The Queensland Government has widened its legal action against resources company Linc Energy over the alleged contamination of the environment by its underground gas plant on the Darling Downs in the state’s south-east.
The Government has today filed a fifth charge of wilfully and unlawfully causing serious environmental harm against the company.
An investigation — the largest and most protracted in the history of the Queensland Environment Department — has found that Linc Energy’s Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) plant at Hopeland caused irreversible damage “to more than one environmental receptor [which includes the atmosphere, vegetation, water and soil]”.
UCG is a so-called “unconventional” means of extracting gas from coal seams that are too deep to mine.
Coal is burned in situ underground and the gas produced is siphoned off through wells.
The ABC has been told that external experts contracted by the department found “scientific evidence of [the plant’s] operation above hydrostatic pressure, fracturing the landform, and excursion of contaminants”.
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“[The department’s] detailed investigation alleges Linc Energy operated its trial Underground Coal Gasification plant outside its Environmental Authority, causing contamination in the form of gas to escape off site,” Environment Department director-general Jon Black said.
“These fugitive gases polluted a widespread area by following underground pathways, between two and six metres underground.
“The polluting gases included carbon monoxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulphide.”
Queensland’s Environment Minister Steven Miles is travelling to the western Darling Downs to meet with affected landholders and to explain what the latest charge means.
“This is probably the biggest investigation of its kind in Australian history, we’ve had upwards of 100 technical officers in Chinchilla monitoring sites and measuring this pollution, it’s a very serious matter,” he said.
“Our next biggest concern is the impact that this pollution could have on the livelihoods and on the wellbeing of the landholders in the area nearby Linc.
“We’re talking about approximately 320 square kilometres which has been the subject of an exclusion zone put in place for some time now.”
In March, the ABC revealed that the department’s investigation backed claims by former workers at Linc’s UCG plant that they have suffered ill health as a result of a series of “uncontrolled releases” of gas at the site between 2007 and 2013.
A medical expert commissioned by the department reviewed workers’ statements and medical records and found that “the symptoms presented are consistent with exposure to the known chemical constituents of syngas [produced at the plant]”.
Since launching its investigation, the department’s investigators have interviewed more than 100 previous and current Linc employees and consultants engaged by the company
By the National Reporting Team’s Mark Willacy