One lousy sentence



Treasurer Tim Nicholls in Gladstone Harbour
source: Courier Mail

One lousy sentence given grudgingly by the Qld treasurer, Tim Nicholls, gives no justice and portrays no understanding what farming families and other landowner...s have been subjected to in the unleashing of the CSG colossus.

Tim Nicholls is quoted in the Courier Mail article, Liquefied coal seam gas shipment set to leave Gladstone, as saying, “landholders had to be acknowledged for the sacrifice and trouble they had been put to as CSG companies moved onto their land.”




It has been a lot more than just mere trouble, Tim. Try non-disclosure of information; isolate, divide & conquer; lying; pressured negotiation; bullying; ambushing with contrived bluffs; tactics to apply pressure; limited, miserly compensation; landowners time uncompensated; stress; complete disregard & disinterest in how agricultural management systems can work in with a gas field; the co-existence myth; gates open; weeds; loss of underground water; no solution for a mountain of salt brought to the surface; loss of amenity of living; roads destroyed; dust; noise; sense of community lost; liability from contamination; diminution of property value.

The list continues.

The government has failed to govern for all. The Newman LNP government & preceding Bligh Labor government have not allowed the agricultural department to protect even the small percentage of good quality soils; the Department of Environment & Heritage has not been allowed to do its job; there was very limited legal aid made available & that did not continue; landowners suffering impacts ask government for help only to be fobbed off by organisations devised by government, Gasfield Commission & CSG Compliance Unit, with the purpose of to be seen to be doing something and to dampen down the voice of the rural landowner to be heard in the urban communities.

On top of all that with landowners already suffering significant imbalances of power the Newman government systematically made significant legislative changes that removed what few rights landowners had.

What for? This Courier Mail reveals the answer; this first ship alone has loaded $50 million worth of LNG. When the industry gets into full stride in 2017 there will be 360 ships leaving the harbour loaded with LNG every year. The Qld government is expected to rake in $500 million annually. 

LNG tanker, Methane Rita Andrea, docked at QGC LNG plant at Curtis Island
photo sourced Gladstone Observer

Could a Waco- style explosion happen near Gladstone?

Evacuation Grounds is an apt home for this Queensland Telegraph online article quoting the concerns of our own Peter Neilsen. Is Peter being over-alarmist? I don't think so but let's hope we never find out...

http://www.queenslandtelegraph.com/could-a-waco-explosion-happen-at-bajool/

By John Mikkelsen

A GLADSTONE district resident claims the region is sitting on a potential time bomb that could rattle windows in Rockhampton, following the devastating explosion that flattened a community on the outskirts of Waco, Texas last week (pictured).

Peter Neilsen, of Mt Larcom, points to the explosives storage facility at Bajool and the Orica chemicals plant at Yarwun, which represent many times more ammonium nitrate than the small amount of ammonium fertiliser blamed for the Texas explosion which caused mass fatalities.

Texan authorities initially said the blast on April 18, thought to have been caused by an industrial accident, had resulted in 15 deaths but subsequent reports have quoted the toll as 25 or possibly as many as 60 or 70.

Neilsen does not present as an overly nervous type, but he is also mindful of the explosion which tore through a natural gas pipeline facility in Raynosa, Mexico last September, killing 26 workers. Massive pipelines to service the multi-billion dollar LNG plants on Curtis Island will also pass close to his town on their way to Gladstone.

“With a combination of the LNG and Orica, Gladstone is sitting on a time bomb,” he claimed.

“The 24.5 metric tonnes of anhydrous ammonia (a much less volatile product than ammonium nitrate) that caused so much destruction in Waco Texas, is less than the load of the highly explosive ammonium nitrate being carried on a single B double trailer.

“We pass many semis and B doubles heading towards the Bruce Highway loaded with ammonium nitrate every time we go to town.

“Just one semi last week had 26 one tonne bags of ammonium nitrate (a normal single trailer load) which is six tonnes more than the material that exploded in Waco and more volatile if it is activated,” Neilsen said.

However a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources and Mines said the fertiliser plant in Waco was using anhydrous ammonia not ammonium nitrate and in Queensland this product was regulated.

“Most ammonium nitrate is imported through Port Alma south of Rockhampton while smaller quantities may arrive through Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns. All ports have strict security and safety controls in place,” the spokesperson said.

“Significant amounts of ammonium nitrate are also transported by road from ports or manufacturing plants to mines where it is the main ingredient in explosives.

“Transport of ammonium nitrate is subject to strict security and safety provisions and routine vehicle checks.

“Ammonium nitrate must be transported in a locked container or vessel or be under constant surveillance by an authorised person accompanying the load.”

Mr Neilsen said there were also many thousands of tonnes of the highly explosive material stored within a couple of hundred metres of the Bruce Highway at Bajool.

“A couple of years ago there was almost an explosion at the Bajool explosive battery where the thousands of tonnes of explosives are stored.

“A bearing on a conveyor seized and overheated causing the contents of a storage tank to overheat and start to emit vapour that was potentially extremely explosive.

“The highway was closed several kilometres away to the north and south and the surrounding town and residences were being prepared to evacuate for their safety.

“It was stated in the press at the time that if the storage hopper had exploded it would have blown out windows in Rockhampton, 35kms away (in a straight line).”

The Department’s spokesperson said there were significant safety requirements to ensure storage facilities and manufacturing plants were not located in close proximity to populated areas and had effective safety and health risk management plans and security plans in place to minimise the risk of fire or contamination that could lead to an explosion.