Coal seam water quality and the impact upon management strategies

The rapidly developing coal seam gas industry produces significant volumes of associated brackish water which needs to be appropriately managed. The aim of this study was to determine the variability of water composition within and between multiple gas fields in a defined geographic area and to discover relationships between species present. Water quality from 150 coal seam gas production wells from the Surat Basin, Queensland has been analysed. Chemical analysis revealed the associated water to predominantly contain bicarbonate