Dalby Council Rejects Coal Seam Gas Water

An article published in the Toowoomba Chronicle has indicated that the Dalby Regional Council has abandoned plans to purify coal seam gas water from Arrow Energy’s Tipton West gas field for addition to the town’s water supply. Dalby Regional mayor Ray Brown said a final agreement could not be reached with Arrow Energy on the strict standards for the quality of water to be provided or the timeframes for obtaining of the required approvals.

According to Mayor Brown:

The risk profile of the project, the failure to obtain suitable terms of agreement with Arrow Energy, and the substantial capital and operating costs for the treatment of the coal seam methane water made the project unviable.

The planned project comprised a 23-kilometre pipeline from West Tipton to the Dalby Water Treatment Plant, a settling pond, micro-filtration and reverse osmosis plant producing four megalitres of water per day to potable drinking standard.

It had included fitting membrane linings to existing evaporation ponds and construction of a one megalitre per day recycled water plant at the Dalby wastewater treatment plant.

It was to be jointly funded by the Federal Government’s Australian Water Fund, the State Government’s Water Subsidy Scheme, Arrow Energy and Dalby Regional Council, but when tenders for the projects closed on March 13 the combined cost was substantially over budget, Cr Brown said. Arrow Energy spokesperson Gareth Quinn declined to comment beyond a press statement earlier this week that Arrow was “extremely disappointed that the Dalby Regional Council has taken this decision”. In the press statement, Mr Quinn wrote:

Our team has worked very hard over the past two years to mature this vision into reality and was confident of a successful outcome. We share a strong working relationship with the council and have not given up hope of following through on our commitment to drought-proof Dalby for the long-term.

Cr Brown said Dalby Regional Council would proceed on a smaller scale, with the recycled water plant and evaporation ponds projects to continue, together with a smaller, two megalitre per day plant to treat bore water to supplement town supply.