ABC: Queensland Government Widens Legal Action Against Linc Energy Over Alleged Underground Coal Gasification Contamination

The Queensland Government has widened its legal action against resources company Linc Energy over the alleged contamination of the environment by its underground gas plant on the Darling Downs in the state's south-east.

The Government has today filed a fifth charge of wilfully and unlawfully causing serious environmental harm against the company.

An investigation — the largest and most protracted in the history of the Queensland Environment Department — has found that Linc Energy's Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) plant at Hopeland caused irreversible damage "to more than one environmental receptor [which includes the atmosphere, vegetation, water and soil]".

UCG is a so-called "unconventional" means of extracting gas from coal seams that are too deep to mine.

Coal is burned in situ underground and the gas produced is siphoned off through wells. MORE