Environment Minister Tony Burke will introduce amendments to Australia’s national environment law that will give the federal government much greater power to reject new CSG and coal mine development applications.
The amendments specifically target proposed CSG and coal projects that have the potential to impact nearby natural water sources and reserves. Projects identified as posing a risk to waterways will now need federal approval.
“Australia’s water resources are among our most vital natural resources and it is important that we ensure they are protected,” Mr Burke said.
“The proposed amendments will ensure that coal seam gas and large coal mining developments must be assessed and approved under national environment law, if they are likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.
“The community expectation has always been that we would take this into account. But up until now, we have only been able to take account of water to the extent there has been an impact on issues such as threatened species or a wetland.
“Realistically whenever I have made a decision on coal seam gas, the Australian public would expect that we are taking into account all the impacts on our precious water resources. This change gives me as Australia’s Environment Minister the capacity to do just that.”
“By becoming a matter of national environmental significance it will have the full resources of the Independent Expert Scientific Committee and the analysis that flows as a result of that. For projects that are early in the approval process they will be able to incorporate the additional matter of environmental significance at whatever stage they are at.
“For projects which are already undergoing an assessment, they will not be required to restart their environmental impact assessment from the beginning. Rather my department is writing to every company affected advising them as to what the additional information is, so that they can get to work on that straight away.”
Mr Burke said there have been significant concerns raised by communities around Australia about the impact of coal seam gas on ground water and surface water resources.
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