"Gas extraction safe," says APPEA.

WHAT happens in the United State’s happens in the State’s, what we do in Australia is completely different,” Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration (APPEA) Queensland CSG director Ross Dunn told The Observer on coal seam gas (CSG) fraccing.

Mr Dunn was responding to recent reports in the United States where its been claimed that oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of litres of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 US states from 2005 to 2009.

According to an investigation by US congressional Democrats, the chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fraccing, which involves the high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives into rock formations deep underground.

Fraccing in Queensland has attracted increased scrutiny from the government and environmentalists in part because of fears that the chemicals used during the process can contaminate underground sources of drinking water.

Friends of the Earth environmental campaigner Drew Hutton told The Observer pastoralists and graziers are worried they will be put out of business because no water means no working property.

“They say 99 per cent of the fraccing process is actually water and sand,” Mr Hutton said.

“Millions of litres of water and sand go into the process of fraccing and a significant amount of chemicals get injected, however, only half of it gets extracted so there is still significant amounts of toxic chemicals being injected into aquifers.”

Fraccing involves pumping fluid at high pressure into a coal seam to fracture the seam and allow gas to flow readily into wells.

Former Queensland mines and energy minister Stephen Robertson has said previously that only around 5% of coal seam gas wells drilled in Queensland since 2000 have been fracced, although the ratio is set to rise as the industry expands.

Mr Dunn said lists of chemicals the companies used in fraccing are on the APEEA website and the gas companies use no more than what they need to use.

“The registration of these products (chemicals) is quite different from the registration of products that are used in the food chain as in agriculture and vet chemicals,” Mr Dunn said.

“These products are registered through NICNAS (National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme), which give a good over view of how the system operates.

“If somebody is importing a chemical substance into Australia they need to check if that chemical is listed at the AICS (Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances) and if it is then it means that that chemical is listed in Australia and if it isn’t you have to notify NICNAS.”

Mr Dunn told The Observer the recent allegations claiming most of the chemicals haven’t been properly assessed is wrong and he can guarantee that they have been.

“Assessment is a completely different aspect to it, Mr Dunn said.

“NICNAS only access new chemicals to Australia or chemicals on a priority basis only for health concerns.

“There is so much already known chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing and as long as it is done properly none of that fluid becomes part of the food chain because it doesn’t go into the drinking water.”