‘Putting those communities at risk’: Farmers campaign against plans to store waste in basin

A group of Queensland farmers have ramped up a campaign against plans to store carbon dioxide waste in the Great Artesian Basin. Advocacy group AgForce is challenging the government in court and launching a fundraiser to support its legal case. “This is incredibly significant: the Great Artesian Basin is some 130,000 times the size of Sydney Harbour,” AgForce Chief Executive Mike Guerin told Sky News Australia. “It is a beautiful, pristine water resource that sits under four states and territories in Australia. “It is relied on by hundreds of regional and rural communities, and we’re multi-year approvals process which beggars belief which would give mining giants a chance to take waste from a coal-fired power station and pump it into that Great Artesian Basin putting those communities very livelihood at risk.”