You may be aware that in November 2010 the NSW government granted an exploration licence to drill for Coal Seam Gas (CSG) close to homes and schools in St Peters in the inner west – with no community consultation and insufficient risk assessment.
This in spite of the fact that Coal Seem Gas mining creates a lot of ongoing noise from heavy vehicles and heavy machinery. Residents can also be subjected to toxic fumes and dust. You can imagine the effect on property prices. This is the first time a company wants to mine Coal Seem Gas in a city.
The reason this is relevant to people living in the Ashfield/Burwood area is that CSG mining requires lots of spread out wells to be viable. If the mining company does find gas in St Peters, they will want to drill wells all over the inner west.
Regarding greenhouse gas emissions, although burning gas produces less CO2 than burning coal, CSG mining is likely to be even worse for climate change than mining and burning coal. This because 3.6% to 7.9% of the produced gas escapes into the atmosphere. And the gas is mostly Methane, a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2.
The community group Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas (SRACSG) is now organising a public rally, to ask for a moratorium on Coal Seam Gas exploration and production, and a thorough investigation into the environmental and health impacts of the CSG industry.
When: Sunday 18 September, 11am
Where: Camperdown Memorial Park, Newtown (Cnr Lennox and Eliza St)
After assembling, the rally will peacefully proceed to the proposed drill site in Sydney Park.
In Sydney Park there will be food, speakers and music by The Lurkers, Blues artist Don Hopkins and others.
Links to more information about this issue:
Fact sheet about what it means to live in an area where coal seem gas mining is going on:
http://lockthegate.org.au/csg-facts/csg-factsheet.cfm
Answers by the mining company to questions from the community:
http://nogasmininginsydney.com/SomeResponsesbyDart.pdf
About the organisers of the rally:
http://nogasmininginsydney.com/
