Capítulo 2. Branding en la era digital
2.1. Redes sociales
Any future proposals to use CSG water for any purpose in the CCA need to ensure that they are consistent with Queensland and Commonwealth government
legislation and policies. The current policy and legislative environment for any project which seeks to beneficially use treated CSG water is complex and highly regulated. Contributing additional complexity to this project are considerations for projects which are located within the Murray-Darling Basin. The following
sections provide an overview of the relevant legislation and policies relating to activity in the CCA.
CSG and CSG water extraction, management and disposal are primarily regulated by State (Queensland) legislation. The Commonwealth becomes involved when a CSG project has the potential to have an impact on matters protected under national environment law, such as nationally threatened and migratory species, wetlands of international importance, or national or world heritage places. If a CSG project is likely to have a ‘significant’ impact on a Matter of National Environmental Significance (MNES) it requires assessment and approval under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
1999 (EPBC Act). A proposed amendment to the EPBC Act is expected to
identify water resources likely to be significantly impacted by CSG and large coal mining projects as an MNES, thereby triggering Commonwealth assessment of all CSG projects which are likely to have a significant impact on water resources. Queensland is a signatory to the National Partnership Agreement on Coal Seam
Gas and Large Mining Development,6 the purpose of which is to create a more
consistent national approach to strengthen the regulation of CSG and large coal mining developments likely to have a significant impact on water resources. The agreement does this by establishing an Independent Expert Scientific Committee (IESC) which will give the Queensland and Commonwealth governments access to expert scientific advice on such matters, as well as providing financial
incentives to Queensland to achieve its commitments under the agreement. Queensland is also a member of the Council of Australian Governments’ Standing Council on Energy and Resources (SCER). In response to community concerns over the environmental, health and social impacts of the development of the CSG industry, SCER has developed a Draft National Harmonised Regulatory
Framework for Coal Seam Gas (2012). This aim of this framework is to help
address key areas of community concern with respect to CSG operations (such as water management and monitoring) and to provide a suite of national and global leading practices for governments to consider and implement in the assessment and ongoing regulation of proposed CSG projects.
In Queensland a number of different acts govern the extraction, management and use of CSG water, as well as the monitoring and mitigation of associated
groundwater impacts. These include the following:
• The extraction of CSG and CSG water is regulated predominantly through Queensland’s Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 (P&G Act). The P&G Act allows tenure holders to take or interfere with
underground water and to use that water for performing authorised activities related to the tenure;
• The Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EP Act) regulates the environmental impacts of the CSG industry. The EP Act classifies CSG water as a waste and deals with the regulation of environmental impacts arising from the use or disposal of CSG water. The Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2001 (Waste Act) provides for the authorisation of CSG water for beneficial uses where criteria in regard to waste management and environmental impacts can be established;
• Although the P&G Act authorises petroleum (CSG) tenure holders to take or interfere with groundwater in the process of extracting CSG, conditions are imposed under the Water Act 2000 (Water Act) which require these impacts to be monitored and managed. These conditions establish responsibility on the petroleum tenure holder to mitigate any impacts on water bore owners resulting from the CSG activities through ‘make good’ arrangements as well as other adaptive management strategies which actively seek to minimise the impacts on groundwater resources; and
• The Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008 (Water Supply Act) provides for the safety and reliability of water supply in order to protect public health. CSG water provided directly or indirectly into a water source
(including an aquifer) used as a drinking water supply by a drinking water service provider is classified as recycled water. The recycled water provider for a CSG recycled water scheme must have either an interim CSG Recycled Water Management Plan or a full CSG Recycled Water Management Plan approved by the regulator, unless an exclusion decision has been granted.
4.1
Environmental management of CSG projects
When an application for a Petroleum Authority under the P&G Act 2004 is lodged it is considered in conjunction with an application for the necessary
Environmental Authority (EA) required under the EP Act.
Typically, an Environmental Impact Assessment (documented in an EIS) is carried out by the proponent to inform the EA application. This is undertaken either as a voluntary measure, or if the scale of the proposed development meets the trigger criteria under the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) guidelines. Petroleum activities are classified as ‘Level 1’ or ‘Level 2’ and are either code compliant or non-code compliant with classification based on the risk of environmental harm.
CSG projects typically fall into the Level 1 category, particularly if they are large scale involving construction of pipelines. For the Level 1 category, there are a number of triggers including whether the petroleum activity is likely to have significant impacts on Category A or B environmentally sensitive areas or is to be carried out on a site containing a regulated dam.
The EP Act requires all Level 1 CSG activities to develop an EMP for approval. The EMP is required to identify the environmental values likely to be affected, detail any potential adverse or beneficial impacts on those values and detail the proposed environmental protection commitments to ensure best practice environmental management of the impacts. The EMP must also include a
rehabilitation program for the proposed disturbed land and propose an amount of financial assurance for the future rehabilitation program.
A CSG water management plan is also a required component of the EMP. The CSG water management plan must specifically identify the following:
• Expected quantity of the CSG water including the flow rate and quality; • Proposed management of the CSG water including use, treatment, storage and
disposal; and
• Measurable criteria for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of CSG water management including actions to be taken if criteria are not satisfied. The final management option for Arrow Energy’s7 (and any other involved CSG
companies) CSG water will need to align with the approved CSG water management plan(s). CSG operators are also required to submit an annual evaluation of how effective and appropriate management of CSG water has been undertaken as part of their EA conditions8.
4.1.1
CSG Water Management Policy
The options proposed in a CSG water management plan also need to be consistent with the recently finalised Queensland Government CSG Water Management Policy which aims to encourage beneficial use in a way that protects the
environment and maximises its productive uses as a valuable resource (described
in Figure 15). The policy establishes the following prioritisation hierarchy for managing and using CSG water:
• Priority 1 - CSG water is used for a purpose that is beneficial to one or more
of the following: the environment, existing or new water users, and existing or new water-dependent industries; and
• Priority 2 - After feasible beneficial use options have been considered,
treating and disposing of CSG water in a way that firstly avoids, and then minimises and mitigates impacts on environmental values.
Options that are consistent with Priority 1 include injection into depleted aquifers for recharge purposes, substitution for an existing water entitlement,
supplementing existing irrigation use, and urban and industrial water supplies. Disposal options under Priority 2, such as discharge to watercourses, will be considered only where there is no feasible beneficial use, and the disposal will not harm environmental values.
CSG water is required to be treated to a defined standard before disposal or on- supply to other users. Typically, this treatment is achieved through reverse osmosis. Evaporation dams are not allowed except in exceptional circumstances.
7 Arrow Energy 2011b, Coal Seam Gas Water Management Strategy, accessed 4 April 2013.
Figure 15 Strategically Managing Coal Seam Gas Water (source: Queensland Government, 2012)