Call to suspend gas exploration

Upper House Greens MP Cate Faehrmann wants a moratorium on coal seam gas exploration until the full social, environmental and economic impact of the industry is known.

NSW Greens Upper House MP Cate Faehrmann has again called for amoratorium on coal seam gas exploration in the state during a protest against the industry in Sydney.

Ms Faehrmann's call comes after a contamination scare on Tuesday in which a cancer-causing agent was found in three coal seam gas wells owned by Arrow Energy at Moranbah, west of Mackay, Queensland. .

Arrow Energy is conducting exploratory drilling on the Northern Rivers. However, previously a company spokesman said that while the company was hopeful of finding large gas reserves around Lismore, which sits on the Clarence-Moreton Basin, Arrow's activity would be concentrated on the Dalby gas fields.

About 60 protesters gathered outside the library in Sydney's Macquarie Street, waving banners reading ‘No fracking (sic) way' and chanting slog-ans as other speeches were made by NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon and environmentalist Jack Mundey.

“I have been overwhelmed by the amount of communities that are going to be affected by mining proposals on the books right now,” Ms Faehrmann said.

“We need a full and immediatemoratorium on this industry until we know the full social, environmental and economic impact of this industry.”

The NSW Farmers Association has also previously called for a moratorium.

The technique used by some gas companies known as ‘fraccing', or hyd-raulic fracturing, forces gas to the surface for use as energy.

But environmental groups are concerned about the potential for the process to allow toxic rock to contaminate water supplies.

David Johnson, managing director of Metgasco which is developing the gas fields around Casino – believed to be the biggest in NSW – has previously stated his company has never used the chemicals benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylene (also known as BTEX), which have been associated with groundwater contamination in coal-seam mining.