Dear Ministers,
I object to Apex Energy 's plans for an
additional coal seam gas borehole - AI19 on Sydney Catchment Authority,
drinking
water catchment and pristine bushland This and the other 15 Apex
boreholes should never have been approved for exploration.
Apart
from
the extensive bushland clearing and risk of pollutant waste water,
exploration will lead to applications for commercial extraction - an
enterprise that should never be allowed in such a highly biodiverse
conservation and water catchment region. The risk of methane &
heavy salt poisoning the catchment, combined with
subsidence is
far too great .
The Sydney Water Catchment land is also home to several
endangered wildlife species and forms part of the essential remaining
wildlife corridor linking the National Parks to the Illawarra
Escarpment and Dharawal SCA. To fragment it further by clearing
bushland and fencing will place these species in greater
jeopardy.
The
long term negative effect of csg exploration will ripple through the
environment for generations to come, long after the gas
resource
itself has been exhausted. It should also be noted that
Borehole
AI19 is stated as a
Borehole type 3. The current EA statement only briefly refers
to early clarifying documents, however Type 3 Boreholes (as per Apex Energy's
documentation) require hydraulic fracturing (fraccing) as the
drilling will take place on unworked coal seams devoid of 'goaf' gas. (i)
Yours faithfully,
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