Update of the Surat Underground Water Impact Report
Randall Cox A and Keith Phillipson ADepartment of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Government.
The APPEA Journal 56(2) 547-547 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ15053
Published: 2016
Abstract
The production of coal seam gas (CSG) involves the pumping of large volumes of groundwater to lower water pressure in coal seams. This has the potential to affect groundwater resources in the coal-bearing formations and in adjacent aquifers connected to the coal formations. The formations that are the target for CSG development in the Surat Basin in Queensland are part of the Great Artesian Basin multi-layered aquifer system and also underlie important alluvial water resources. There are multiple major CSG projects being developed in the area.
Queensland has a regulatory framework to manage the impact of CSG water extraction on groundwater resources that includes cumulative management arrangements for areas of intensive development, where the groundwater impacts of multiple projects overlap.
In a declared Cumulative Management Area, the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) carries out a regional assessment of impacts of CSG water extraction, specifies an integrated regional water monitoring network, and assigns responsibilities to individual CSG companies to implement individual parts of the water monitoring network and other management actions.
OGIA sets out the results in an underground water impact report (UWIR), which on approval becomes a statutory instrument. OGIA is an independent entity fully funded by a levy on petroleum tenure holders.
The first Surat UWIR was approved in 2012. In early 2016, OGIA revised the Surat UWIR using a new regional groundwater flow model that incorporates updated knowledge of the groundwater flow system. The key content of the revised Surat UWIR is presented.
Randall Cox is the General Manager of the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment in Queensland. He is a groundwater hydrologist by training, with a background in groundwater management and water resources policy. Randall has been centrally involved in the development of water planning, water entitlement, and trading systems in Queensland. He had a central role in the implementation of management arrangements for the Great Artesian Basin, and played a key role in developing the Queensland regulatory framework for the management of the impacts of CSG water extraction. Randall led the preparation of the first Surat Underground Water Impact Report in 2012, that assesses the cumulative impact of planned water extraction by petroleum tenure holders in the Surat and southern Bowen Basins on groundwater resources and establishes integrated management arrangements. More recently he has led the preparation of an update of that report to incorporate the latest information. |
Keith Phillipson is the Director of Technical Projects at the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment in Queensland. He has more than 20 years of experience assessing the impacts of a range of extractive industries both in Australia and overseas. Keith has particular expertise in the field of numerical modeling, and was part of a collaborative team that delivered the 2012 Surat cumulative management area groundwater flow model. Since joining OGIA in October 2014, he has overseen development of the second-generation 2016 model and a range of other technical projects undertaken by the organisation. |
