Farmers and activists have slammed a decision allowing waste salt from coal seam gas extraction to be buried at lined landfill sites in Queensland, saying it risks contaminating the Murray-Darling river system.
The state’s action plan to manage highly salty waste brine was released last week, 26 years after the first CSG project began in the Bowen Basin and after a decade of rapid expansion.
Gas companies have stored brine in 36 tailings dams as a temporary measure, but those reservoirs are more than 67 percent full, according to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.
The Department of Environment and Science action plan has accepted the industry’s suggested solution for the estimated five million tonnes of waste brine, which is encapsulation – this involves evaporating the water and depositing leftover salt in lined landfill sites….