south burnett times articles, page-9

Here is another story guys, this time from Brad Glynne.

South Burnett Times

Tuesday December 14, 2010.

Page 2 YOUR SAY COLUMN


CALL FOR INFORMED DISCUSSION

I refer to S. H. Scott's letter "UCG process not trustworthy" published on December 3.

Cougar Energy appreciates the rights of the public to debate the merits of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) in media outlets.

However, the author has made several blatant errors in his/her letter:

. There has been no contamination by Cougar Energy of the groundwater supply used by Kingaroy citizens for human consumption

. Nor has there been any contamination of the groundwater supply used by Kingaroy citizens for livestock and other farming purposes

. The UCG process does not take pure water and turn it into "un-usable, contaminated, environmental hazard."

Test results from our Kingaroy site published by the Department for Environment and Resource Management (DERM) from July 17 to August 11, 2010 show that groundwater sample results from in and around the Kingaroy plant present "no concerns with water qualitity in the local bores" and are "...below Australian Drinking Water Guideline (ADWG) standard..." (DERM media release, August 11, 2010, "Landholder bore restrictions removed near Kingaroy UCG plant".)

However, some local citizens continue to persist with the allegation of contamination of water supplies.

There have never been any detectable levels of either benzene or toluene in any of the landowners' water bores in a radius of two kilometres from the site.

The author also appears to have confused the water extraction process in coal seam gas (CSG) operations with UCG).

CSG does have the challenge alluded to, however UCG generates only a fraction of the amount of water which in any event is undrinkable and will be gainfully used in the steam turbines as part of the proposed electricity generation at Kingaroy.

It is important to keep the maximum findings of benzene at Kingaroy (two parts per billion appearing for less than two weeks in June) in proper context.

The level of benzene in the air you breathe at the petrol station whilst you fill your car can be in excess of 400 parts per billion (see DERM media release, July 17, 2010. "Kingaroy Underground Gasification testing results").

BRAD GLYNNE,
General Manager,
Corporate Finance & Investor Relations

ENDS