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EXCLUSIVE: Cross city CSG drilling

Residents of Sydney's southwest who thought they were safe from coal seam gas exploration are in for a rude shock.

7News can reveal gas company AGL is planning to drive new wells sideways under their homes.

Campbelltown seems like an unlikely place for mining, but under homes there is gas.

If it's approved, new rigs will burrow sideways to seek and extract.

Macquarie Fields MP Andrew Macdonald said locals need to know if it’s safe or not.

"There are 300,000 people in that local area, they need to know what's going on,” Macdonald said.

AGL says its technique means less surface activity. The drills can stretch for kilometers.

Company maps show the well heads and where they'll suck gas from under homes in Camden, across to St Helens Park, up to Ingleburn and across to Leppington.

"They've said if push comes to shove and that's the only way to get the gas out, they'll also frac these wells,” Scenic Hills Association’s Jacqui Kirkby.

“So that means they could be fraccing under all these suburbs out here.”

Residents have until December 18th to have their say, but many don't know about it.

While some locals say more gas means cheaper power, others say suburbs and streets are no place for a mining industry.

"I don't like it, I don't like it at all, but what can we do about it? Nothing, absolutely nothing," resident Judith Munday said.

AGL says it has told the community, and the Planning Minister doesn't seem too worried.

“This is what's going three quarters of a kilometre under the homes, possibly, maybe if the actual approval is done," Brad Hazzard said.

The Planning Minister wouldn't say if he'd be happy with one under his home, which is not in Sydney's south-west.