GREAT Lakes Councillor Linda Gill is so incensed by what she sees as the lack of transparency in the CSG approval process that she has now moved out to the Gloucester Protection Camp blockade until the proposal to frack Gloucester has been stopped.
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In light of the stand taken by the Premier Mike Baird to strongly support the expansion of Coal Seam Gas after the election, Clr Gill has joined Clr Aled Hogget, prominent community members, residents of Gloucester and the many who are demanding that AGL's operations are stopped in Gloucester and that their licence be revoked.
“It has now been proven that vast amounts of methane appear to be leaking undetected from Australia's biggest coal seam gas field, according to world-first research that undercuts claims by the gas industry,” she said
She says the current fracking proposal is the most insidious and threatening she has seen in her 23 years of being on council.
She says that while the present preliminary gas extraction is confined to the Gloucester area, if the proposal by AGL to drill some 330 wells comes to pass, CSG fracking will be occurring in the Great Lakes council area.
The Greens have called for a permanent ban on CSG. Labor’s position is to suspend further CSG exploration and extraction across the state until more risk assessment is done.
The state government has suspended, and is currently reviewing CSG permits, and has put a freeze on any new exploration licence for another year.
However, Gloucester and Narrabri have fallen through the net and are allowed to continue.
“All councils and councillors should show some duty of care and heed the NSW Chief Scientist’s warning that geology like the Gloucester basin is particularly risky and inappropriate for CSG. Acknowledge the well documented potential threat to our water from the toxic radioactive chemicals that AGL are using in the fracking process as well as the inevitable airborne chemical releases and demand that this operation be stopped immediately.”