Plan to pump CO2 from Millmerran power station into Great Artesian Basin unlikely to get approval

The CTSCo storage well’s drill site near Moonie, more than 400 kilometres west of Brisbane. (Supplied: LETA)

Opponents of a controversial plan to store waste carbon dioxide in Australia’s biggest underground freshwater system say state government approval will be difficult after the Queensland premier labelled the project “not a good idea”.

Mining giant Glencore had been wanting its subsidiary CTSCo to store carbon dioxide from the Millmerran power station in an underground aquifer at a site at Moonie, west of Toowoomba.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles said the project in the Great Artesian Basin was unlikely to get the environmental approvals needed.

“Knowing Queensland’s environmental laws as well as I do, I think it’s unlikely to pass that environmental test,” Mr Miles said on Wednesday at Beef Australia in Rockhampton.

“I’ve continued to talk with and work with those groups who are concerned about it, even as recently as yesterday and last night.

“I share their concerns … it doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.”

The Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest underground freshwater reservoirs in the world.

It stretches from Cape York in Queensland to Dubbo in New South Wales, west to Coober Pedy in South Australia, and into the Northern Territory.

Glencore has said the project was based on “robust scientific fieldwork and data” and the CO2 was “food grade” and would “not risk agricultural or town drinking water”.

But a report it commissioned found even “food grade” C02 could cause levels of lead and arsenic in the groundwater to rise to hundreds of times the safe drinking water guidelines.

This has farming groups like AgForce concerned with the organisation recently launching legal action against a 2022 decision by the federal government not to label the project a “controlled action” under federal environment laws.

The project instead would be subject to the Queensland environmental approvals process.

An environmental impact statement is under assessment by the Queensland government with a decision on those approvals expected by the end of this month.

“We have a rigorous process of environmental impact assessments here in Queensland and any project can go through that process,” Mr Miles said.

“Once we see the outcome of that process, then I’ll have more to say about longer-term policy options.”

Federal LNP member for Flynn Colin Boyce, who has been a long-term opponent of the project, today welcomed the premier’s comments.

He said he did not see how the premier could now “possibly back-pedal from that statement he’s made”.

“This is a position which they can’t retract,” Mr Boyce said.

“This is a crazy project. It’s nothing more than a giant science project that will put in jeopardy one of the world’s largest underground potable water sources.

“Who in their right mind would want to compromise a water source so important as the Great Artesian Basin?”

Ken Cameron runs a major pork business on a property less than 10 kilometres from the CTSCo site.

He said he relied heavily on groundwater and had a licence to extract it from the same aquifer the project planned to store C02 in.

“It’s encouraging to hear the premier say that and with any luck sanity will prevail, and the project will be refused now and forever,” Mr Cameron said.

“It should have never even been contemplated.

“It’s more than just this project. We need to see the federal government sweep this up in the legislation to ensure that no other project can ever be proposed to inject industrial waste or any other contaminants into the Great Artesian Basin.”

AgForce CEO Michael Guerin said while he welcomed the premier’s comments, more needed to be done by the federal government to protect the Great Artesian Basin.

“The Glencore proposal itself can be stopped by the EIS process the premier refers to, but the Great Artesian Basin has to have protection from federal environmental law, and that’s the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which failed on February 9, 2022 to protect the Great Artesian Basin,” he said.

Glencore says jobs will be lost

A Glencore spokesperson said they were “disappointed” in the premier’s comments.

“As the Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King said yesterday, governments should avoid bias when decisions such as these are being made because it puts at risk future investments and the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of workers in resources in Queensland moving forward,” they said.

“If the premier continues to intervene and ignores due process, he leaves the resources industry with no credible abatement solution, which means lost Queensland jobs and a hit to regional communities.

“Our project should be judged on the science, not misinformation or political opportunism.”

The spokesperson said they feared Glencore had “been set up by this government to fail even though we are following the CCS approvals process set up by the Queensland government”.

“We believe carbon capture and storage can safely coexist with other activities in the Great Artesian Basin — just like CSG, oil and gas do today,” they said.