The EPA has advised environment groups that they have issued two penalty infringement notices, amounting to $3,000 in fines, and one formal warning to Eastern Star Gas and Santos for polluting a creek with coal seam gas wastewater in the Pilliga Forest, near Narrabri in NSW.
The link to the EPA media release can be found here.
“The action by the EPA today vindicates our allegations, made in December 2011, that Santos had polluted a creek in the Pilliga with coal seam gas wastewater ” said Carmel Flint, spokesperson for the Northern Inland Council for the Environment.
“However, the pathetic penalties imposed and the fact that it took action by community groups to expose these problems only serves to confirm that regulation of the coal seam gas industry in NSW is a complete failure.
“A fine of just $3,000 and a formal warning is like hitting the gas company with a piece of wet lettuce – it means absolutely nothing to them and will not act as a deterrent.
“Environment groups spent more money on getting the water tests conducted to expose the pollution then the gas companies have been fined for breaching the law – it’s a disgrace” she said.
“The NSW Government should now act immediately to put in place a moratorium on this dangerous industry until these regulatory failures are fixed” said Prue Bodsworth, campaigner with The Wilderness Society Newcastle.
“The Pilliga forest is a very sensitive environment and it is clearly an inappropriate place for an enormous and polluting coal seam gas field.
“We are calling on both state and federal governments to now step in and protect the Pilliga from any further coal seam gas development” she said.
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