Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham visited East Java, Indonesia with farmers from the North West of NSW. They visited the Lapindo mud volcano that occured when a gas drill rig blew out.
The ensuing mud volcano has spewed mud for 7 years, covering 1,300 hectares in hot sticky mud over 10 metres deep. 50,000+ people have been displaced, 16 villages destoryed and a major highway cut. The mud continues to flow from the volcano, while the Indonesian government pumps attempts to keep up by piping it to the Porong River.
Australian gas company Santos had a 20% share in the company that was drilling for gas. While this is an extreme event, it does show that there are many unknowns about underground geology and hydrology, and that the precasutionary principle should always be employed, whether it is drilling for gas in Indoneisa, or fracking coal seam gas in Australia