NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell should override his energy minister and stop two coal seam gas exploration leases from being renewed, the Greens say.
The AGL exploration lease at Camden, southwest of Sydney, expired on March 28 while Eastern Star Gas' lease to drill near Narrabri, in the state's north, expired on August 2.
The NSW Greens' mining spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said Mr O'Farrell needed to override his Energy Minister Chris Hartcher and impose a moratorium on coal seam gas drilling.
"We've seen the minister bungling this week. Mr Hartcher's out of his depth," he told reporters in Sydney.
"There's so much community concern that the premier cannot ignore ... this is an issue that requires the very highest levels of attention."
Mr Buckingham seized on comments from Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association spokesman Ross Dunn, who told a public hearing in Sydney that good management could not eliminate the risk of contaminating water aquifers.
"Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers," Mr Dunn was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question."
Mr Buckingham said the remarks were a "complete contradiction with what the industry has been saying for years".
"They've always said they could guarantee that they could protect aquifers from pollution from coal seam gas - that's now not the case," he said.
Eastern Star Gas has previously argued that water produced from coal seam drilling would come from an area below the Artesian Basin and would not be the same water used for irrigation and drinking.
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