Over 200 people attended a coal seam gas community forum in Oakdale on March 11, packing out the Workers’ Club. Local residents organised the meeting to tell the community about CSG development in their suburb.
They were incensed that they had not been told by the NSW government or gas companies Apex/Ormil about the drilling of a nearby CSG exploration well in the Warragamba Dam water catchment area.
The meeting heard from four speakers: Jai Rowell, NSW Liberal member for Wollondilly; Gerard Pol, exploration manager for Apex/Ormil; Tom Fontaine, Ormil Managing Director; and Jess Moore, spokesperson for Stop CSG Illawarra.
Residents vented their anger and frustration during the meeting. In the two hours of discussion however, Rowell, Pol and Fontaine were unable to answer nearly all questions coming from the floor.
Questions included: “How many more wells will be drilled?”, “How many wells are needed for the project to be profitable?”, “How will you dispose of toxic water during production?” and many more.
The answer given to these important questions was, astoundingly, “We don’t know”. Fontaine waived a Stop CSG leaflet around claiming it was full of mistruths and lacked supporting evidence, but failed to give even one example when asked.
One of the meeting organisers, Brett Cottee, : “There was quite a bit of anger and frustration at the fact we were left unaware. The first most people knew about it was either when they saw trucks entering a property or when they heard the bore running at 2am to dig the hole in the ground.”
Fontaine told the ABC: “The number of people in the audience who didn’t know frankly, honestly surprised me, so that’s something we need to improve on.”
Moore provided a compelling and evidence-based presentation on the risks of CSG and the poor record of the industry. She received a lengthy round of applause and Stop CSG Illawarra was thanked for its help in informing local residents of CSG development in the area.
Residents of Oakdale and surrounding suburbs have decided to form a local group to campaign against CSG activity.