indigenous group fears csg impact on mount mul

"Traditional owners are holding a public information meeting in Mareeba this morning to discuss a coal seam gas (CSG) exploration permit granted over land nearby at at Mount Mulligan.

The chairman of the Western Yalangi Aboriginal Corporation, Alwyn Lyall, says WA-based company Mantle Mining will have to negotiate with traditional owners to secure an access agreement.

He says he is worried about the potential for CSG extraction to contaminate water sources.

"It's actually the water, the underground aquifers ... that are really at the risk of being you know contaminated by gas and therefore everybody that taps into these artesian aquifers around the area, they're all going to suffer," he said.

"We don't want them even to get as far as exploration because once they've dug a hole into the ground you can never fill it up ... so when it comes down to actually extraction of that gas, the process that they'll need to extract the gas is something that is highly damageable to the environment in regards to the underground water and stuff like that."

Link - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-28/indigenous-group-fears-csg-impact-on-mount/5483102