sth burnett was dying if not for coal !, page-2

coalboy

Great post.

Regarding "If CXY go down , I think I'll buy a banjo with the money I have left and send it to Kingaroy".

Can I suggest you send the banjo directly to Mrs Dorothy Pratt Member for Nanango. Afterall, she is responsible for where Cougar Energy finds itself at the present time. Cougar was just days away from re-ignition. She has acted impulsively, caused Mines Minister Stephen Robertson huge embarrassment during Estimates & someone had to pay the price. As recently as last week she issued her latest edition of Prattles containing the original "Time Line of Events" without bothering to check if the "high readings of benzene" she quoted were proven. Nor did she bother to check the DERM website or Cougar announcements where the lab admitted to making the error with the readings.

Kudos to the guy who questioned DERM boss John Bradley at last weeks meeting as to what were highest levels of benzene recorded. Bradley did not know & he is one of the guys who will be making the recommendation to the Government as to what action to impose on Cougar. Unbelieveable.

The guy also said to Bradley words to the effect "you are claiming 84 & 45 ppb in literature being distributed - who are we supposed to believe - you or the company". "The company claims there was a laboratory error which has been accepted by DERM yet we are still seeing misleading information".

The guy then switched his attack to Dorothy Pratt & for those of you who read the article I posted last week "It isn't funny minister" it was a case of role reversal - touche. It was Mrs Pratt's time to squirm. "Oh I didn't know, I have not seen it & I didn't have time to change it", were a few of her excuses.

This was the highlight of last week's meeting from my point of view.

Thanks SG for your report on the meeting by the way.

Judging from the tone of those in authority it would appear that the very least Cougar can expect is a fine. There was a reference to the guidelines which state that there was to be "ZERO" ground water contamination & we were all thinking that provided they were at or below the Australian Drinking Water Standard of 1 ppb that everything would be ok. At 2 ppb - does that mean that DERM take out the big stick & make an example of Cougar?

John Bradley used some pretty strong words at the meeting. He said that "they had received initial information but needed further & the process would take as long as it needs to take".

Share-guru, did I hear correctly when one of the scientists spoke about the natural generation of benzene in some of the world's aquifers of 5 ppb? I would appreciate your confirmation of denial. It was really difficult to hear a lot of what was being said as much of the meeting was conducted without a microphone, truly amazing organisation.

Cheers.