Beneficial Use of Coal Seam Gas Water for Irrigated Forest Plantations
Service: 1250 ha of irrigation for native eucalypt forest as a beneficial reuse of saline-sodic coal seam gas (CSG) water.
Client: Santos Energy Company
Location: Injune region, Qld
Start: 2008
Completion: 2010
Saline-sodic water is a common by-product of Coal Seam Gas production, considered a waste in Queensland and must be managed in accordance with environmental regulations.
Santos required a practical, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable option to manage large volumes of saline-sodic coal seam gas (CSG) water (in excess of 10ML/day) at Fairview and Springwater near Injune.
The project included design, feasability studies, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of a large-scale water quality monitoring program that included a network of over 100 permanent soil moisture sensors, continuously logged groundwater bores, installation of surface water flumes and associated flow monitoring and a program of grab sampling and analysis.
Overall project management included:
Development of a project charter and project procedures.
Establishment of a project governance and management structure.
Project scheduling, coordination, and milestone control.
Resource management.
This project implemented the first large-scale beneficial use of CSG water in Australia, providing a paradigm shift in options to manage water, and giving Santos a beneficial use option for CSG water at substantially lower CAPEX and OPEX than the baseline alternative.
