If fracking begins in the Kimberley, it could damage a sacred river |
Under the soils of the Kimberley lies one of the world’s last undeveloped large-scale reservoirs of onshore gas, according to the gas company hoping to extract it.
Last month, the Western Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended approval for Bennett Resources, a subsidiary of Black Mountain Energy, to begin exploration by drilling 20 wells across ten sites near the Kimberley’s Martuwarra Fitzroy River and applying hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
If officially approved and results are favourable, exploration is likely just the start. The company – majority-owned by US oil and gas company Black Mountain – wants to begin full-scale production to extract an estimated 420 billion cubic metres of gas. Doing so would require hundreds or thousands of wells drilled into many aquifers, with connecting roads, gas processing plants, wastewater ponds, water treatment plants, compressor stations and new pipelines.
For the mining-friendly WA government, the economic benefits would appeal. But the EPA’s recommendation has triggered an immediate backlash from Aboriginal and environmental groups. The Office of Appeals Commissioner reports an unprecedented number of appeals have been lodged before the February 10 deadline.
As health and Indigenous knowledge experts, we have real concern about these plans. We now know much more about the harms fracking can do to the health of humans, wildlife, groundwater and rivers.
Black Mountain Energy has exploration rights over a 3,700 square kilometre area in the Canning Basin between Fitzroy Crossing and Derby. The exploration wells would be drilled west of Fitzroy Crossing.........