What will Santos do with the salt that is extracted from incidental water? Does it contain heavy metals and radioactive material?
Pilot testing in the Gunnedah Basin is intended to develop an understanding of the expected volume of water that is in the coal seam and the quality of this water. It is impossible to estimate the expected volume of salt. Incidental water contains minimal concentrations of heavy metals. There is no reason to believe that any significant radioactive material would be intersected by the drilling program. Testing for radioactivity and the presence of key radioactive series isotopes is not undertaken for landholder bores, however, all pilot coal seam gas wells, when drilled, will be tested for α and β activity. Santos has not detected any radioactivity in coal seam water to date in our Queensland fields.
