A  scien(fic  collabora(on  between  the  Department  of  the  Environment;  Bureau  of  Meteorology;    CSIRO  Water  for  a  Healthy  Country  Flagship;  and  Geoscience  Australia  

BIOREGIONAL  ASSESSMENTS  

Providing  scien6fic  water  resource  informa6on  associated  with  coal  seam  gas  and  large  coal  mines  

Independent Expert Scientific Committee and Office of Water Science Peter Baker, Principal Science Advisor, Office of Water Science

Galilee Basin Coal and Energy Conference, 2013

v  Independent Expert Scientific Committee (the Committee) v  Office of Water Science (OWS) v  Advice function v  Bioregional Assessments Programme

Summary of presentation

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v  Statutory Committee under the EPBC Act §  Interim Committee

v  Established December 2012 and meets monthly

v The Committee: §  provides advice on coal seam gas and large

coal mining developments about impacts on water resources

§  oversees bioregional assessments §  oversees research on potential water related

impacts of coal seam gas and large coal mining projects

Independent Expert Scientific Committee

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v Expertise includes hydrogeology, hydrology, ecology, geology, ecotoxicology and natural resource management:

§  Ms Lisa Corbyn (Chair) §  Professor Craig Simmons §  Emeritus Professor Angela Arthington §  Ms Jane Coram §  Emeritus Professor Peter G Flood §  Dr Andrew Johnson §  Professor Dayanthi Nugegoda §  Mr Jim McDonald

Independent Expert Scientific Committee

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v  Lead agency v  Bioregional Assessments v  Research to address critical gaps v  Secretariat

Office of Water Science

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v  EPBC Act v  National Partnership:

§  New South Wales §  Queensland §  South Australia §  Victoria

v  To date provided advice on 26 requests v  Public release

Advice function

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Advice function

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www.environment.gov.au/coal-­‐seam-­‐gas-­‐mining/publica6ons.html    

v  A scientific analysis of the ecology, hydrology, geology and hydrogeology of a bioregion

v  Explicit assessment of potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of coal seam gas and coal mining developments on water resources, including any impacts associated with salt production/salinity

Bioregional Assessments

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v  Six priority bioregions §  Underpin advice §  Knowledge and information products §  Enduring

v  Three year programme up to June 2016

v  OWS and the Committee are not regulators

Bioregional Assessments Programme

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v  Impacts on receptors v  Modelling where possible v  Quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative methods

§  Multiple lines of evidence v  Workflow

§  transparency §  uncertainty

v  Reproducibility v  Scientific advice

Principles of Bioregional Assessments methodology

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Assets and Receptors Water-­‐dep

ende

nt  assets  

Receptors  

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Methodology for Bioregional Assessments (BRAM)

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v  Scientific advice v  Conceptual modelling of causal v  Quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative outputs v  Extent and nature of impacts v  Measures of confidence of impacts v  Advice on the likelihood of risks v  Recommendations

§  monitoring §  review frequency §  additional risk assessment studies §  approaches to risk mitigation

Bioregional Assessments outputs

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Further information on the Committee or the Office of Water Science can be found at: http://environment.gov.au/coal-seam-gas-mining/index.html

Further information

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