Management of water produced by coal seam gas production

Source: Dept. of Infrastructure and Planning
"The Qld Govt says it will continue to work with industry to tackle the problem of disposing of heavily mineralised water produced as a by-product of coal-seam gas extraction.Feedback on a discussion paper that closed this month would be used to refine the policy on CSG water. The policy would ban using evaporation ponds for disposing of CSG water. The govt believed the water's salty nature meant it could cause environmental harm if released to land or water courses. If 10 gigalitres of CSG water were produced annually, after 30 years its salt content would be 7.5m tonnes. The spokesperson said the discussion paper had suggested industry establish a system to aggregate or transport treated CSG water for re-use, eg relieving demand on groundwater for irrigation. He said the govt would assess public and industry submissions and hoped to release an updated policy later this year."