The New South Wales division of gas giant Santos could be slapped with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after it admitted to failing to report contamination and excessive salt levels at a drilling site in the state’s northwest.
Santos NSW has pleaded guilty to four charges relating to failing to report contaminated water leaks and lodge environmental management documents, the NSW Land and Environment Court heard.
AAP Newsagency reports the charges concern its Pilliga forest Coal Seam Gas (CSG) operations.
Each offence carries a maximum penalty of $110,000, plus potential legal costs of the same amount, but this is likely to be reduced by the company’s early guilty plea.
AAP reports the company failed to report a leak of 10,000 litres of contaminated water from a treatment plant after an electronic switch connected to the pipeline failed.
The water was about half as salty as seawater and killed more than 70 per cent of the trees in the affected zone, prosecutor Stephen Rushton SC said.
Santos NSW undertook a $1.4 million rehabilitation project on the area, the court heard.
AAP reports the company also failed to detail cases when its salt concentrations exceeded the threshold in environmental management reports.
Given it was the first prosecution of its kind, the gas company should be made an example of to deter others from concealing similar environmental damage, Mr Rushton said.
He said edited notes and emails suggested senior management knew about the leaks, which happened before Santos took over the group, formerly known as Eastern Star, but chose not to alert the board.
He said if Santos NSW had reported the leak on time, it’s possible tighter conditions would have been imposed.
The fact the company eventually made a report should make “no difference whatsoever”, he added.
There had been a notable change in corporate culture at the gas producer since the Santos takeover in late 2011, in a bid to move away from such “legacy issues”, defence lawyer Dean Jordan argued.
Nevertheless, he said the group acknowledged the seriousness of the offences and wanted to make a full public apology.
He argued Santos NSW should receive a sentence discount for assisting authorities, a suggestion Justice Brian Preston rejected.
“All they’ve done is what they should’ve done,” he said.
Outside court, environmentalists held Christmas-themed signs reading “More Santa, Less Santos” and “All We Want For Christmas is Clean Water”.
AAP reports Justice Preston will sentence Santos NSW at a later date.
