Stephen Robertson, Minister for Mines and Energy, has announced that he will attend discussions regarding water contamination concerns in the South Burnett region of Queensland.

The coal gasification operations of Cougar Energy were ordered to halt after carcinogenic trace elements were discovered in nearby water supplies.

The tests conducted by the DERM (Department of Environment and Resource Management) found that the drillings at Cougar Energy's Kingaroy operation had benzene and toluene trace elements, but no traces were discovered at other places as of yet.

Cougar Energy claimed that the previous week's findings were inaccurate, but spokesman from DERM said the issue was yet to be confirmed.

John Bradley, director general of DERM, said Cougar was taking too much time in presenting their findings.

The residents of the place were not informed until Thursday, and Mr. Bradley said a DERM official had been stood down last Friday for not acting quickly enough.

Mr. Robertson said in a statement that the test run this weekend showed that the contamination is not widespread and only affected small areas.

"The levels of benzene and toluene are localised to those bores on Cougar Energy's project," he stated.

"That is good news for the surrounding landholders around Kingaroy.

"Testing will continue to ensure that this remains localised importantly the exceedences on Cougar's site are way below Australian drinking water guidelines.

"Whilst we are pleased with the results achieved over the weekend, the testing doesn't stop there.

"As we go through a longer term testing that will inform us as to what is required in the weeks, months and possibly years, ahead."

David Carter, mayor of South Burnett, has said that Mr. Robertson must talk with the people living in the area.

"Something that should have happened right from the word go," he said.

"The community should have been informed and there should have been a process where the community could have had input into the approval of the project.

"Just being part of that information would probably alleviate a lot of peoples fears, so I think this can be the start of a process where people are fully informed."

Councillor Carter adds that it is vital for Mr. Robertson to hear the concerns of the residents personally.

"There's a lot of angst out in the community," he said.

"I'd want to see it as getting an information flow between the community and the Government and particularly the department and making sure that they understand what the community's concerns are and then actually act on them."