Queensland’s environmental regulator has determined the CTSCo Surat Basin Carbon Capture and Storage Project is not suitable to proceed due to potential impacts on groundwater resources in the Great Artesian Basin.
This independent assessment process has acknowledged the importance of the GAB for Queensland agriculture and rural communities and noted the unacceptably high risk for irreversible change to groundwater quality, including increased concentrations of contaminants including lead and arsenic.
Whilst this decision is an important step and the agriculture sector and communities have shared a collective sigh of relief with the decision to reject the proposal, there is more work to be done with immediate legislation now needed to protect the Queensland component of the GAB from future CCS bids.
QFF has spent the past 18 months advocating strongly against the proposal through media campaigns, policy submissions, delegations to the Queensland Premier and Ministers alongside regional Mayors, agricultural peak bodies, the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) and the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC).
QFF also led a Queensland Parliament e-petition against the proposal, sponsored by the leadership of Robbie Katter MP, which gathered more than 12,000 signatures with a further 1,500 pledges tabled in parliament.
The rejection of the project confirms concerns QFF and others have been raising for some time. The science behind this project is inadequate, the risk to the GAB and underground water too great and the precautionary principle must apply.
This EIS result is an incredibly important step forward but QFF is maintaining calls on the State Government to implement policy to make the Queensland component of the GAB off-limits to CCS.
The Queensland Government has the power to introduce protections for the Queensland component of this critical natural asset, and in the absence of Federal Government policy addressing this issue, must prevent any further CCS proposals from being considered in the GAB in Queensland.
The truth is that this proposal should never have made it as far as it did. Until definitive action is taken, Queensland farmers and regional communities that rely on the GAB will remain deeply concerned about the devastating impact potential future CCS projects could have on their livelihoods.
The EIS decision is now known. Farmers, rural communities and conservationists have said no to CCS in the GAB and now the science has said no too. QFF continue discussions with the Premier calling on the Queensland government to act as a matter of urgency.