Bicentenary Videos | Western Advocate

A proposal by a subsidiary of multinational, Glencore, to inject liquified carbon dioxide (CO2) waste into the Great Artesian Basin is galvanising more and more organisations to join the fight against it. Last week in Burketown, the North West Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils which involves 11 councils voted unanimously to oppose the project which involves the injection of waste CO2 from the Millmerran Power Station into a site near Moonie. Flinders Shire councillor Bill Bode said he moved a motion to "absolutely" make sure that no CO2 was introduced into the GAB. A water driller all his life, as was his father and grandfather, Mr Bode said a similar motion was put forward 16 years ago when he was on the Great Artesian Basin Advisory Committee. "And we jumped on them then and told them they weren't allowed to do it," he said. Mr Bode, who lives 3km north of Prairie, said he would not know how many bores he had drilled in his life, but he started in 1959, his father started in 1926 and his grandfather started in 1895. A fount of information on the GAB, the 80-year-old said he was not drilling bores any more, but was still repairing them. "They are talking about doing it way down in the south west (at Moonie) and I am up in the north east or north of it, but it could affect all of us," he said. "If we didn't have the Great Artesian Basin, none of this western country would...have been settled. "I am 100 per cent reliant on it, and most properties (in this area) are at least 50 if not 70 per cent reliant on it (for water) because a lot of places don't have dams." Mr Bode said if the government ignored opposition to the proposal then "we will have to do something militantly". "I don't know about marching in the streets, but we'll have to do something that's going to disturb the bloody government - if they're going to do that (inject CO2 into the GAB), they could ruin our western Queensland lifestyle," he said. Mr Bode suggested pumping the CO2 waste into the great chasms under the Pacific Ocean. In a media statement, AgForce CEO Michael Guerin said the plan by the Glencore subsidiary, Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation (CTSCo), had the potential to destroy one of Australia's most precious water resources. "It beggars belief that one of the natural wonders of the world could be under threat in this way," he said. "We are flabbergasted that with all the options of empty ravines where we have previously extracted oil - that the government, Glencore or anyone else would even consider pumping that industrial waste into a pristine water source."

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