CSG Webinar April 2016 - Draft Underground Water Impact Report

AgForce Projects CSG Project is dedicated to providing free and easily accessible information to landholders across Queensland about the CSG industry and developments regarding legislation and regulation.

We appreciate the time you have taken to attend our webinar, and would love to hear any feedback you might have. Please click here to fill out our short survey.

What happens if I believe my bore is being impacted but my bore is not in the UWIR?
Regardless of whether your bore is within the Immediately Affected Area (IAA) or Long Term Affected Area (LTAA) areas, your rights are the same.

• Firstly, we encourage you to make a complaint to the CSG company that holds the tenure over your property. If you do not know which company holds the tenure you can look at the CSG Globe to find this information out (see below) or you can contact the CSG Project Team for assistance;
• You are also encouraged to lodge a compliant with the CSG Compliance Unit ( 07 4529 1500 | csg.enquiries@dnrm.qld.gov.au) and refer to their Groundwater Investigation and Assessment Team;
• The Government may direct either the CSG company or the Department to carry out an assessment on the bore to determine the impact and if it is as result of CSG activities;
• If the impacts are found to be a result of CSG activities, then the responsible company will be required to enter into a Make Good agreement with the landholder.

The report is in draft form so what happens now?

1. The Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) have released the draft report for consultation;
2. A series of workshops and community forums were carried out in early April with support from AgForce Projects, the CSG Compliance Unit and the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) in Toowoomba, Dalby, Chinchilla, Wandoan and Roma allowing landholders and community members to review the report and ask questions about the process;
3. OGIA will collect submissions to the 2016 UWIR closing on the 29th of April and review these before providing the final report to the Chief Executive of DEHP in the coming weeks;
4. Once the report has been accepted and approved the legislative process of confirming IAA bores, bore assessments and Make Good agreements can then commence;
5. Landholders with IAA bores should already have been contacted by the Department and once the UWIR is approved will be approached by the relevant CSG company to discuss arrangements for bore testing and/or Make Good negotiations.

How can AgForce help me through this process?

• The AgForce Projects CSG and Mining Landholder Support Project can provide free assistance to any landholder negotiating a Make Good agreement, land access agreement or with any other questions or enquiries;
• The CSG and Mining Team have been assisting landholders since 2011 and have provided support to more than 5,000 landholders during this time;
• The Project's Team can provide assistance to understand the UWIR process, the predictions and what it means for landholders as well as useful tips to take into consideration during any Make Good negotiations.

CSG Globe allows landholders to view all CSG data including:

• Location and attributes of CSG wells including date the well was drilled, depth to which it was drilled, well classification (exploration, appraisal or production). This information is useful for landholders to compare the depth to which CSG wells are drilled in your area and the depth to which your bores are accessing waters, then assessing what is the difference between the two and what is the risk? i.e. CSG wells at 280m and your bore at 260m = higher risk vs CSG wells at 650m and your bore at 120m = lower risk. It is also important to compare this information to the draw down contours of the OGIA report as well as the colour coded maps of each aquifer as Appendix F. Drawdown patterns for long-term impacts
• CSG Tenure data both exploration (authority to prospect- ATP) and production (Petroleum Lease- PL) this data also includes the company that holds the tenure, the date the tenure was applied, granted and expires. Each tenure has a specific number (tenure number), landholders can review Appendix A. Details of tenures for current and planned production areas of the 2016 UWIR which provides description about the current planned activities for each tenure area.
• The Immediately Affected Areas (IAA) and Long-term affected areas (LTAA) of the 2016 Surat Basin Underground Water Impact Report (UWIR); landholders can also look at the individual registered bores that have been identified as either IAA or LTAA bores. By clicking on an IAA/LTAA bore it will show the registered bore number, formation it is tapping into and link to generate more bore specific impact from the UWIR report including the classification of the bore (IAA vs LTAA) as well as the predicted impact (m) and the description of impact along with the responsible tenure holder.

Information on bore monitoring
AgForce Projects have developed a Baseline Assessment Guideline to provide assistance as a guide for what landholders may wish to consider in developing a baseline monitoring process.

Make Good Guideline
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) have developed a guide to explain the Make Good framework and provide useful information for landholders.

Find a copy of the draft UWIR here or view a fact sheet summary of the report here.

OGIA UWIR Bore Search Portal
Landholders can log onto the portal and search for impacted bores by entering the registered bore number and it will search the UWIR to determine if the bore is in the IAA or LTAA areas.