Tasmania needs to follow Victorian Permanent Ban on Fracking

“The game’s up”, says Frack Free Tas President, Shaun Thurstans, who continues:

“The evidence is overwhelming, the accident-prone unconventional industry cannot be trusted with the safety of our groundwater. When a government properly weighs the potential risks and benefits and looks at actual experience around the nation and the planet, the decision to ban this technology is obvious, as we have seen today in Victoria”

“Victoria has realised their groundwater, their agriculture and their precious rivers are not worth risking with ticking timebombs in the form of chemical-leaking wells”.

“The unconventional oil and gas industry has never kept to standards that communities expect. There are numerous flaws that have not been solved anywhere (e.g. treating the toxic waste water; making wells safe into perpetuity), and the inherent risks cannot be solved by extra regulations.”

“The Tasmanian government immediately needs to follow this lead, read the evidence and community anxiety and legislate a permanent ban on all forms of unconventional mining including hydraulic fracturing. Despite the Hodgman’s moratorium, exploration for shale gas continues now in the Midlands and raises the potential that a 2 cent company could jeopardise brand Tasmania”.

“It is ludicrous that the Tasmanian Government has acknowledged there are risks, and the overwhelming community distrust of this industry, but government policy actually insists that an exploration license holder must keep looking for a resource that, if found and fracked for, would risk our groundwater, our agricultural and tourism industries and the health of Tasmanians.”

“Now they have the evidence in front of them: This Victorian inquiry looked at many forms of unconventional mining and found them all too risky to be allowed to occur in Victoria. If the Hodgman government continues to encourage it, then it shows a deliberate ignorance in favour of a toxic and climate-altering industry.”

The experience from Coal Seam Gas in Queensland has now shown that even the massive tax revenue boost, promised by boom-time prophets, has not materialised.

“It’s like the ultimate Ponzi scheme, leaving a toxic nightmare after it all collapses.” said Shaun Thurstans.

The Victorian inquiry (Report in Dec 2015, p64) heard the acting Chief health Officer, Professor Michael Ackland note that chemicals likely to be used (but allowed to be kept secret), have documented effects on:
• ‘the immune system,
• the nervous system,
• liver and kidney toxicity,
• reproductive issues,
• cancers,
• respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and
• psychological effects’.

“Tasmania has a health crisis as it is. The Hodgman government has not got a leg to stand on in supporting such a flawed industry, that has a plethora of occupational and public health risks.” said Shaun Thurstans.

The Inquiry into onshore unconventional gas in Victoria (report Dec 2015) found:

The level of aftercare of the 23 unconventional wells drilled in that state was found to be poor (p49), (a similar observation to the NSW Chief Scientist, p49), which is extremely concerning when:
“exploitation of a shale gas field can require thousands of wells drilled over a continuing timescale…” (Cook et al, 2013 cited p48)
and
‘…an abandoned well still has the potential to contaminate groundwater and leak gas into the air..” (p49).
and
’very little data exists about the long-term (100-1000 years) durability of abandoned petroleum wells’. (NSW Chief Scientist report cited p49).
Very few of the chemicals used in unconventional onshore gas extraction have known safe limits, but the industry wants to be able to inject them into the ground without even notifying the public, or even regulators, what they are using.

‘…from a risk management perspective, it is difficult for regulators to assess the risks posed by chemical additives if it is not known what those chemicals are’ (p56)

“This isn’t controversial. The only ones pretending that fracking can be done safely or worth the risks are companies and governments who are either hoodwinked or deliberately ignorant.” said Shaun Thurstans.

“Do we need the equivalent of 75 communities to declare themselves gasfield free before the Tasmanian Parliament recognises fracking is incompatible with our economy or our health.?” concluded Shaun Thurstans.
Shaun Thurstans President Frack Free Tas