The coal seam gas industry faces an uphill battle to overturn Victoria's fracking moratorium, with the influential Victorian Farmers Federation urging a five-year extension.
A CSG industry representative was asked before a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday if CSG exploration and fracking had lost community support across rural Victoria.
"I'd say there is a groundswell of support in the manufacturing sector," replied Paul Fennelly, Eastern Australia CEO of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.
He said 5000 Queensland farmers were now benefiting from the industry, that it expected and met the highest of environmental standards, and a model could be developed to work with the dairy industry.
"We don't damage the aquifers," Mr Fennelly also said.
The VFF told the inquiry the jury was still out on environmental impacts and the state's moratorium should be extended to allow further scientific study.
Farmers are worried about lost productivity and industry having the "upper hand" on land access.
A survey of VFF's membership showed 74 per cent support for a moratorium continuing to 2020.
"That's our best estimate of the time it would take to determine whether the unconventional gas industry can be safely carried out," VFF land management chair Gerald Leach said.
RMIT hydro-geologist Dr Matthew Currell said the long-term impact on aquifers was not well understood but contaminated water flowing from CSG wells was a more immediate problem.
This water was typically salty, contained heavy metals, and in the US up to 10 per cent of wells had at least one reported waste water spill.
"Water that sits for thousands of years in contact with coal is pretty poor quality ... it is generally not fit to go onto a farm," Dr Currell told the inquiry.
"I think the VFF's proposition of a five-year extension is reasonable," he said.
The moratorium, introduced in 2012 by the former Coalition government, was due to expire mid-2015.
Labor pledged an inquiry before any change and it continues.
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