A growing mound of well pad soil contaminated with every chemical used to drill the wells, to assist in the plugging and abandonment of the test wells as well as being contaminated with the purposeful and careless remval of the highly toxic, saline and Bacterial carrying waters from the targeted Coal Seams.
This soil was first spotted in March when it was noticed that pad soil from Bohena 2 and Bohena 4/4L was being trucked from these locations to Wilga Park. Aerial photos of March and April 2012 confirmed the already taken ground photos of early March, and further confirmed by more ground photos taken late May.
This soil is hidden behind the large CS Water dam at Wilga Park, and is not in a lined pit, placed on plastic or in any way bunded. So it is obvious to all, that every time it rains the contents of what is in this soil will be transferred to the surrounding area via the watercourses, and of-course into the Aquifer systems of the Southern Recharge of the Great Artisan Basin, Australias’ greatest natural water resource.
The pad top soil was removed because the agreement with State Forests and the Rehabilitation of the well pads, required this to occur, as all parties knew it was Contaminated with may toxic Chemicals, Bacteria and CS Saline water.
Santos has always made a big thing of stating that this soil was to be taken to Newcastle for destruction, but in the PEL238 it was dumped in a very careless and non-environmentally friendly way at Wilga Park.
Another of Santos’ misleading statements and actions.
Photos that were taken early on, showed that Eastern Star Gas had, for once, had done the right thing, with the small quantities of pad soil removed from the private lands where test wells had been abandoned, put on plastic and in pits. Santos came along, and now these pits have gone along with the soil they contained. There is just no trace of these pits, my guess, and this is based on aerial photos, that Santos had this soil added to the pile taken from the well sites in the Pilliga Forest and hoped that no one would notice.
There is just too many incidents for this not to be, and forgive me for thinking this, but a deliberate attempt to change the characteristic of the Aquifer waters in the area, so they can claim, when eventually they are forced to do baseline water quality sampling, that the waters are of poor quality and that their best Water Treatment will be better than the value already there.
Santos, you have tried that once, and will not get away with it now or in the future.
Daracon, was the Company responsible for the removal and depositing at Wilga Park, they have since left the area.
Santos: NOT ONLY IS THE PILLIGA STATE FOREST YOUR INDONESIA IN AUSTRALIA BUT SO IS THE AREA IN PEL238 IN THE SOUTHERN RECHARGE OF THE GREAT AUSTRAILIAN BASIN.