Wollongong City Council will make a formal submission to the NSW Parliamentary inquiry into Coal Seam Gas. Council will also present at the inquiry when it sits in Bowral on 9 December.

At its meeting on 28 November Council voted to send Councillor Jill Merrin, one Council officer and Councillor Greg Petty to the Bowral meeting.

Council’s draft submission to the Coal Seam Gas Inquiry addresses three points including:

• Uncertainty around the environmental impacts associated with Coal Seam Gas activities
• Acknowledging the community concern and opposition to Coal Seam Gas in the Illawarra
• Urging the State Government to rule out Coal Seam Gas activities in water catchment areas.

Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery OAM said it was essential that Council voice its opinion on coal seam gas mining in water catchment areas.

“Council is concerned about the short term and long term environmental impacts of coal seam gas mining,” Cr Bradbery said.

“The inquiry meeting at Bowral will allow Council to provide its point and to also express the widespread local community concern on coal seam gas.

“It is important that at this stage Council voices those concerns. It’s also important that Council fights to retain water quality in the city. Council has concerns on the issue of “produced water”. This is water that comes from the coal seams and could have high concentrations of salts and heavy metals and could be detrimental for our environment.”

In its submission Council notes that there is concern that even if impacts of Coal Seam Gas activities could be managed effectively in individual cases, the potential cumulative effect of multiple developments over the landscape scale is uncertain. Council also notes that one of the biggest perceived risks of the CSG industry is the threat to water resources.

Large quantities of water of poor quality, known in the industry as “produced water”, can be brought to the surface through CSG activities. This water could be more than half of all the water extracted from the Great Artesian Basin.

The management of all this additional water will be no ordinary matter at the landscape scale. The “produced water” will have been in close contact with coal material for long periods of time.