Potential home buyers considering the vast new estates soon to be released around Catherine Fields are dismayed to find that plans to drill coal seam gas wells do not get even a faint mention in the pre-release publicity.
The State government has ducked for cover, claiming that applications will not be received until after October, and by that time full details will be available, including the terms under which drilling will be permitted. It is suggested that no gas well will be allowed within two hundred metres of any home site.
It is not the actual location of the wells that is causing concern. It is the fact that gas wells generally have an unsavoury reputation for poisoning ground water tables and spreading cancer causing chemicals that make their presence anywhere unacceptable as a location for family homes.
Because of this reputation, the gas well people are skitterish about revealing their plans and this will spread a cloud of uncertainty over people's dreams and aspirations.
People do not buy land for housing on a sudden impulse. It is usually at the end of a long term of saving and planning, and they have the right to know what they are getting into from the first release of plans for new estates. Any adverse factors will determine the asking price of the land, and it will certainly be taken into consideration by those providing mortgage loans for new homes.
Unfortunately, even those living in existing homes are not free from worry over gas well drilling. Leases have been signed to allow at least exploratory drilling in established suburbs - and this is a new industry with no long term history to fall back on.
Owning a home is usually the biggest single investment that any family makes, and home owners have every right to demand that there are safeguards in place to prevent financial calamity arising from a failure to disclose adverse conditions prevailing before the sale.
Just what will be allowed in the way of gas wells in both old and new housing areas needs to be very specifically spelled out and put into legislation before even one block of new land is released in Catherine Fields - or West Dapto in Wollongong - or anywhere else in this state.
Anything less is a failure of government responsibility !
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