1) What does the council have in place for natural gas emergency training?
2) Are tabletop exercises (discussion-based sessions) for emergency situations held? How often?
3) Have local first responders attended a training session?
4) Have first responders visited a well site, compressor station, and processing plant?
5) Do all first responders know where pipelines are located and at what PSI they operate?
6) Are training's paid for by the natural gas companies or by tax payers?
7) Do tax payers pay for the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)?
8) Are Hazardous Material Emergency Response Preparedness Reports public information? Where can one access them?
9) Do LEPCs have access to proprietary chemical information at every site? Is this information communicated to local first responders?
10) What can you tell us about the local emergency plans?
11) What hospitals/schools/daycares are within a 2.5 km radius of each drill pad, compressor station, processing plant? Do you have contact information for all?
12) How would you conduct an evacuation at a school or hospital in our community?
13) Is there sufficient transportation to conduct an evacuation?
14) What is your method for disseminating information to residents should an evacuation be necessary?
Emergency preparedness and response is an obvious necessity for residents living near wells, compressor stations, and other activities related to unconventional oil and gas development such as fracking. An emergency situation arising from a spill, explosion, or other crisis can impact health, threaten natural resources, or require evacuation.
Because many such operations are located in rural locations, emergency responders and residents may encounter special challenges when responding to emergencies. Potential problems include inadequate communication with residents, insufficiently trained first responders, and lengthy response times as communities wait for out-of-country well-fire specialists to arrive - note that UK does not yet have such specialists.
Residents are also encouraged to contact their local emergency services and attend Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) meetings. In addition to holding public meetings, the LEPC should be responsible for coordinating training for first responders and for providing information about hazardous chemicals being used in the community (though many chemicals used in fracking are protected as private information and not publicly available).
IF WE GENUINELY DO HAVE "GOLD STANDARDS" IN THE UK THEN ALL THE ABOVE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED FAIRLY EASILY..... ONE WOULD HOPE.
Lets see, shall we?
Tim Forcey, University of Melbourne Cold weather has arrived in eastern Australia, to the glee of those who enjoy skiing. But you don’t have to venture onto the slopes for cold to be a danger. With gas prices rising, many in the community are shivering while contemplating how big their next gas bill will be.
Eastern Australia’s gas market is rapidly changing, driven by the first exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Queensland. And this is affecting the whole supply chain, from gas producers, to the way we use gas in our homes.
Gas was cheap, for decades
In Victoria, South Australia, and through to New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, gas has long been viewed as the preferred fuel for many applications - from industrial uses right down to warming our lounge rooms. Since the discovery of the massive Bass Strait oil and gas deposits off Victoria in the late 1960s, gas consumption across eastern Australia grew, decade after decade.
But despite these discoveries and growing production, the resource companies involved were often frustrated. While global crude oil prices went up and up, eastern Australian gas prices were stuck in the 1970s. Gas consumers enjoyed access to some of the cheapest gas in the developed world.
On the other hand, gas producers dared not complain too loudly. They often considered this gas nearly a waste product – interfering as it did with the speed at which the far more valuable crude oil and LPG could be drawn from the ground. If eastern Australia had been another jurisdiction such as Nigeria or North Dakota, this nuisance gas could have been quickly disposed of by flaring or venting. However, with some foresight, Australian industry regulators have generally discouraged such wasteful and environmentally damaging practices.
Faced with this constraint, what were the resource companies to do? Unlike crude oil, gas is costly to ship to the more lucrative markets in Japan and Korea, first requiring liquefaction at temperatures as low as minus 160C. Creating new demand “sinks” for gas in-country was one strategy. Pipelines were built to connect up all of the eastern states. Still, this “domestic” gas languished at a sales price far below that of crude oil.
Coal seam gas arrives
Then in the first decade of this century came the realisation that coal seam gas (CSG), located mostly in Queensland but also in New South Wales, could be produced in quantities far exceeding the demands of the staid domestic market, by a factor of three or more.
Following the examples of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the only option for gas companies was to invest billions of dollars in, at last, building the first liquefaction and export facilities on Australia’s east coast.
For legacy gas producers, even those not directly involved in the LNG-export decisions, this was the dream come true. After decades, a buyers’ market rapidly shifted to become a sellers’ market. Where previously buyers would remind producers they would be happy to take that “waste product” off their hands, producers could now inject into supply contract negotiations the spectres of “world-parity pricing” and “high CSG production costs”.
Nowhere in the world had it ever occurred where an established, reasonably large domestic market, serving customers ranging from large industry to millions of homeowners, was suddenly eclipsed by the mammoth export-focused LNG industry.
Eastern Australia gas demand peaked - three years ago
Even before the launch of the first LNG export cargo from Queensland late last year, major gas buyers raised concerns about future gas costs and contractual availability. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is examining transparency and barriers to competition in the gas industry.
When the New South Wales upper house held an inquiry into gas supplies earlier this year, it gave us, at the University of Melbourne Energy Institute, the opportunity to present our analysis of declining future gas demand in that state. Now Victoria’s upper house is likewise having an inquiry where we will present aspects of our extended research into gas supply and demand across all of eastern Australia.
The eastern Australian gas market has experienced significant upheaval and will continue to change over the next ten years. Data from the Australian Energy Market Operator indicates that the volume of gas used in eastern Australia peaked three years ago.
Gas demand will continue to decline across all sectors. In the electricity-generation sector, with rising gas prices, the abolition of the carbon price, and a surplus of coal-fired generation, gas will only be sparingly used. The Australian Energy Market Operator is also forecasting a steep drop in the amount of gas used by industry.
Do try this at home: fuel-switching from gas to electricity
The amount of gas used in buildings will also decline. As we shiver here in Melbourne, how would you like to reduce your heating costs by up to, say, 70%? If interested, you have to do two things: (1) turn your gas heater to “off” and (2) turn your reverse cycle air conditioner to “on” – on heating mode of course!
Infrared image of wall-mounted air conditioner producing heat at 50C.Tim Forcey
In my home we did that for the first time this winter. Our savings are remarkable, though not surprising nor different to what others in the community are reporting. As an example, during two particularly blustery days I found I could comfortably heat my house one day with gas at an energy-only cost of A$4.80 and then do it the next day with my air conditioner at a cost of just A$1.50. Our savings across the full heating season will add up to hundreds of dollars.
Results in other homes will depend on factors including what you pay for electricity and gas, the efficiencies of your gas heater and air conditioner, where your heat sources are located within your home, and individual comfort and convenience preferences. But it should not be long before word gets out to the 4.4 million Australian homes that already have at least one reverse-cycle air conditioner.
Previously I reported on the similarly large savings possible by using an efficient heat pump to heat water, especially if you have excess self-generated solar electricity. Add an induction cooktop and there is no economic need to connect gas to most Australian homes. Businesses are springing up that offer “all-electric” home conversions” to people interested in making the switch.
Collectively, homes are large consumers of eastern Australian gas. This coming “second-era of Australian home electrification” will have a big impact on gas and electricity supply-demand dynamics over the next decade.
Watching this video you are listening to one of Australia's thousands of unheard farmers who have had to suffer the lies and bully tactics of the Coal Seam Gas companies. The bullying that government encourages, they certainly don't do anything about it so this means they encourage this. The government is acting in a treasonous manner allowing the water supply to be poisoned the way it has been in so many places. This is the evidence I saw with my own eyes.
The Frackman Movie is now starting to show around towns up and down the coast as well, get along and see the horror stories of Coal Seam Gas in Australia. Dayne has aged a lot since I first met him. You see how the Gas hell has done a fine job on aging him, however gracefully. As many of the other farmers say, they would much rather be farming than fighting Gas companies to save their way of life as farmers and they know they have to because Government are not listening. The water is at stake here, the basins are compromised by this illicit drilling and none of our basin waters are safe from this filthy industry
BRIAN MONK is standing up the only way left really and speaking out for
his mate John Jenkyn as well because to a large degree there seems to be
a lack in organisation of who gets help and where.
"If
you can't be there to support alarm bell & whistleblower John
Jenkyn as he defends himself in court against ridiculous charges at 9am
on Wednesday 7th Jan 2015 at Chinchilla Court House then please consider
donating to help him get representation. He faces serious charges and
cannot walk into the court room unrepresented."
DONATE HERE:
Direct Deposit: G Newson BSB 633-000 Account 151465689
I think that is the crux of the problem here at hand. In an organisation as big now as LTG have become one would think that there is a data base kept on upcoming court actions, afterall this is where this fight was to be fought I thought, at least this is what I was told at Glenugie.
It seems people have now rallied and one lady has made a delightful meme to detail out the issue at hand with John Jenkyn facing court on Wednesday in Chinchilla.
Brian resorted to posting all of the following videos with a plea to share them to as far as they will go. So all I can do is blog it and hope that others read this and take some notice of the real truth.
"Was going to bail from F.B. but think this is a far better idea, these
videos are the truth, I suggest you share them around and try to wake up
your regions. The pipe to nowhere clearly shows how easy it is to stop
the gas industry, yet people ignore its simplicity. Fee simple title,
no signature, no gas wells." Brian Monk..
HISTORY lesson for today is " WHEN IT CHANGED IN QUEENSLAND" and who
were really behind this push for the minerals on the farming land...
READ here on the link provided...
Brian Monk's original post where he details his abject frustration as what appears to be the reality of the situation from the point where he stands.
"Injustice. Today I went to a meeting and talked with so many feeling
the impact of csg. For me it is heartbreaking watching people beginning
to see how much their government has betrayed them. I have a feeling
of helplessness and I realise the csg cancer takes all in its path. So
we mount another local resistance and begin to plan strategies. It
brings home to me how Australians have betrayed us. Not the gas
companies, but Australians. And nothing days that more than to speak to John Jenkyn
and realise he faces court with no support on Wednesday. When we can't
even be bothered supporting those who go out of their way to try to get
the truth out you realise how poor our organisations are. Who was out
this week getting photos for us all to share around, probably only the
two Johns and this is how we repay one of them. I hope the other doesn't
read this because if he stops who's photos then. This is a bad world
out here people, some days our fkd up organisation gets to me. Brian Monk
Brian Monk lives at #2 Hell Street in Newmans Sorcerer's Estate. Seriously Brian lives in South East Queensland west of Toowoomba. He lives in a living nightmare called a Gas Field. He and his family moved to have the quiet life and were over run by the corporate madness of the great Gas Rush. People are sick, crimes are committed against ordinary folks and the chemical nightmare continues on monitoring itself. All the while the only concern is the bottom line of profit. No body has any concern for the people in this equation.
Recently Brian has begun to report on the state of an Aquifer and the proof that gas has breached into the underground water along with chemicals and toxic heavy metals that nature has taken millions of years to separate for our own protection. This is serious
NEWS FLASH, NEWS FLASH. You wont see this in Des Houghton of the Courier mail articles, or the Chimpchilla News. Nor will you see it on
lame-stream media. There has been a major CSG incident near Chinchilla.
An incident involving both Arrow and Origin so I have been told. It
involves the blowing of an aquifer, a water bore blowing out very
impressively so i am told. The CSG compliant unit has attended and it
is reported to me, they have told the Gas Co's to fix the problem.
Of course there is no make good for this and monetary compensation is
the only solution. I have been informed the figure of $1,000,000 is the
proposed compensation. But my concern is will $1,000,000 silence this
issue, is that all the future of our nation is worth. Also if it is as
it has been reported to me, a whole of aquifer damage, what about all
the food that was going to be grown from this aquifer. What about all
the other farmers in the area who rely on this aquifer to remain
productive. My personal opinion is it is TIME FARMERS stood up and
said, MONEY is not the answer, shutting this industry down is the
answer. Instead I suspect the monetary value will be all that is
required to silence this issue, destroy the lives of numerous productive
farmers as the problem spreads, and all the while slimy no account
journalists will continue to spread the co-existence bullshit. So how
much truth is in this allegation, enough for me to hear it from both the
CSG industry and farmers alike. Will I pursue this, no, I don't use
underground water, our bore is already poisoned, both the industry and
the government have covered that up. This claim is for FARMERS who will
be impacted to chase up, for any journalist if there are any left in
lame-stream to follow up. It is common knowledge. For those of you who
don't live in a gasfield, you will not realize this industry leaks
information at an alarming rate, my personal belief is that people
working in the industry are just trying to relieve the burden on their
soul by leaking information. So has anyone got the balls to follow this
up, probably not, but we are talking an aquifer, not a water bore, we
are talking an aquifer. 23rd November 2014 later on:
Thanks for sharing this news flash around, the CSG Compliance Unit needs
to come out and deny or admit the truth of this story. No need to talk
to Arrow or Origin or the APPEA. Just get the facts on the record from
the CSG compliance unit, or DEHP or who ever the hell should be
regulating this industry, and chase up the effected farmers. Now it
isn't my bore and I wasn't there, but i have absolutely no reason to doubt
what I was told from different sources. This is real CSG
news, this is the real deal, someone needs to explore this story. Not
APPEA's spin, what about the real farmers who's lives and future depend
on this aquifer, could there be a link to LINC, they are stinking the
place up again. I mean, investigative journalists used to do this work,
WTF happened to them. What causes water bores to explode, that was how
it was described to me. What about a few souls working in the industry
come clean and go on the record, even if anonymously, get these facts out
there. IT'S TIME. 23 November at 15:06 Chinchilla Water bore blow out and Aquifer destruction. It is reported
that this bore blew out, exploded was the term i was told and water
spewed all over the landowners paddock. Is this OK Australians.
Remember your breakfast probably came from these paddocks, was probably
grown from irrigation water from these aquifers. Only idiot choose to
poison their water, and bigger idiots allow the polluticians they vote
into power to poison it for them. This is a no brainer, there
are already so many bores in this area blowing gas, added to that the
Condamine River is blowing gas at an alarming rate. Yet your
polluticians and useless public servants tell you it is safe. I tell
you what is safe, pack these bastards up, put them on a boat and send
them back to where they came from. Let honest Australians enjoy clean
air, clean water and clean food. Let honest farmers do what they do
best, grow food. Do you need to all go to uni to do a course to
understand the basic simplicity of this. Poison the air and the water
and you poison the food. Deplete the water and nothing grows. WTF, are
we just STUPID.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPtWT6RsF4 OK,
here is an update on the AQUIFER BLOWOUT. This blowout occurred to a
bore that had sat unused for 30 years, without any indication it blew
out spraying water over a paddock, this was a mix of water and gasses,
it continued for around 24 hours before the water slowed but the gas
continues to gurgle and blow out. I wonder how many of these water
bores the CSIRO tested in their unscientific examination of emissions
from the CSG industry. WHAT does this indicate?????? Clearly
it shows CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE. It shows gas has found its way from
the COAL SEAMS to the AQUIFER. NO SCIENCE or SPIN NEEDED to come to
that conclusion. So how do we think the CSG industry will try to spin
this, did the bore always blow gas, that is the tried and proven way to
fool idiots into looking the other way. I cant see any other option for
our sold out government and its puppet servants to spin this. But the
thing is it DIDN'T always blow gas DID IT. FIRST the bubbling CONDAMINE
RIVER, I love the way they call it a seep.
OK,
about this Aquifer blow out, I want people to think of how easy it is
to shut this up. If i worked for the industry, meaning if I was a total
psychopathic moron this is what I would do. I would insist the farmer
had no contact with the media. I would wave a juicy carrot under the
farmers nose. I would delay the CSG Compliance Unit from commenting or
better still get one of my bought and sold polluticians to comment on,
even Candrill himself maybe. I would then cover all evidence of the crime against humanity hat is being perpetrated right here, right now.
Now I'm not a total moronic psychopath so I would beg the farmer to in
fact contact every media outlet as well as the non-mainstream media
outlets. I would have the guts to stand up for what is right, I would
know that if i signed the bore away i guaranteed the future of my
neighbors to be waterless. I would know that this gas is now escaping
unchecked into the soils all around my bore, my land, my neighbors land
and I would make a stand. I would know that the future of all the
farmers in my region depended on crushing the insane CSG industry and
running it out of our land. I would rule my actions by what I KNOW IS
RIGHT, even if it not so financially rewarding. I would also ask for support and in doing so make sure of the motives of those I asked for support.
If I was a greedy self centered moron I would in fact go for the
million dollar pay out, because to silence this i would guarantee the
industry will pay a million. But in taking that million I would know I
sold all my neighbors and friends out, I would know that history would
show me to be one of the first to sell my soul. That is not how I
would choose to be remembered. So the eyes of Australia are trained
on a farmer who has experienced the destruction of his unused water
bore, waiting to see if that farmer and his advising body is prepared to
sell out Australia, will be interesting the next few days. Why can I
make this passionate plea, simple really, a neighbor just down the road
sold around 5000 acres of his property to QGC for $8,200,000. We own
5200 acres, my cars are falling to bits, the arse is out of my jeans,
but my conscience is clean. As the dirt is shoveled on my face, it will
hit a smiling face because I did the RIGHT thing. We all know what the
right thing is, even our sell out polluticians, our sell out public
servants, our sell out neighbors, we all know what the right thing is.
This farmer should be compensated, but for the right reasons, not
silenced to hide a sad reality that is sweeping across our nation. Our
most precious resource is water, this farmer has the opportunity to
save Australian AQUIFERS.
Further.... So
think about this little fact. How many billions of tons of water are
they extracting from underground. That all holds the gas down, but as
David was explaining to me earlier it also hold the surface up. How
many billions of tons can you extract before the subsidence begins. It
was pointed out to me at a meeting ages ago, that the Murray Darling
Basin will in fact change the course of the river because of this
subsidence. That how important this battle is, right here, right now,
before one aquifer after another falls and eventually the GAB. It is
now we stop this industry and this is the evidence we need to stop it.
people power, not bought and sold science. Further...http://water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html Brian quotes UGGS. Now
please read this quote form the above, and tell me how you can remove
billions of tons of water and not cause subsidence. ""Land
subsidence
The
basic cause of land subsidence is a loss of support below ground. In
other words, sometimes when water is taken out of the soil, the soil
collapses, compacts, and drops. This depends on a number of factors,
such as the type of soil and rock below the surface. Land subsidence is
most often caused by human activities, mainly from the removal of
subsurface water." This
Aquifer collapse, and i hope all the farmers near there stand up now
and be counted, because there are a lot of them with bores blowing gas
now. This is the gas industry and governments Achilles, this and
health impacts. But this is in your face obvious. Is it enough, are
there enough true blue Aussies left farming, i guess we find out over the
next few days/weeks. Or is this region only full of sellouts who care
not for the future generations or the land. Come
on you farmers and I know a lot of you, stand up for Australia, if you
don't have someone to film your burning or bubbling bore, message me, we
will do it for you. This is the TIME, they stuffed up, here is the
chance to ensure water for future generations, don't let your
grandchildren down.
Jane Hughes reports to Brian that is now all over Twitter... and that it is being circulated. Quote
from above from Cripps, or Creeps as i think he should be renamed. "I
will make sure, as the Government will, that once the investigation to
determine the cause is finalized, the appropriate action is taken," he
said." Now i translate that to real English, we will kick the dirt, we
will wander around aimlessly, we will do little or nothing and then when
you forget it ever happened we will say it is all under control and
would you please look the other way because there is nothing to see
here. (Tales from the Crypts) Then the ABC Reported on this:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-24/bore--blow-out-investigation/5914126 Queensland's CSG compliance unit investigating bore 'blow out' on the Western Downs
FARMERS
MAY CHOOSE TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY ON THIS POST. I spent a
lot of the night pondering why a damaged aquifer would get such little
publicity. My prediction that a bought and sold pollutician would spin
the spin occurred, thanks creeps. My expectation that the farmer would
not expose the full extent of damage appears to be true. My prediction
that it wouldn't make mainstream appears correct. But none of this was
what kept me awake last night, I was awake with
this sobering thought, this rumination. It isn't the Gas Companies that
allow this industry to flourish, it isn't the Government elect and
public servants. No, it isn't, I bet that surprises you. And it wasn't
those who signed before the full impacts were obvious. It is those
FARMERS who choose the pay off, the payoff is directly proportional to
the embarrassment the incident could cause. I think back to when Agforce
up here, the farmers organization, went across the state telling
farmers they had no choice, now all they talk of is make goods and
compensation. No doubt they are involved in this little bore blow out
fiasco as well. Anyway, the big bucks will go to the impacted farmer,
the sad thing is, that like the bubbling Condamine River, the river that
is hardly ever seen in the media, because farmers dont allow access.
It is all the same really, the problem is not anyone other than the
farmers who see dollar signs as more important than the future of our
beautiful nation. So I suggest we stop blaming the companies and the
government and start blaming the very people on whom the blame belongs.
Not those farmers in the early days, none of us knew back then. But
those today, who choose to add their signature of access for the thirty
pieces of silver. Not one of my neighbors were forced to sign access
agreements, not one, yet 10 out of 13 have. A couple were bullied and coerced, but not one was forced. That is why Coal Seam Gas will roll
out over this entire nation, because FARMERS have lost sight of what
they once were very good at, caring for the future, their roll is the
greatest, their failure to fulfill it has the greatest impact. So when
you are at meetings, look around you and see who is going to sell you
out, or even if, when the price is right, you will sell out those around
you. The FARMER and LAND OWNERS are the true sell outs of our nation.
Now i have no intention of modifying this comment. To the farmers I
have stood with and talked to who will never sell out, you are all
legends, to the rest of you, you are sell outs, you are to blame, not Blighty or Candrill or a gas co, you give this industry permission to
destroy our nation with your signature, no one else, no excuses.
Probably loose a lot of friends with this post, but the thing is, I don't
want sell outs as friends, I fight this fight at great personal cost,
and I expect my friends to fight it at the same cost. This is the
battle for a future, if that isnt worth the cost, then un-friend me. [Facebook] I
would like to add something here, in the early days before we knew, I
would have sold to get out of the industrialization, I just didn't want
people all over our land. So no saint here, and I don't profess to be
one. But now no one has an excuse, everyone knows, everywhere, and
those who cannot see cannot see for greed. But
now as I watch this cancer spreading over the entire nation I realize
every signature not given, every pollution exposed, every failure
publicized is one chip for the future, other areas and some of ours will
save itself by chipping away. PLEASE DON'T SIGN, you have a future to
protect.
Friend Brian Monk on Facebook if you want to stay abreast of what is happening on the ground in a real life living hell in the Western Downs of South East Queensland at Tara
The Queensland Government should surely be in hot water given the amount of unhappy farmers and the entourage of people effected adversely by the CSG Industry coming forward to the Palmer inspired party to end all parties if its fair dinkum.
Watch Latelines episode with EMMA ALBERICI and MARK WILLACY exposing the depth of trouble brewing up there in Queensland.
The Environment Protection Agency known as the EPA has been found out. This government agency is working with mining and changing the rules where it needs to accommodate the Mining Companies involved.
Down at Camden
The EPA have been found to have given Santos and AGL pollution
licenses that
impose zero limits on the volume of toxic gases that are emitted into the air from the
flaring of gas wells.
This dodgy approval from the EPA is a joke on the people of New South Wales as it gives the green light to both Santos and AGL to pollute and there will be no repercussions at either of these controversial coal seam gas exploration projects
This astounding revelation comes 36 hours later on the heels of a gas leak at AGL’s
Camden CSG Project, close to the densely populated Western suburbs of Sydney.
The people of Gloucester are in shock that the government has not even imposed any monitoring at all and this is adjacent to homes at Gloucester. Ed Robinson who has a farm running beef nearby to the newly approved well sites, he has spoken out against AGL from the onset and had this to say:
“We were shocked that the EPA has not imposed any limit on the emission
of these carcinogens near homes in the Gloucester Valley, and that no
monitoring stations for them have been prescribed.”
So people do not matter in this equation to deliver the Gas and business as usual approach the various levels of government are taking with this industry. Each day the people are astounded at the audacity proffered in the very faces of the people.
People frantically filling out petitions to try to stop the Gas Madness.
These were the words of another local business person who has been in the Gloucester area
for nearly 30 years, this person held grave fears:
"This is really the worst concern. The level of
government collusion with industry over the peoples wishes".
"This has to be pulled up to save what is left of this country before these madmen completely ruin the land for all human habitation". Full Background Story
This is a heart felt letter from a friend of mine who lives outside Dalby on the Darling Downs now known mostly as the Surat Basin. The situation there is absolutely hardcore to live there. Here is Di Cumners letter.
I Am Sorry
To all the people who have fought for my homelands I am sorry. Not many
of you are born and bred locals, I am. Four generations of my family
have called the Western Downs home. You came here to make a home, and
we all let you down. Your homes and your dreams, your health and your
futures have been sacrificed by people I called neighbours all in the
name of the mighty dollar. Greed came
and took over peoples eyesight and hearts. They sat on their hands
instead of standing and fighting with you. I also did not do enough, and
for this I am so very very sorry. Please don't try to make me feel
better by telling me I did act, or I did what I could because I did not.
I did not do enough. I foolishly thought that I had.............
I have been active in the Anti CSG protest since the day I first heard
about the plight of the people in Tara. I cant remember who or how I
found out but it scared me into action right away. I could not
understand how a government could allow this to happen, and why everyone
was not screaming from the rooftops! I now know why.
On Saturday, Fairfax Media revealed that Metgasco’s largest
shareholder, ERM Power, won an open tender to supply electricity to
government departments including NSW Health, Attorney-General and
Justice and Education and Communities.
At GATE A - BENTLEY BLOCKADE - STOCKADE
ERM chairman Tony Bellas, the media group reported, is in business
with Mr Obeid’s nephew Dennis Jabour and has links to controversial
Liberal Party identity Nick Di Girolamo, who have both been targeted by
the ICAC probe into infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings.
Barry O'Farrell at Flag Day in Sydney. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We knocked the budget off the front page!
Metgasco project referred to ICAC as links to Obeid family emerge.
Said Mark Anning on Facebooks Lock The Gate page.
A story was aired in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD that details the corrupt links in business and mining and the connection to New South Wales with Queensland with these corrupt deals.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY Sean Nicholls, Nicole Hasham, Kate McClymont May 15, 2014
Resources company Metgasco's gas drilling operation on the NSW north
coast was referred to corruption authorities as links emerged between
its largest shareholder and the family of disgraced former Labor
powerbroker Eddie Obeid, and controversial businessman Nick Di Girolamo.
On Thursday, NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts announced he had
suspended Metgasco's exploration licence at Bentley, near Lismore, due
to a lack of community consultation.
Mr Roberts also said he had referred the project to the Independent
Commission Against Corruption "following receipt of information
concerning shareholdings and interests in Metgasco Limited".
The chairman of Metgasco's largest shareholder, ERM Power, is Tony
Bellas, who is in business with Eddie Obeid's nephew, Dennis Jabour.
Both are shareholders in the Queensland company Gasfields Waste Water
and Services, of which Mr Jabour is the sole director.
Until March last year, Mr Bellas was also a director of Australian Water
Queensland, a subsidiary of infrastructure company Australian Water
Holdings, whose activities are the subject of current ICAC
investigations.
Eddie Obeid jnr, the son of Mr Obeid, worked for Australian Water
Queensland. The ICAC has heard that from 2009 Mr Obeid jnr led AWH's
push into the Queensland market.
Among Mr Bellas's fellow directors on the Australian Water Queensland
board were Mr Di Girolamo, a former lobbyist and Liberal party
fundraiser who was chief executive of AWH.
Mr Di Girolamo's gift of a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage to
former NSW premier Barry O'Farrell led to his resignation after Mr
O'Farrell gave false evidence about it to the ICAC.
Australian Water Queensland was shut down due to negative publicity
about the involvement on the board of a Queensland lobbyist, Wayne
Myers. A new company, Gasfields Waste Water and Services, was set up
early last year.
Former Gasfields shareholders include Mr Obeid jnr, Mr Di Girolamo and
the current director-general of the Queensland department of premier and
cabinet, Jon Grayson, who only ceased to have an interest two weeks
ago.
On Thursday, Mr Bellas said he was "incredulous" about the referral to
the ICAC if its was due to his links with Mr Di Girolamo and Mr Obeid
jnr.
"We have nothing to do with Metgasco's operation, we're just a
shareholder," Mr Bellas said.
Asked about the nature of his association with Mr Di Girolamo and Mr
Obeid jnr, Mr Bellas replied: "I'd prefer not to comment on either,
because they are before the ICAC."
Metgasco's license to explore for coal seam and conventional gas
resources in northern NSW was first granted to Carlita Holdings in
November 1996, when the Carr Labor government was in power.
Peter Gray, a high-profile stockbroker, was a director and secretary of
Carlita Holdings and was later revealed as an investor in Cascade Coal, a
company at the centre of an ICAC inquiry involving Mr Obeid snr and
another former Labor resources minister, Ian Macdonald, last year.
The ICAC found Cascade Coal paid $30 million to the family of Mr Obeid
to buy out part of their stake in a mining joint venture over the
Obeids' Bylong Valley farm.
ICAC found Mr Macdonald acted corruptly in creating a mining tenement at
Mount Penny in the Bylong Valley over land owned by the Obeid family.
In his final report, the ICAC found Mr Macdonald expressly reopened a
tender to enable Cascade Coal to put in a bid, which it subsequently
won.
Mr Gray was not accused of any wrongdoing.
In August 1999, the north coast exploration license, known as PEL 16,
was transferred from Carlita Holdings to Metgasco, when Mr Obeid snr was
Minister for Mineral Resources.
Mr Obeid renewed the licence in 2000
and it was again renewed by Mr Macdonald in 2006.
The licence was most recently renewed last year, under former Liberal
resources minister Chris Hartcher.
Mr Hartcher is currently the subject
of an ICAC inquiry involving Australian Water Holdings.
He and fellow state MPs Chris Spence and Darren Webber are accused of
soliciting donations to an alleged slush fund, including from AWH, in
return for political favours.
Metgasco shares went into a trading halt on Thursday morning. In a
statement, the company said it was "confident that it is in compliance
with the PEL 16 licence conditions and is seeking to demonstrate this to
government". ` SMH
I contacted the Gasfield
Community Support group after hearing Laurence Springborg saying on the
radio that no workers in the CSG industry had become sick, and the air
and water tests were good quality.
I started in the industry in 2008, and worked for 3 ½ years on a mobile drill rig. Initially I was employed by Mitchell drilling who were taken over by AJ Lucas. With the exception of one well, at all other times Mitchell drilling /AJ Lucas were contracted to Santos. I was employed as the “offsider” initially, graduating to senior drillers assistant.
One of the tasks was mixing chemicals into the mud pits to pump down the drill string. There were different polymers used. They pumped “mud” down the drill string. (Salt water, KCL and polymer JK261, (a lubricant)). On an average lease, if they were not taking losses, you would use an average of 12 tons of KCL and 15 pallets (720 drums /10,800kg of polymer) to keep the viscosity up and lubricate the drill bit. The polymer was mixed in the pits through a hopper. The polymer had to be sprinkled into the hopper and it was blowing in the face, in the eyes; we were constantly breathing it in. This happened for hours at a time.
A Critique of the Queensland Department of Health’s Report on the Health Impacts of CSG Activities on the Tara Community
Summary
The Queensland Government’s Health Report, ‘Coal seam gas in the Tara region: Summary risk assessment of health complaints and environmental monitoring data, March 2013’, [Health Report] and the reports on which it is based, do not provide a comprehensive investigation of the potential impacts of coal seam gas (CSG) activities on the residents of Tara. The Health Report should not be used by government or industry to claim ‘a clean bill of health’ for the CSG industry in Tara, or any other CSG field for that matter.
The Health Report concludes overall that it was unable to determine whether any of the health effects reported by the community are linked to exposure to CSG activities. This is not an unsurprising finding and one that’s very common in cases of chemical exposures and health impacts, especially when no baseline health data has been gathered.
The Health Report does however provide some evidence that might associate some of the residents’ symptoms to exposures to airborne contaminants arising from CSG activities.
While industry’s sampling on which the Health Report relies was very limited, both in scope and time, a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were still detected in the air around residents’ homes in Tara. The Health Report concludes there was no evidence of contamination of concern, yet for many of the chemicals, the level of detection used by the laboratories was set above the level set for the protection of health used in the report. However, benzene, a confirmed human carcinogen1, was detected at levels above the health criteria, yet these results were dismissed with the claim that ‘benzene was not a compound that is found in CSG and therefore cannot be attributed to CSG activities’.
This statement contradicts the Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection website2 which states that “BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene) are found naturally in crude oil, coal and gas deposits and therefore they can be naturally present at low concentrations in groundwater near these deposits”. The QLD Health Report “The investigation by itself is unable to determine whether any of the health effects reported by the community are linked to exposure to Coal Seam Gas activities.” Page 5
“The most that can be drawn from the DDPHU report is that it provides some limited clinical evidence that might associate an unknown proportion of some of the residents’ symptoms to transient exposures to airborne contaminants arising from CSG activities.” Page 6
The Health Report released by the Queensland government is not a comprehensive health study. The investigation of the residents’ health complaints was limited to an analysis of reports of symptoms and a questionnaire with little clinical follow-up.
The Health Report’s findings are based on information for 56 people from 11 families living in
the region. However there was only direct participation by 15 people in person and two by telephone. Two other individuals who registered complaints with 13HEALTH were excluded from the analysis as they were not residents of the region.
A broad range of symptoms was reported. The predominant symptoms reported were headaches (34 people), sore, itchy eyes (18), nosebleeds (14) and skin rashes (11).
An investigation by the Darling Downs Public Health Unit3stresses that one of the main limitations of their investigation was the reliance on residents to report symptoms to either the government or their local health care provider (HCPs). They acknowledged the potential for under-reporting due to the lack of awareness of the government’s reporting mechanism and/or the difficulties in accessing rural GPs at the time of the symptoms being experienced. Costs were also considered a factor. Based on previous experience, some residents were concerned about a negative reaction from health care providers if they reported that their symptoms were related to CSG. The report notes that there were often discrepancies between what was reported by the residents and what was reported by the local HCPs.
The Health Report acknowledges that few clinical examinations of the individuals reporting symptoms were undertaken by the government appointed doctor, who was also surprised at the relatively small number of people who came to see him; ...
