Cumulative groundwater impact assessment and management in the Surat Basin: a journey from framework to implementation
Sanjeev PandeyOffice of Groundwater Impact Assessment, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, Queensland. Email: sanjeev.pandey@dnrme.qld.gov.au
The APPEA Journal 59(2) 674-678 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18088
Accepted: 28 March 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
The coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Queensland has expanded rapidly in the Surat and Bowen basins within this decade. Depressurisation for CSG production has the potential to affect overlying and underlying aquifers. This leads to wide-ranging stakeholder concerns around the groundwater impacts, particularly cumulative effects, because the coal seams are part of the Great Artesian Basin. Relatively early in the development cycle, Queensland set a framework whereby an area of intensive petroleum and gas development is proactively declared to be a cumulative management area. For such areas, the independent Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) undertakes cumulative impact assessment and prepares management arrangements that are reported through the underground water impact report. OGIA’s assessment through its iterative reporting–monitoring–modelling cycle has been providing the basis for managing and monitoring groundwater impacts on the ground and providing clarity in tenure holders’ responsibilities. OGIA has also built extensive knowledge of the groundwater systems and developed innovative modelling techniques over the years that have wider application elsewhere. This paper shares OGIA’s journey in the process.
Keywords: coal seam gas, cumulative impact assessment, GAB, Great Artesian Basin, groundwater, Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA), Queensland, regulatory framework, Surat Basin.
Sanjeev Pandey is a hydrogeologist with 25 years of public and private sector experience in regional-scale groundwater resource assessment and management. He currently leads the Queensland Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA), an independent entity office for the assessment and management of cumulative groundwater impacts from resource development. Previously, as technical director, Sanjeev directly led and completed the first ever cumulative impact assessment in the Surat Basin in 2012. In his various public and private sector roles, Sanjeev has been intimately involved in leading technical assessments of the Great Artesian Basin and in the development of strategic policy and legislation for groundwater management in Queensland. |
References
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