Pun-tacular Problems Part 1

Coal Seam Gas (CSG) extraction has fast become a hot topic in South East Queensland (SEQ) following suit with other parts of the world. 

Recent arrests of Lock-the-Gate Alliance protestors in Beaudesert (part of the region in which I am working), brought to my attention yet another gap in my knowledge of current events.  They were arrested rightly so, as they had no real right or say over the approval of CSG exploration – that’s apparently up to the State Government with a little guidance from the Feds.

All this debate around CSG had me a bit confused. The excessive use of puns didn’t help me either, so I set out to look at all the angles of the issue to discover what the big ‘fraccing’ deal was (sorry couldn’t help myself).  I found that the issue was quite large and complex, so I’m going to break it down into two blog posts so you have some time to let it all sink in.

CSG Extraction

The diagram below comes with a good, simple explanation of how this whole process works:

Sourced from DERM 27.01.12, http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/coal-seam-gas/about.html

So basically in the deeper layers of earth, there is a layer called the 'coal seam'.  In between the coal, there is some water which has infiltrated from the surface and is on its purification journey through the coal seam.  At this stage of percolation, is where the gas exists, often in the cracks in combination with water which is toxic.  Sometimes, there aren't any naturally occuring cracks in the seam meaning they have to be artificially produced by the chemical known as BTEX.  This process is known as 'fraccing'.  And a simple search on 'Ethylbenzene' (one of the chemicals in the compound) will show you that it is no good for us humans and even worse for aquatic life.  The impacts of this will be discussed later - now to get into the politics.

Who’s got the Power?

Firstly, it’s important to recognise all the big players. You’ve got the CSG companies, State, Federal and Local Government, the land ‘owners’, the protestors, the experts and a group I’d like to call “potential future innocent bystanders”.

The big decision maker in Queensland is the State Government – more specifically the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM).  The Federal Government will only become involved if there are any species or ecosystems that are threatened or endangered nearby - in which case CSG companies must seek approval from the Federal Government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). That also goes for sites that have been 'World Heritage' listed.  But if they demonstrate in their comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that they have fulfilled all the requirements and standards set by the government (of which there are many) then they basically  have the permission to extract as they please.  One of the main requirements they must fulfill is to have 'make good' plans in the event that a big leak occurs that damages the environment.  I made a few phone calls to DERM to get some finer details about the by-product water from the fraccing process, my inquiries and research left it all a bit hazy still - so I am a bit biased here.  I'm still quite cynical about the whole Water Management Policy that's in place at the moment, I just don't see how it could possibly be implemented without some environment being affected somewhere.

CSG Companies are basically in it for the money, born profit makers, capitalists - whatever you call them, their concerns are first to get government approval, and secondly to make profit from it.  Both on domestic and international markets, demand for CSG is inflating CSG prices just enough to make a good living, yet not too much to make it more undesirable than coal and conventional gas.  I almost forgot, they create thousands of jobs, which is a plus….right?

The land owners are understandably concerned about what will happen on their land when these production units make their backyards home.  There’s a few maps about the place that indicate petroleum and gas leases.  This essentially means that any of the land highlighted on the map (which is quite a large portion of QLD) may be bought and explored for natural resources.  Sad but true, these guys have very little power in this situation.

The protestors did their job by making me curious I think.  Other than that, I don’t think they can do much except get arrested and put more pressure on our resource limited police force.  I do understand their panic though. I wouldn’t take too kindly to someone trying to crash in my backyard without my direct permission.

The experts need to hurry up and get some long term studies going before this industry takes over while we are still uncertain of the exact effects.  They have also done a good job in informing the decision makers – at least enough to make the approval process lengthy and laced with red tape (one of the few things bureaucracy is good for).  Experts only have power when consulted though, the government still has the ultimate decision.

Potential future innocent bystanders are the unknown victims of CSG – there are always victims that we cannot predict in situations like this, whether they be people or organisms.  They obviously are on the very bottom of the power chain since they don’t even know they’re about to be affected.

Now that there has been a bit of an overview of the issue at hand, I will call this the end of part 1.  CSG is pretty complicated and the next few subheadings are equally complex.  In the next part I will look at the factors affecting government decisions to go ahead with CSG as well as what “they” say about CSG.  A brief look at the impacts and potential of CSG will also be explored finishing with a “big picture” perspective on the issue.