Springborg refuses to drink CSG water by Petrina Berry, April 22, 2013, Brisbane Times
Queensland’s health minister has refused to sample a bottle of Tara Tingler, groundwater from a coal seam gas region in the state’s south. Protesters from the anti-CSG group Lock the Gate Alliance gathered outside the health department’s Brisbane office and challenged people to sip local water from Tara, west of Toowoomba. They also called for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg to try the water they have bottled and named Tara Tingler. … Local Tara farmer Brian Monk says he’s been able to set his bore water on fire since CSG mining began near his property.
“Yet the government claims there’s no gas in my water,” Mr Monk said. “The community is being lied to about the CSG impacts.”
Claims environment officers were pressured into approving CSG projects have inflamed the debate. Former Queensland government bureaucrat Simone Marsh recently told ABC’s Four Corners program that the state’s former Labor government approved CSG projects without sufficient information. [Emphasis added]