Gas explosion highlights need for caution

THE explosion at an Arrow Energy gas well on the Darling Downs last week was another reminder of the challenges confronting the burgeoning coal seam gas (CSG) industry and its interface with farmers and the community.
This incident at Daandine justifiably raises the ongoing concerns that have surrounded the industry, and especially the community anxiousness that the gas miners must do more to demonstrate that the technology is safe for the environment and the local community.
This well failure, on the back of similar incidents, points to the fact that there is not enough known about the best practice requirements and standards for CSG well development.
Just as many irrigation farmers have lifted their best practice standards to meet community expectations – so too must the CSG companies.
The farm sector has experience and credibility with raising the bar when it comes to community expectations. We have been asked and continue to be asked to raise the bar with environmental management and stewardship of technology.
If you ask a cotton grower at Emerald or St George, what it was like to be a farmer in the community in the 1990s, you will likely hear some unpleasant stories about being ostracised by the entire sections of the community, due to concerns about alleged health incidents associated with pesticides.
Today, that is history. The change didn’t occur by accident though. It took a concerted effort by the industry to improve its relations with the community and to drastically raise the bar with new technology, crop management, education and on ground performance.
With time and a dedicated approach to improving technology, it regained community confidence and became a valued pillar of the local economy and community.
There is a lesson here for the gas industry. We know by reading the political tea leaves that gas extraction is here for the long haul. However, that in itself is not a licence to ignore its interface with the community.
As gas wells head further east, the industry will come into closer contact, not just with farms, but with communities and people’s homes.
Leaving the compensation arrangements aside, gas companies are yet to fully grasp the fact they are operating their businesses not only in amongst a farmers’ business but also beside their home and personal lifestyle.
This will increase in the coming years, with anecdotal figures suggesting that there are only about 10 percent of projected wells currently in the ground.
Given the quantum of jobs and money involved, the farming sector recognises that the gas steam train cannot be stopped in its tracks, and that none of our political leaders will change their decision that gas and mining comes first and food and agriculture comes second.
Stopping development is unlikely. However, a reasonable request at the minimum is that the technology is slowed down so that the community can build confidence around it.
Cautious continuation in known risk or potential risk areas is really the only way to proceed in an environment that allows problems to be resolved transparently and in such a way as to ensure investors in regional industries have the confidence to maintain their presence.
New government policy is unlikely – it is up to us as industries, regional community representatives and individual landholders to turn this situation around, in association with significant improvements in the attitude and demonstrable change in practices from the companies involved.