AGL said it was operating safely within the licence it obtained from the NSW Office of Water, and the discharge had had no effect on the surrounding country. Most of the water was taken away by tanker to be treated, it said.
But the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance, a coalition of wine, tourism and thoroughbred racing interests campaigning against what they see as excessive industrialisation of the region, commissioned its own laboratory tests on the water. It said it was concerned about pollution even before the potentially large drilling operations get under way in the region.
”We think they’re doing this because AGL had run into a problem because it’s expensive to take tankers of water down to Windsor, where it is processed, and it’s easier to just dump it on site,” said a spokesman for the Hunter Valley group, John Thomson.
”In our view, AGL is not being held accountable for its actions and the NSW government is not taking sufficient action against the coal seam gas industry.”
The independent tests, undertaken at Hunter Water Laboratories, showed high salt levels and the presence of some chemicals associated with drilling machinery. Photographs sent to the Herald appear to show large areas of grass killed by the discharges.
AGL said the dead vegetation was nothing to do with its drilling. “The disposal did not cause any change to vegetation because the area where the water ponded was a depression with existing poor growth because of waterlogged soils,” AGL’s general manager for upstream gas, Mike Moraza, said in a statement.
The company described the water pumped out of its bore as ”slightly salty” but less salty than seawater.
“The groundwater brought to surface during drilling was disposed of in accordance with our water bore licence issued by the NSW Office of Water under the Water Act,” Mr Moraza said. ”This approval allows for disposal of water to land during construction, although AGL was proactive in tankering most of the water from the site.”
AGL was awarded two ”green globe awards” by the state government this year for sustainable use of natural resources and ”climate change leadership”.
Staff from the Department of Industry and Investment, which is the responsible authority for coal seam gas exploration, have inspected the area.
”The quality of the water was of concern to [the department] with potential to affect soil salinity,” a spokeswoman said.
”The department has issued AGL with a direction to remediate the affected site. Industry and Investment NSW has asked AGL to provide further information. The matter is not closed.”
AGL has 16 groundwater monitoring bores in the district, and these are separate and less deep than bores drilled to extract coal seam gas. Four main holes and 15 production wells for gas have been drilled for the Broke district as part of the gas exploration.