Gas dispute

Ben Cubby writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

The coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association [APPEA] told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

''Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,'' said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. ''The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question.''

The admissions came before the start of the first public hearing in NSW, held in Narrabri, of a Senate inquiry into the effects of coal seam gas mining.

Not so, says the APPEA:

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) rejects outright the blatantly incorrect comments on aquifer contamination attributed to it by the Sydney Morning Herald in its article: ‘Coal Seam damage to water inevitable’.

Contrary to the paper’s claims, neither the coal seam gas industry, nor APPEA’s CSG Director, Ross Dunn, said: “(Water) extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers” or “.. Good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them”.

The coal seam gas industry, the processes of gas extraction, and evaluation of environmental impacts are open to public scrutiny and fair media critique. However such misrepresentation by the Herald falls well short of the professional standards expected by the public.

Someone has to be wrong here. Perhaps the "intellectual dishonesty" and "distorted data" debunkers at Pure Poison might want to pick this up and run with it. Don't hold your breath.

(Via reader ICW.)