AgForce has doused talks of drought-breaking water being supplied by Queensland's booming coal-seam gas sector, warning that salt and other contaminants could do serious environmental damage if not treated properly.
There has been a spate of investments by energy companies to tap into the coal-seam gas industry in the Surat and Bowen basins, which have the earning potential to revatilise many rural economies.
But AgForce water spokesman, Kim Bremner, says an environmental disaster is also waiting to happen and the companies chasing the gas need to be held accountable and responsible for ensuring this is averted.
"The prime agricultural land on the Darling Downs is essential for Queensland's future food supplies and should not be compromised by an extractive industry that is building multiple pipelines and vast evaporation ponds across the landscape but may only be around for 20-30 years," Mr Bremner said.
"The evaporation ponds popping up all over the Downs will have long-term ramifications on farmland availability as well as the quality of soils, ground water in aquifers and flood plain areas.
"Condamine Alliance figures predict that if all proposed coal seam gas development goes ahead, there will be 50,000 hectares of evaporation ponds.
"This will result in millions of tonnes of salt across the landscape.
"From just one small field south of Dalby, it has been estimated more than 400,000 tonnes of salt will be brought to the surface with the associated water."
According to AgForce, each megalitre of coal-seam gas water has between 1300 and 9000ppm salt, compared with normal river water which is 250ppm.
Cattle cannot drink water with more than 2000ppm and on certain soils that level of salts can destroy the land.
The water can be treated to remove the salts and Origin Energy earlier this month opened an award-winning new reverse osmosis water treatment plant at Spring Gully, north of Roma, to desalinate nine megalitres per day.
"The development of this plant is a good step forward in making treated water available for either industrial or agricultural use, but the treatment cost should be borne by the producer of the water and the big unanswered question is: what are the coal-seam gas companies going to do with the salt produced from reverse osmosis plants?" Mr Bremner said
AgForce wants the Queensland Government working group, set up to look at uses for the water associated with coal seam gas extraction, to also consider the long-term environmental impacts of bringing such vast quantities of salty water to the surface.