Posted
Dozens of residents from Fullerton Cove, north of Newcastle, will head to Sydney today to hear if they have been successful in their legal challenge against coal seam gas exploration in the area.
The residents are calling on the Land and Environment Court to order a more rigorous environmental assessment of Dart Energy's CSG exploration before it goes ahead in Fullerton Cove.
A five-day court hearing was held in Sydney in October 2012 and a judgement is expected to be handed down just after 4:00pm (AEDT) this afternoon.
Residents spokesman Lindsay Clout says the O'Farrell Government's recent plans for two-kilometre buffer zones around residential areas should work in their favour.
"The location of the well sites in Fullerton Cove, if you draw a two-kilometre radius around them, you cover around about 85 homes," he said.
"That's clearly a residential zone.
"The nearest home, at 400 metres away, you can stand at their back door and you look directly at the well site.
"I'm quite confident that the spirit of that legislation is to protect communities."
A court-ordered injunction six months ago has prevented Dart from drilling.
It came after locals spent nine days blockading the drill site last year, concerned the project will affect the Tomago sandbeds aquifer which supplies part of Newcastle's drinking water.
Topics: oil-and-gas, mining-environmental-issues, courts-and-trials, community-organisations, fullerton-cove-2318
No comments:
Post a Comment