environmental harm, page-15

In September last year, Cougar Energy – now known as Moreton Resources – was fined $75,000 after pleading guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court to three charges linked to its failed UCG pilot project near Coolabunia. Chief Magistrate Tim Carmody also ordered that the company pay $40,000 in costs. No conviction was recorded.

The charges alleged Cougar breached the conditions of its environmental authority by failing to notify authorities for three weeks after traces of benzene were detected in water samples near the UCG site.

They were also charged with "causing serious environmental harm ", they actually contaminated the groundwater, which in my extremely limited knowledge of UCG, is one of the biggest fears for the environmentalists. And they were fined a whopping $75,000. Linc has not contaminated any groundwater, that much we know, so how "severe" can this environmental harm be if the contamination of groundwater is the one of the worse case scenarios and Cougar get's a $75,000 slap on the wrist.