Australia’s Biodiversity Council is asking the Queensland state government to halt new gas developments in the Lake Eyre Basin given the potential damage to the floodplains by drilling and its related infrastructure.

The Lake Eyre Basin covers 1.31 million square kilometres, or around one-sixth of Australia, across several states and territories, including oil and gas areas in South Australia and Queensland.

The independent Biodiversity Council has made a submission to the state government after it opened a public consultation on regulatory options for managing the area.

Founded by 11 Australian universities, the council said the new resource exploration of the basin “has the potential to rapidly expand causing serious environmental harm”.

It suggested that up to 1,500 new wells will be drilled in the area and that the issue with gas wells is that ‘wellpads’ and supply roads could hamper the water flows necessary for biodiversity.

“The Lake Eyre Basin has some of the world’s most magnificent floodplains and lakes, right down to Kathi Thanda-Lake Eyre, driven by boom-and-bust cycles of the rivers,” the council’s councillor, Professor Richard Kingsford, said.

Kingsford is part of the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Ecosystem Science.

“When they flood there is an incredible explosion of all types of life right up to large colonies of pelicans breeding on the huge supply of native fish. It is no accident that the Lake Eyre Basin has some of Australia’s healthiest populations of waterbirds,” he said.

“Our analyses has identified oil and gas production development as the biggest risk to these ecosystems. There are currently 831 wells on the floodplains of the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin, and that number could triple.”

A paper from Australia’s chief science body the CSIRO noted in October last year that oil and gas production disrupted what it calls flooding regimes in the area.

“Little rigorous environmental assessment existed to protect the Lake Eyre Basin rivers and Coongie Lakes Ramsar Site, despite state and Commonwealth legislation and policy for protection, which remain largely ineffective in controlling oil and gas development on this free-flowing river,” the CSIRO said.

Many of those wells are operated by Australia’s second largest oil and gas company Santos, however this is across all of the Lake Eyre Basin and not just Queensland. The 1,500 figure is a supposition from the paper and not actually a hard figure of actually permitted and funded wells.

“It is clear that one of the options on the table will do this. We call on the Queensland government to implement a stop on all future oil and gas extraction and exploration because of the inevitable consequences of damage,” the Biodiversity Council wrote in its submission.

By Helen Clark – helen@carbon-pulse.com

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