The WRA yesterday released a report into the claimed negative impact of unconventional drilling on the environment of south-eastern Queensland.
The report comes just weeks after the Northern Territory enacted a moratorium on fraccing and Victoria decided to ban all onshore exploration until at least 2020.
"The report relies on discredited claims from the United States to alarm Queenslanders," APPEA CEO Dr Malcolm Roberts said.
He said the report, written by a Lock the Gate activist, used misleading claims, and it was a "scrapbook of recycled US activist material".
"There are many thorough, independent and expert scientific studies into shale gas. The Western Rivers Alliance report is none of those things," Dr Roberts said.
"For example, US claims that 60% of gas wells will ‘fail' are simply wrong."
He said it was part of a "familiar trick of selective, misleading quotes lifted from reputable research".
The 60% well failure rate, popularised by Yoko Ono in 2012, actually refers to offshore Gulf of Mexico wells, and merely related to potential measurement of sustained casing pressure, which is not direct evidence of a leaking well.
Dr Roberts repeated his statement that reports from across the world had found shale gas extraction can be performance safety, and he said there was genuine research, independent experts such as the Australian Council of Learned Academies that supports that position.
"The oil and gas industry has been safely operating in the Cooper Basin for more than 50 years. Industry practices are proven and safe. Hydraulic fracturing has been used in Australia since the late 1960s.
"Industry practices are always improving. Seismic surveying, for example, is now largely done using GPS technology, eliminating or greatly reducing disturbance."
He said the gas sector was happy to have a debate about the risks and benefits of fraccing, but it needed people who look beyond dishonest scare campaigns.
"Gas is critical to a secure transition to lower emissions. Gas is also necessary for manufacturing essential products such as fertilisers, glass, bricks and packaging. Eastern Australia faces a very real risk of a supply shortfall by 2019," he said.
"Preventing safe, responsible gas development can only mean higher gas prices for consumers, lost jobs and lost opportunities for regional development."
The 48-page WRA report raises concerns of well failures, high water demand, water and soil contamination and earthquakes as geological risks.
The report warns that research on chemical pollution from fraccing in Pennsylvania found failure rates in newly-drilled shale gas wells was as high as 8.9% over three years.
WRA coordinator and co-author Sarah Moles said Channel Country communities have a lot to lose if they allow shale gas extraction.
WRA wants the Queensland government to reintroduce tough protections for the Channel Country that were removed by the Liberal government in 2014, which reduced protections for the environment.
The WRA says Channel Country's rivers and wetlands and their surrounding landscapes have long been recognised for their ecological, scientific, aesthetic and cultural values, and for "their superb natural contribution to a clean and green extensive pastoral industry".
Despite flashpoints like Santos' Zeus Field oil spill of 2013, the Moomba explosion of 2004 or the 'Corner Country' fire of 1982, there has largely been peaceful co-existence in the Channel Country.
This has been occurring amid the industrialisation associated with Moomba, Jackson and Ballera and numerous satellite fields.
Yet while they have been able to live with conventional gas developments in the Cooper Creek area, unconventional gas is a bridge too far.
The report said nothing could compensate for damage to ecosystems or landscapes if unconventional exploration leads to hundreds of wells exploiting the vast shale gas potential.
The report was written by Moles and science writer Dr Carol Booth.
