Public meeting follows Gloucester Blockade
Date: 10-Feb-12
Author: Barrington-Gloucester-Stroud Preservation Alliance
Following the successful community blockade in December 2011 against AGL's Gloucester Coal Seam Gas Project the Barrington-Gloucester-Stroud Preservation Alliance Inc. [the Alliance] has organised a Public Meeting to be held at the Gloucester Soldiers Club Auditorium on Wednesday, 15 February 2012 at 7.00PM.
Prof. Philip Pells, the well-known and respected hydrogeologist, will review the inadequate Stage 1 Water Report produced by AGL for the Project and explain the consequences for the water resources for the Gloucester Valley and its communities if those inadequacies are not addressed.
"This Public Meeting has been widely publicised in order to give affected communities the chance to learn the real threats to existing and future water supplies not only in the Gloucester Valley but also to the wider communities of Taree, Great Lakes, Port Stephens and Dungog" said Mr E. B. Phillips, the Alliance spokesman.
The meeting is part of a massive public information agenda that the Alliance is undertaking to highlight the shortcomings of the flawed and limited water study that AGL is intending to rely upon.
"The demands of the affected communities are really quite simple," said Mr Phillips. "A properly structured independent Report on the water resources for the whole Project will not only allay the concerns of those communities but it will also benefit AGL shareholders who surely don't want to see the Project come to a halt some years down the line because damages to the water resources of the Region caused by the Project can't be rectified."
Concerned members of the community have already flagged questions about the liability of AGL in the future should the water resources for the entire Region, which provide water for more than 55,00 people through the MidCoast Water authority, be permanently compromised.
"People have asked me whether a compensation fund would be available similar to the Hardie asbestosis situation. That sort of thing demonstrates just how serious the community is taking the possible effects that unresearched permanent damage to the Region's water resources would have on themselves, their families and their livelihoods."
AGL has failed to agree to the Alliance request for a fully independent "whole of Project Water Report" and insists that its limited Stage 1 Report (covering only the first 110 wells area) is sufficient to justify proceeding with its development of the Project.
For further information contact E. B. PHILLIPS Tel. (02) 6558 0914
