Federal Government to Seek Greater Protection for Water Resources Impacted by CSG
Thursday 14 March 2013 @ 11.15 a.m. | Trade & Commerce
In a media release dated 12 March 2013 the Federal Enviroment Minister announced that the federal government is to implement greater environmental protection for water resources impacted by coal seam gas and large coal mining developments.
Proposed amendment of Biodiversity Conservation Laws
To do this, the Minister Mr Burke proposes the introduction of amendments to federal environment law, namely, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to require federal assessment and approval of coal seam gas (CSG) and large coal mining developments when these developments have a significant impact on a water resource. In making the annoucement of the changes the Minister is reported as saying:
“Australia’s water resources are among our most vital natural resources and it is important that we ensure they are protected ... The proposed amendments will ensure that coal seam gas and large coal mining developments must be assessed and approved under national environment law, if they are likely to have a significant impact on a water resource."
The Minister expressed the view that making such matters a national issue would meet the expectation of the Australian public that . . . "[the Government] are taking into account all the impacts on our precious water resources. This change gives me as Australia’s Environment Minister the capacity to do just that.”
Mechanics of Proposed Changes
The Minister further said that while the Government was seeking more information from businesses, it was not seeking to needlessly delay process as a result, instead the additional information that would be required would in many instances be data that had already been collected in state approval processes. Further the minister claimed in his press release that:
“By becoming a matter of national environmental significance [projects] will have the full resources of the Independent Expert Scientific Committee (IESC) and the analysis that flows as a result of that. For projects that are early in the approval process they will be able to incorporate the additional matter of environmental significance at whatever stage they are at . . ."
while ". . .for projects which are already undergoing an assessment, they will not be required to restart their environmental impact assessment from the beginning. Rather [the Ministers] department is writing to every company affected advising them as to what the additional information is, so that they can get to work on that straight away.”
The Minister claims the changes provide a sound federal legislative basis for the role of the IESC (a committee established last year by the Government) in national environmental approvals, and support the existing scientific process agreed to by the States last year that have been operating since that time.
Reaction
The opposition has been critical of the measure with the shadow environment spokesman reported in the press as saying:
"Just as it did with the mining tax, the government has blindsided the energy and resources sector and imposed retrospective rules ... which will have a direct impact on investments."
While the indpendents on whom the Government relies to carry the legislation have been reported as supportive of the proposed laws saying:
". . . there was significant community anxiety over CSG mining and the risk it could pose to major groundwater systems . . . We need to get the science right" ( source Mr Windsor independent MP).
While his fellow independent MP Mr Oakeshott is reported as saying . . . "the federal oversight would hopefully replace 'immature' planning laws in NSW with a 'transparent and defendable planning process'".
Sources
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