Santos fails to remove contaminates

Last month it was revealed that Santos was fined for contaminating an aquifer in the NSW’s northwest. But now, unanswered questions have come to light over Santos’ Pilliga uranium aquifer contamination, as the environmental report is tabled.

In March 26, 2013, monitoring had detected aquifer contamination was at the Santos Bibblewindi site, which which had been sucked up from underground during coal seam gas (CSG) activates.

It was nearly a year after Santos was fined, in March 2014, that the EPA finally tabled its report on the contamination.

However, the EPA investigation leaves many questions unanswered concerning remediation of the Pilliga’s groundwater and having to rely on the companies themselves to own up to environmental spillages.

The EPA report confirmed that groundwater beneath the Bibblewindi storage pond was polluted with heavy metals and uranium 20 times the safe drinking limits. At the time Santos was fined a mere $1,500 by the EPA for causing the contamination.

The question has to be asked, can the contaminated groundwater be repaired? Probably not as efforts by Santos in October failed to remove the contaminated water.

The NSW Office of Health was consulted on potential impacts on drinking water. Its advice, reproduced in the EPA’s report, noted the “nearest public drinking water supply is 27 kilometres away (Narrabri) and does not appear to be affected by the Bibblewindi site. How reassuring to be told “does not appear to be affected”.

Santos proposes to drill over a 1,000 CSG wells in the area.