General News
24 July, 2024
AgForce ready to take up fight with feds over Great Artesian Basin
The matter will go to court unless the federal government follows the lead of its Queensland counterpart.
The looming court showdown between AgForce and the federal government over whether a carbon capture and storage project in the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) should have received greater public scrutiny shows no signs of an eleventh-hour resolution, with the first hearing scheduled for next week.
The legal action was sparked by a controversial plan from Glencore subsidiary Carbon Capture and Storage Company (CTSCo) to take waste CO2 from a Millmerran coal-fired power station and pump it into a GAB aquifer.
The proposal triggered a cascade of protests from AgForce, National Farmers Federation and the Western Queensland Alliance of Councils, with claims the project could cause “irreversible or long-term change to groundwater quality,” which would threaten the livelihoods of thousands of homes and businesses.
Western Queensland communities rely on the GAB as their sole water source.
CTSCo had argued its proposed three-year trial would have “minimal and manageable” impacts because the project deliberately focused on a low-quality sandstone section of an aquifer that was substantially deeper than aquifers used by the agricultural community.
Despite this, Premier Steven Miles announced a state moratorium on greenhouse gas stream injection and storage into the GAB, with new laws set to be introduced to state parliament in October.
AgForce has initiated court proceedings over the federal government’s decision to not define the project as a “controlled action” under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which would have triggered a significantly higher level of scrutiny and investigation into the proposal, including public reporting.
“Make no mistake, the future of inland Australia, its towns, its industries and its immense beauty are on the line – and the federal government is now deliberately seeking to avoid protecting one of the natural wonders of the world,” AgForce CEO Michael Guerin said earlier this month.
A Senate inquiry into the CTSCo project has also recommended all states and territories enact similar moratoriums as Queensland, as well as expansions to the Act that would greatly increase the level of investigation required for any onshore carbon capture and storage project.
The Albanese government is yet to respond to the recommendations of the senate inquiry.
Boulia Shire mayor Rick Britton said he had sought assurances from federal politicians that no further carbon capture and storage projects would be permitted in the GAB.
He said communities across Western Queensland would disappear without a reliable and protected GAB water supply.
“These companies need to do something else than just burying the stuff,” Cr Britton said.
“Every community west of the great divide survives on either artesian or sub-artesian underground water.”