CSG-UNnatural Gas
Our South West food and water security is being directly threatened by the fossil fuel industry. First deepsea offshore oil, then coal, and now Coal Seam Gas Fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing).
Industry calls it ‘natural gas’, but there’s nothing natural about the chemicals and sand that are mixed into megalitres of local water and then re-injected deep underground at extreme pressure to shatter the coal seam to release methane. The chemical cocktails differ company to company, but many are ‘proprietary’ formulae so remain ‘protected’ under conditions of commercial confidentiality. This means we have no idea of what could be pumped deep underground into, or near, our aquifer. Many of the ingredients, if tested at all, are banned from human contact, or approved for OTHER uses, not fracking. The sand which is introduced to keep the cracks open so gas can escape is often coated, and sometimes radioactive markers are introduced so the extent of the fracking can be monitored.
Only 40-60 % is then evacuated, leaving a highly toxic, carcinogenic soup that’s ready to mix with our aquifer. Irrespective of what chemicals are added to the fracking process, once the formation is shattered, gas can then continue to migrate for thousands of years through the shattered formation, long after the steel and concrete well-head that’s meant to contain it rots away. Mobilised methane in the ground water is as fatal as the chemicals introduced to release it. The damage is irreversible.
The process of fracking is ‘seismic’. Some fracking processes use explosive charges to introduce pressures of up to 1,900,000 psi. All fracking smashes the formation into small pieces which destablises the formation deep underground. There are areas now in the USA where there are so many well-pads are in close proximity to each other that there are now earthquake swarms and seismic activity across wide areas that were previously stable.
There are now at least four exploratory licences issued for Bunbury,
Bussleton,Vasse, and Margaret River area (Rosa Brook). That’s into, and connected to, our aquifers. There is no regulatory framework for CSG fracking in WA.
We must act urgently to protect our water security and health. Please spread the word amongst your friends and families about what coal seam gas fracking does to DRINKING WATER, the LAND, and COMMUNITIES. Please write to your local Counciller, State and Federal MP’s and your Senate Representative. There is a list of Federal Labour Members of Parliament below in the PDF Documents links, as well as a link to the WA State MLC so you can search your local Representative.
Please also support the work of Greens MLC Alison Xamon, Member for East Perth, and her commitment to have an urgent moratorium on CSG fracking agreed by the West Australian State Parliament. An extract from Hansard with the wording of her motion is below.
Below are links to YouTube clips, News reportage, and clips of other campaigns around the country and around the world. Please become informed, and ACT! For our safety, our health, our food, and our water. And for our children’s future.
.
Click on the links below for more info:
.
Earthworksaction.org/ (Excellent Resource on Mining, Oil & Gas, and Fracking)
CSG-Unnatural Gas – Prof.M.Durand
National Toxins Network: Fracking Briefing Paper 2011
Westralian Gas & Power: Perth Basin plans
Alison Xamon CSG WA Parliamentary Motion 2011
.
Links to News clips, Documentaries and other Campaign footage:
Professor Marc Durand’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shale-Gas-Info/188864781149453?sk=wall
Six De6rees (QLD Land Defence Collective) Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SixDe6rees
Frack OFF (US Activist Group) Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FrackOFF
Six De6rees ‘Utter Madness’: http://www.youtube.com/user/sixde6rees#p/a/f/2/zFGrASdjlx4
GASLAND trailer: http://www.gasland.com.au/trailer/
Why Tara Residents are Blockading their Estate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4gGERobicw
Tara Residents win round after blockading their Estate: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8232094/protesters-claim-win-at-pipeline-blockade
60 minutes QLD & NSW CSG investigation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaWA_TDG56I (See Minister Stephen Robertson’s SHAMEFUL ignorance @ minute 7.00 and 9.58).
ABC 4Corners ‘The Gas Rush: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2011/s3141787.htm
MUST SEE THIS Liverpool Plains Gas Industrialisation: http://www.youtube.com/user/sixde6rees#p/a/f/2/zFGrASdjlx4
(From campaign group on east coast SixDe6rees. They have a YouTube account with over 20 clips on this and related subjects including the Lock the Gate movement: http://www.youtube.com/user/sixde6rees)
.
Other links:
Fracking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
Canada’s shame and destruction: http://www.montrealgazette.com/mobile/iphone/story.html?id=4387383
Wyoming Air Pollution Worse than LA due to CSG Production: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/08/wyoming-ait-pollution-gas-drilling_n_833027.html
Encroachment, QLD State Development legislation, Tysons’ farm, Xstrata coal Rolleston open-cut thermal coal mine: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/sunday-mail/era-of-the-blackboot-brigade/story-e6frep2o-1226016334485
