Mayor fears CSG impact on Nathan

WILL IT EVER BE BUILT? Banana Shire Mayor John Hooper fears coal seam gas water will kill off the proposed Nathan Dam.

BANANA Shire mayor John Hooper fears the use of coal seam gas water to supply towns in the Surat Basin will kill off the Nathan Dam.

Cr Hooper is concerned the Nathan Dam could become unviable if CSG water is used to meet the needs of towns like Chinchilla, Dalby and Miles as well as in the development of mines and CSG projects.

Cr Hooper has told Central Telegraph in the past he expected 60% of the water from Nathan to head south with 40% to go into the Dawson and Callide areas.

His fear is if CSG water is used to meet the needs of that 60%, the remaining 40% would make the dam unviable, costing the Callide Dawson precious water needed to develop the shire.

In the past, SunWater admitted the use of CSG water would delay the dam until at least 2017, but more likely into the early 2020s.

Cr Hooper said the shire had potential users of the dam, including the Baralaba and Belvedere mining projects as well as QNP expansion.

The mayor said he also had questions about CSG water. “How will CSG water be stored?” he said.

“All the storage on the Dawson is full – will there be more weirs or off stream storage? Who will pay for it?

“There are a lot of unknowns.”

Callide MP Jeff Seeney said he was reluctant to see so much water go south and called for southern water to be minimised. “We want more water in the Callide Dawson,” Mr Seeney said.

He said he had been supporting the dam since he came into parliament in 1998, and was eyeing off seeing the project finally built if the LNP won government.

“I hope I can be in the driver's seat and it would be great to play a role to bring it to fruition,” the Shadow Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Planning and Reconstruction said.

SunWater project manager Peter MacTaggart said associated CSG water was recognised as a potential but short-term water resource.

“As associated water cannot offer the long-term security required to meet the region's growing and long-term water supply needs, surface water storage in the form of Nathan Dam is expected to be required in the longer term,” Mr McTaggart said.

“The nature of CSG water is that and Nathan water are synergistic, not mutually exclusive.”

In terms of how much water would go south, Mr McTaggart said SunWater was confident the dam would provide extensive water supply security to a wide range of different stakeholders within the Surat and Dawson Valley region.

“Following receipt of all approvals, the dam will ultimately be triggered by commercially driven demand,” he said.

“The first step in assessing this dam is expected to commence in the latter half of this year when we intend to seek foundation customer demands for the project.”