some see this as an alarming sign that permanent damage has been done to the structures below.
The coal seam gas industry, backed by the Queensland Government, says it's natural and has nothing to do with the wells that have been drilled and fracced in the area.
But it's started to happen in at least three different locations along the river.
Old timers like George Bender have never seen anything like it.
GEORGE BENDER, FARMER: Never seen it before.
MATTHEW CARNEY: And other farmers in the area have seen it?
GEORGE BENDER: A lot yeah, all the other farmers said they'd never seen it like that before.
MATTHEW CARNEY: So is it natural then?
GEORGE BENDER: Well, if it was natural wouldn't it be there all the time?
(Very high aerial shot of the area)
MATTHEW CARNEY: George's property is in the heart of Australia's coal seam gas industry, which is growing at a phenomenal rate.
The $50 billion industry is sinking up to 40,000 wells with a network of pipes gathering lines and roads that crisscross the landscape.
(Aerial image shows network of CSG infrastructure)
.
Massive holding ponds - these ones five kilometres long - contain water sucked from the underground.
.
With the growth has come more evidence that Australia's greatest underground water source - the Great Artesian Basin - is being depleted and contaminated.
...
SIMONE MARSH, SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIALIST: I think the truth is that it's not an ecologically sustainable activity.
Obviously they didn't want to say that. They wanted approval to come in and conduct that activity. They didn't want anyone to understand what the long-term, um, impacts were going to be and the long-term costs associated with this activity.
...
SIMONE MARSH: I was taken into a meeting room, sat down and told that there wasn't going to be a chapter on groundwater and I was... stunned.
I said "What are you talking about? What do you mean there's not going to be a chapter on groundwater? It's one of the biggest issues for the project".
And he just repeated the words that there was not going to be a groundwater chapter in the Santos Coordinator General's report and wouldn't give me any reason why or why not.
MATTHEW CARNEY: But a document from the 4th of May 2010 offers some explanation. It's a brief sent by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure to the Coordinator General.
It states:
"As advised previously, not all the 'usual' information is available."
And goes on: "This has been difficult and uncertain without the full suite of information normally available. We are mindful of the CG's (Coordinator General) Report being able to provide a 'bankable' outcome.
SIMONE MARSH: They're after a bankable outcome, which is not anything to do with an environmental impact assessment process. They basically just want an approval.
That's all they want is an approval with some conditions that the companies can live with.
................
The poor old Fitzroy.