A groundwater monitoring group wants to take a real assay of bore water levels and pressure near coal seam gas operations – calling for 1000 landholders to take part.

Groundwater group CSG Net started as a grassroots movement to help farmers and landowners find out what effects coal seam gas development has on their water supplies. The group are now asking for help to create a complete image of what is going on underneath the bores in the Great Artesian basin.

Constant concerns and a lack of real research spawned the CSG Net movement, according to Wallumbilla landholder Lee McNicholl: “In the peak of the summer, with heavy demand for cattle on our artesian, sub-artesian bores myself and a number of adjacent landholders were noticing a lot of extra gas in the pipelines that reticulate water around our properties,” he said.

The bores are themselves old oil and gas wells which have been converted to extract water. The surveying program hopes to solidify knowledge on whether that is a factor, or if all the gas is coming from coal wells.

“It's hoped under this program that 1000 landholder bores will join this program and that landholders will report pressure readings in artesian bores and standing water levels in sub-artesian bores on a monthly basis to be incorporated into the underground water impact model,” CSG Net said in a statement.

For more information on getting involved with the CSG Net survey, contact the coal seam gas compliance unit in Toowoomba.