Devil's in detail of Tony Windsor victory

AT face value, Tony Windsor has won a significant victory for farm groups and environmentalists worried about the potential impact of coal and coal-seam gas developments on precious but poorly understood underground water resources.

It has always been extraordinary that the coal and gas industry can claim - correctly - that it probably knows more about the workings of the Great Artesian Basin than the nation's peak scientific bodies.

Spending $150 million on an independent expert scientific panel on water should go some way towards redressing the imbalance.

That said, the Windsor deal is unlikely to defuse the explosive politics that surround coal and coal-seam gas exploration in the nation's food bowl and many environmentally sensitive areas.

By agreeing to his terms, the Gillard government now has a much more direct stake in a dilemma that it has to date been more than happy to leave to the states and territories.

On the land, there are wide concerns about the impact of coalmining and coal-seam gas exploration on water supplies.

They include:

• The competition posed to agriculture and the environment by the massive volumes of water required for mining;

• The potential damage to and contamination of underground aquifers; and

• The potential threat posed by millions of tonnes of super saline water brought to the surface with coal-seam gas.

The federal government says the Windsor agreement will provide a new level of transparency in the decision-making process.

And it will strengthen the arm of the commonwealth to intervene should it be necessary.

The new Independent Expert Scientific Committee will provide scientific advice about coal-seam gas and large coalmining approvals where they have significant impacts on water.

It will oversee research on the impacts on water resources from coal-seam gas and large coalmining projects.

And it will commission and fund water resource assessments for priority regions.

For farm and environment groups, the big question is what happens to projects in the meantime. They argue that a great deal of work is needed to properly understand exactly what coal-seam gas mining means for the complex geology of the Great Artesian Basin.

Some are calling for a moratorium on further developments until those potential impacts are properly understood.

With groundwater, potential impacts may take decades to arrive and be irreversible.

The Windsor deal offers promise, but as always the devil will be in the details.