QGC gas water raised in Federal Parliament ...

The Hon. Bruce Scott, Federal Member for Maranoa, raised the importance of Qld Gas Corp gas water in Federal Parliament on 5 December 2005.

Here's what he said:

Water Management

I rise in this debate to grieve about the way a water by-product of the mining and extraction of coal bed methane gas from the Surat Basin is merely being left to evaporate away. There are many companies in the Surat Basin extracting coal bed methane and obviously being able to find a ready market for the methane gas. This is a technology that even 10 years ago was in its infancy. Twenty years ago, coal bed methane was just lost to the environment as part of a coalmining operation. It is really about value adding to the coal industry and being able to utilise something that would otherwise have been wasted.

I will explain to the House this afternoon how the coal bed methane is extracted from these coalfields. First of all, they drill to find the reserves and then they have to extract the gas. As they extract the gas, a large volume of water comes up with the gas. Why is that? The water molecule is larger than the gas molecule; so, as part of the extraction process, the water comes up to the surface ahead of the gas, as I understand it. The companies that are mining the coal bed methane gas, obviously stripping the gas from the water, are able to process it and feed it into the Roma-Brisbane pipeline to supply industries in Brisbane. There are gas pipelines that head north to Gladstone and Townsville. So it is an invaluable source of energy that is being extracted from the Surat coal bed, and coming up with it is water.

The problem with this water at the moment is that it carries salts with it, and it has to be cleaned up if it is to be used in any way other than perhaps in an industrial sense. An industrial use, for instance, could be to wash coal, as the coal industry develops in that part of Queensland. There are a very large number of feedlots in that region which require water. More water will be required as both those industries expand in the future. One of the first things that industries require before they invest capital is a known reserve of water, whether it is in the development of the coal industry or whether it is in the feedlot industry. Both of those industries really are being held back through the lack of guarantees of an available or suitable water source.

Here we have a known water source which is a by-product of the coal bed methane being sold for purposes within Queensland now. Why, on the driest continent on earth, are we allowing this water that comes up as part of the coal bed methane extraction process to be merely evaporated away? It is beyond me. These companies are not doing anything illegal; it is quite legal. One of the conditions of their licence is that they can actually evaporate this water away.

I want to talk a bit about the Queensland Gas Co. It has put a proposal to the federal government, under the National Water Initiative, for financial assistance to build a water pipeline so as to be able to sell this water into markets in the Condamine-Murray-Darling Basin system, particularly for towns in that region. The Queensland Gas Co. is to be commended for its actions because it wants to amend the use of the water, which is merely being evaporated away now, and to use a process of reverse osmosis to provide potable water for urban communities. Some of the water that is a by-product of that reverse osmosis process could also be used for industries.

The size of the known water reserves that, over the next 20 years, will be extracted from the fields that the Queensland Gas Co. is operating in at the moment is quite staggering. There are something like 352,000 megalitres of water that is known to be available over the next 20 years just from the current extraction wells of the Queensland Gas Co. There are other wells in the region from other companies. North of Roma, where I live, I know that for a number of years they have been evaporating the water away once they have extracted the coal bed methane. There is a large number of them. But, going back to the proposal of the Queensland Gas Co., 352,000 megalitres of water is known to be available over the next 20 years.

The City of Toowoomba right now has a proposal, under the National Water Initiative, in front of the federal government for some money to secure more water or to have more sustainability in their water supply. Toowoomba is a city of some 95,000 people and it needs something like 14,000 megalitres of water per year. To put that into context, that is 352,000 megalitres of water over the next 20 years just from the operations of the Queensland Gas Co. that will evaporate unless something is done to assist companies to utilise this water in ways other than just evaporating it away. Put another way, 352,000 megalitres of water would provide enough water for 20 years for 2.388 million people. That gives you some idea of the sheer magnitude of the water that will be evaporated away unless something changes in the way we use it and unless financial assistance comes from both the Queensland and the federal governments.

Progressive towns in my electorate—Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles—are all looking with great interest at this water source. They recognise that, if they are able to buy this water at affordable prices—because at the end of the day they would have to on-sell this water to the residents of these local council areas—and if they are able to enter into contracts with the Queensland Gas Co. and other companies that are in this industry, it will release water from their sources now into the Condamine-Balonne-Murray-Darling Basin system. In other words, if we are able to see a process whereby this water is not evaporated away but is put through a process of reverse osmosis and then the potable water is made available to these shires—and I know the Chinchilla Shire has shown a great deal of interest in this—then we will see a market for that water. The water would be released and, I would suggest, they would be then able to sell their current allocation of water out of the Condamine River. That would be a win-win situation for the community and for the environment because it would release that water for other purposes downstream or for environmental flows.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you can see that what I grieve about this afternoon is that, whilst current licensing conditions allow these companies that are in the coal bed methane extraction industry to merely evaporate water away, we must do more than that in the future. I am supporting the application of the Queensland Gas Co. under the National Water Initiative for financial support for that project because of the benefits that will flow to industry, the community and the environment. At the end of the day we will be utilising a resource on the driest continent on earth. It is one of the most valuable resources we have—I could almost say that it is more valuable to us than the coal bed methane gas itself. We have to use water better in the future, and I am strongly in support of seeing this water not being evaporated away but utilised to a greater extent for industry and the community.

See: Hansard - House of Representatives - 5 December 2005