The NSW Office of Water's revised aquifer interference draft policy has been criticised as bowing to pressure from the mining industry and exempting major projects from its controls.

 

The revised draft policy was released to farmers, irrigators and mining and environment groups last week, setting out  measures to control impacts of mining, including coal seam gas extraction, construction, injection and other activities with the potential to contaminate groundwater.

 

The draft policy proposes to allow economically significant coal and CSG mining projects to proceed even if they are found to have a negative effect on the water table.

 

It also looks at  ways of disposing of waste from coal seam gas mining projects, suggesting that alternative disposal options might include “reinjection to an aquifer, discharge to a river, on-selling to a nearby industry, agricultural development or potable water supply”.

 

The NSW Farmers Association, NSW Irrigators' Council and a community lobby group called Lock The Gate Alliance have all criticized the policy setting up controls which are rendered ineffective by exemptions.

 

The NSW Irrigators Council said that the draft policy would “effectively apply to nobody”.

 

Council Chief Executive Officer Andrew Gregson says that the draft set out good Rules, but is characterised by exemptions.

 

"Interference with an aquifer will require a permit under the Policy - unless you happen to qualify for exemptions. Those exemptions are so wide that they render the Policy ineffective.

 

"If your development is on 'strategic agricultural land', you're exempt from having to comply with the Aquifer Interference Policy. Instead, you go through an independent 'Gateway Panel' that can ignore the Water Minister's advice using such things as a cost benefit analysis. In practice, the dollar value of a mine can overrule the damage it can cause to water resources.

 

"The other major exemption is for State Significant Developments. If a project qualifies as an SSD, it's again exempt from Aquifer Interference requirements.

 

"Under the current State Environmental Planning Policy, SSDs are 'Development for the purpose of mining' and 'Development for the purpose of petroleum production' - which is coal seam gas.

 

"In essence, then, the Aquifer Interference Policy designed to protect water resources from mining and coal seam gas won't apply to mining and coal seam gas operations.

 

"We're quite reasonably asking the Government to fix this. They need to get rid of the exemptions. They need to make the requirements of the Aquifer Interference Policy binding on all development."