KNITTING Nannas Against Gas protested outside Member for Myall Lakes Stephen Bromhead’s Tuncurry office last week against what they say has been a lack of action on his behalf.
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Great Lakes councillor and founder of the newly formed Knitting Nannas Great Lakes group Linda Gill joined nine women from Gloucester on Manning Street last Thursday to seek answers from the MP.
Cr Gill said the protest came after an article appeared in the Great Lakes Advocate last week which stated that AGL had advised the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) that ground and surface water monitoring data from its Gloucester operations during November had detected traces of a chemical used in fracking.
AGL and its contractor Transpacific Industries have since been cleared by the EPA of any breaches to pollution licence conditions.
The EPA said it had no evidence of harm to the environment from the discharge of the treated wastewater to the sewer.
“The flowback water was treated by Transpacific and Hunter Water, therefore any environmental impact is highly unlikely,” a spokesman told Fairfax Media.
“We’ve been providing a safe and sustainable solution which is supported by NSW EPA’s review,” a spokesman from Transpacific said.
AGL welcomed the EPA’s comments.
“The investigation confirms AGL has had, and continues to have, proper arrangements in place for the lawful treatment and disposal of flowback water from the Waukivory Pilot Project near Gloucester,” an AGL spokesman said.
The Knitting Nannas group dropped off a letter and a questionnaire to Mr Bromhead which included ‘Do you support CSG in NSW?’ and ‘Would you be prepared to enact legislation or support legislation to ensure that the disposal of waste water from coal and gas mining into aquifers, creeks and rivers is prohibited’?
Cr Gill said it’s time Mr Bromhead spoke up about the issue.
“He (Mr Bromhead) has come out and said he doesn’t support CSG where it affects prime agricultural land or water aquifers so our question to him is why isn’t he jumping up and down about this when there’s water contamination?,” Cr Gill said last Thursday.
“It’s going to affect all our water catchments. He can’t just brush it off.
“Mr Baird has also come out with a gas plan. He said he’ll back CSG in NSW. Once that happens NSW will become like QLD. The bottom line is Mr Bromhead is in that government and clearly supports that position on CSG.”
The group were told by Mr Bromhead’s staff that he could not see them as he was in Taree.
In the lead-up to the NSW state elections in March, the group intends to visit sitting members and candidates to seek their responses to the questionnaire.