A Bluff property owner has applied to Environment Southland for a consent to dump 160 cubic metres of Greymouth Petroleum drilling mud on to his land.
The mud was used during the company's gas exploration at Horseshoe Bay, Stewart Island, which started in July.
Consents officer Jess Crawford said Graham Laidlaw had applied for the consent for his Ocean Beach property.
A consent was required to discharge a contaminant to land, and because of what was in the drilling mud, she said.
The contents of the synthetic mud are considered commercially sensitive and have not been made public by the company.
However, the information is contained in the consent application which will be made public when it is approved. The council was waiting on a peer review from Taranaki before approving the consent, Ms Crawford said.
At the Environmental Management Committee meeting yesterday councillor Robert Guyton said making the information public would "take away some of the fear people have of the unknown". He was surprised the information was a secret, as presentations from the industry to council had said no-one should worry about the contents of drilling muds or fracking liquids.
Cr Jan Riddell said it was appropriate the information was dealt with in public as it would take the suspicion out of the issue.
Good on ya, Kimberly. I'm betting there's more to come on this muddy tale.
I find it very hard to believe that claims of 'commercial sensitivity' were sufficient to justify the suppression of the details of what's in these 'drilling muds'.
I'm ordering my copy of the consent application now.
6 comments:
why oh why
surely when SDC granted the consent to drill at Stewart Island why was the drilling mud not dealt with.
Yours is a very good question, Charlie.
Do you know yet where it's going?
Won't be far from you, I'm certain.
The irony. It is I assume to be laid to rest in the shadow of 'green' giants. It will quietly seep to the rhythmic hum of wind turbines. One would assume the easily for-see-able by-product will be shipped across our fair strait with it's bounty of kai moana beneath the waves. I will pray there are no rogue waves on those days.
Ploughed into the soil, I'm assuming. That's not buried, so I hope no wind ever blows in Bluff. They must have had a consent to ship it across Te Ara a Kewa, yes? They had one to take their barge and containers to the island in the first place...didn't they? Surely there's nothing loose going on here? The industry promises they're as tight as a nut!
"The industry promises they're as tight as a nut!"
Beware of flying pigs!
Wot a cynic :-)
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