Five years ago coal seam gas (CSG) licences covering areas in the Hunter Valley were cancelled and the following year AGL pulled out of their proposed Gloucester gas project after strong community opposition.
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But here we are today about to welcome a whole new era of CSG development in NSW following the Independent Planning Commission's (IPC) approval of the Narrabri Gas Project on September 30.
Approval was granted with the usual statement from the IPC that the green light was given only on the basis of strict conditions.
This project to be developed by Santos covers 95,000 hectares, includes 850 gas wells and will have a 25 year lifespan.
In their statement of reasons for granting approval the Commission said the project has potential to improve gas security on Australia's east coast domestic market.
Although the Commissioners, Federal Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes and others fully endorse the project thousands of others including peak farmer representative bodies do not.
To counter the more than 25,000 submissions they received rejecting the project the Commissioners said the number of objections to a development application is not in itself the sole measure of the public interest more necessarily a determinative reason for refusal.
They went on to state that groundwater impacts can be managed; Greenhouse Gas Emissions from CSC is less than coal and the bushfire risks are manageable.
Responding to the IPC decision the Country Women's Association (CWA) of NSW said it was "totally disillusioned" with the state's planning processes.
CWA of NSW CEO Danica Leys says it beggars belief how a project requiring 134 strict conditions can even proceed to approval.
"If a project needs this many conditions, it's an indication that they need to go back to the drawing board. It doesn't stack up," she said.
"We're concerned that compliance on conditions is severely lacking in any case. We've seen it in the past with mining and other extractive projects. These companies get the green light and off they go, there's no looping back to ensure all of these conditions are upheld into the future. Rural communities once again are left with the impacts."
This is a disappointing decision from the IPC," said NSW Farmers President James Jackson. "Our members have indicated very clearly that they have no appetite for risk to their precious water sources."
Following the Narrabri approval landholders along the proposed 833 kilometres Hunter Gas Pipeline from Queensland to Newcastle (see map opposite) are even more anxious.
The $1.2billion project was first approved in 2009 and given an extension last year.
According to the Australian Financial Review the venture is targeting financial close in mid-2021, with the start of construction pencilled in for mid-2022 and the pipeline coming online in the second half of 2023.
But affected landholders question the viability of the project and what to know why a private company can be given the right to impact private landholding and what compensation if any they will receive.
At a recent meeting held in the Hunter Valley residents said since the original approval was granted more development had taken place and more people would be impacted.