Groundwater too precious to risk losing KYBYBOLITE farmer Huck Shepherd says the future of the South East lies in the hands of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee. He said the biggest threat of fracking was potential ground water contamination. Mr Shepherd is chairperson of the not-for-profit Limestone Coast Protection Alliance which has been responsible for more than 2000 Lock the Gate signs erected across the region. He became involved in the organisation about a year ago after seeing how the sale of SE pine plantations left Mount Gambier and surrounding timber towns economically crippled. Since then, he has read widely about fracking and spoken to individuals in Qlds coal seam gas mining areas. Mr Shepherd quickly realised that if fracking was given the green light, it could be much worse than the timber sale. Everyone is realising that we cant live in the SE without underground water fullstop. Every day every person uses underground water to either have a cup of tea, wash their hands, have a shower and if we dont have it we are stuffed, he said. It wouldnt be uninhabitable but it would be very difficult to farm here and towns would not survive unless you put a desalination plant in - the cost of that is enormous. Potable water is a world problem. What species in the world would pull up its water and knowingly contaminate it - we cannot make water, there is only so much available on this planet, and we are in the driest state in the driest continent in the world. Mr Shepherd said it was also unfair that irrigators faced significant cuts to their water allocations while mining companies could access unlimited water without a licence. Mr Shepherd, whose family have farmed in the area for more than a century, hopes the inquiry would back a moratorium into unconventional gas in the Limestone Coast. He said more time was needed to answer a multitude of questions, although he admitted there would not be risk-free guarantees. Are we going to get insurance? Are we going to able to sell our land? Are we going to be able to run sheep and cattle? Is the air going to be too polluted to raise our children or even live? Mr Shepherd said. stockjournal.au/news/agriculture/general/news/groundwater-too-precious-to-risk-losing/2721113.aspx
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:22:07 +0000
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