The Tara gas field in Queensland, Australia. Driller Dart Energy plans 40% more wells than this in Airth, Scotland
Driller Dart Energy revealed some shocking truths at a meeting in the small Scottish village of Airth last night.
Company representatives told an appalled audience they planned up to 100 wells in the area, representing a huge increase over previously announced plans.
Angry residents pointedly asked whether fracking would be used as Dart drills for Coal Bed Methane (CBM). The company looked uncomfortable and refused to answer. Fracking is commonly used with CBM, with fracking plans at CBM sites in Canonbie on the England/ Scotland border and at Doe Green in Cheshire (see Igas CEO’s admission to parliament – search for ‘Doe Green’)
The driller also let slip that they had compulsory purchase orders whereby locals would be forced to sell their properties to the company.
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The shocking revelations reveal the scale of the company’s ambition for Scotland. The driller is notorious for it’s contempt for those close to where they drill. The company’s operations in Australia have provoked widespread resistance. And we recently revealed how that Dart is planning to drill for gas at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
The packed village hall – reminiscent of similar angry scenes at a public meeting in the West Sussex village of Balcombe earlier this year – broke up in disarray after councillors refused to let locals vote on the issue. Prematurely adjourning the meeting, local representatives withdrew to the local library, harangued by locals as they went.
The angry scenes are part of a growing body of resistance to Dart’s plans. Over 500 people have objected to Dart’s planning application for 22 new wells near the village; as well as Network Rail. The issue has been receiving widespread coverage in the national press and on TV.
The drillers revelation demonstrate the truth of what local residents have been saying for many months. Unconventional gas extraction – such as the site at Airth – involves the widespread industrialisation of the countryside. Dart’s plan for 100 wells would also require extensive pipeline infrastructure, as well as large volumes of potentially toxic water discharges. Currently the company has permission to dump it’s waste waters in to the nearby Forth estuary.
Dart Energy Airth1-7-10
The local community is increasingly skeptical about the driller. The company also revealed that local authorities were not going to test the waste waters it produces – instead the company will do this itself. In a sideswipe at those present the company offered to provide samples to villagers and said they could test it themselves.
