The Environmental Protection Act Amendment Bill 2024 introduced into WA Parliament today will compromise the independence of the Environment Protection Authority and exacerbate WA’s climate and nature crises.

“The Premier’s assertion that reforms are needed due to ‘green tape strangling development’ is disingenuous in the extreme. Delays have come about due to the lack of resources and staff in the EPA and the WA government should take responsibility for that.”

“This is the darkest day in the 50 year history of environmental laws in WA,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard. 

“Increasing the EPA Board from 5 to 9 to stack it with mining, oil and gas and property development interests does not pass the pub test; we need environmentally-focused people whose primary interest is protecting the environment, not facilitating its destruction.”

“We understand that the government will also issue the EPA with what it calls ‘Statements of Expectation’, effectively directing the EPA to follow the government's priorities. This undermines the independence of our most important environment watchdog.” 

“Removing the community’s right to appeal an EPA decision not to assess a project is a retrograde, anti-democratic step to appease industry and only benefits big business.”

The government’s changes will effectively strip the EPA of its independence at a time when we need to strengthen WA’s nature laws to defend nature and the places we love because of the unfolding climate change and extinction crisis.

“The Environmental Protection Act Amendment Bill 2024 is the Cook Labor government caving in to the mining, oil and gas and real estate industries instead of looking after WA’s nature which has a spiralling number of threatened species getting closer to extinction.”

Places like the Kimberley’s National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River and animals like threatened Bilbys, threatened turtles and whales, and the critically endangered Freshwater Sawfish are already at severe risk of extinction and need more protection, not less.

“We need a stronger EPA and environment laws. What is currently being proposed is exactly what Liberal Premier Colin Barnett wanted and we can’t believe the Labor Government is willing to gut our environmental laws to fast track damaging projects which will supercharge the multiple environmental crises we are facing.”

Kimberley fracking proposal referred to Commonwealth: Minister Plibersek must assess

Global tourism destination and nature and cultural icon, the Kimberley, is now in the sights of US oil and gas company Black Mountain Oil and Gas owned by Texan billionaire Rhett Bennett.

The company, via subsidiary Bennett Resources Ltd, has just referred a proposal for 6 frack wells to the Federal Environment Minister for a decision on whether a full Commonwealth assessment under the EPBC Act is required. The full proposal, currently under assessment by the WA EPA, is actually a 20 well fracking project.

Ultimately, if fracking is approved, Black Mountain will require a 1,100km gas pipeline to Pilbara LNG facilities for export which would potentially lead to thousands of oil and gas fracking wells across the Kimberley leading to global scale carbon emissions.

Martuwarra Fitzroy River (Pic: Damian Kelly)

The Minister’s decision on whether an EPBC assessment is required for the ‘Valhalla Project’ is open for public submissions for ten days.

“This proposal to open a new fracking province in the Kimberley, akin to the gas fields of Texas, is shocking to most Australians. The Albanese government has the obligation here, following a rigorous assessment, to reject the fracking proposal and protect one of the world’s last, large intact landscapes from a horrific future of industrialisation on a massive scale, said Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard. 

The ‘Valhalla’ proposal would clear habitat of the Greater Bilby which is listed as threatened under the EPBC Act. The fracking would require 100 million litres of groundwater per well leading to huge volumes of wastewater in the catchment of the National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River. Two wells that have previously been fracked by Mitsubishi and Buru Energy on the same petroleum lease contained radioactive material in the wastewater.

The drilling and fracking is also in an area with complex underground geology and the region's groundwater aquifers are poorly understood.

“Ïf the Commonwealth is going to take its responsibilities seriously it needs to fully assess this proposal under the EPBC Act. We’re calling on the Minister Tanya Pilbersek to invoke the new water trigger law on this and make sure that Kimberley waterways, springs and groundwater are protected from fracking,” said Mr Pritchard.

Serious questions are being asked about the referred proposal including why the company has submitted a different proposal to the one under assessment by WA EPA with twenty frack wells.

““This company has been fined by ASIC for greenwashing and now they're referring to the Commonwealth a different project to what’s in front of the WA EPA - we’re calling on the highest level of scrutiny to be applied to this.”

Broome protest (Pic: Environs Kimberley)

Environs Kimberley was central to the successful campaign to protect the Kimberley coast from Woodside’s plans for gas refineries at James Price Point a decade ago. The eight-year campaign which gained international prominence led to Woodside and its joint venture partners abandoning the $80 billion project.

“We don’t want to see another James Price Point scenario”.

“This international nature tourism destination is known for its stunning landscapes, intact nature and Aboriginal culture. The $600 million tourism industry is dependent on the unspoilt scenery of places like the National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River Valley and is currently being looked at for World Heritage listing after a commitment from Labor at the last election.” 

Sign the petition to ban fracking in the Kimberley here.

The WA Government has quietly approved a groundwater extraction licence that would allow an overseas-based fracking company to take 100 million litres of groundwater each year.

While the state’s water department (DWER) approved Black Mountain Energy’s water licence on May 2, no public statement was issued, and the only way to find evidence of the licence’s approval is by searching the company’s Australian subsidiary, Bennett Resources, on the WA Government’s Water Register website.

The licence gives Black Mountain permission to access the groundwater for “the maintenance of unconventional gas wells, dust suppression, mining camp purposes, stock watering and rehabilitation purposes”.

However, the company’s “Valhalla” exploratory gas fracking project is still undergoing environmental assessment, and a public consultation process still needs to be conducted.

Dead duck in Buru Energy wastewater pond

If Valhalla is approved, Black Mountain would drill 20 exploration wells between 2 km and 4 km deep and hydraulically fracture them in up to 70 stages each. It would also require an additional two billion litres of groundwater.

Valhalla is also only an exploration project. Black Mountain’s website makes it clear the company wishes to expand to full scale production. If this occurs, it would require the drilling and fracking of many hundreds of wells. An export-scale project would also require a 1100km high-pressure gas pipeline to the Pilbara, processing facilities, pumping stations, flare stacks, and heavy-vehicle access roads. 

Mount Hardman Creek where Black Mountain oil and gas wants to drill and frack

Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard said, “If Black Mountain goes into full production with hundreds of wells, the volume of precious groundwater required would be unimaginable.

“This incremental threat of enormous levels of precious groundwater extraction shows why fracking must not be allowed to take-off in the Kimberley. 

“Fracking uses toxic chemicals that can pollute our clean water here in the Kimberley, why would we risk that?”

“Giving Black Mountain’s Valhalla Project the go ahead risks opening up the Kimberley to full-scale industrialisation by petroleum companies eager to get at the unconventional gas within the Canning Basin. This would ignite a carbon bomb, at a time when increasingly severe heat waves caused by the burning of fossil fuels and resulting climate change is putting the Kimberley at risk of becoming unliveable.”

Overflow at Buru Energy wastewater pond in the Kimberley

Read local media's reporting on the approval here.

As Woodside seeks approval to develop the Browse offshore gas field near Broome, documents obtained by Greenpeace under FOI have revealed that the tourist hotspot was subject to “unbearable” aircraft noise during the last wave of offshore construction.

During the construction phases of the Prelude and Ichthys offshore facilities, a helicopter arrived or departed approximately every twenty minutes during the peak of the activity, with military-style choppers frequently operating outside curfew hours, even on public holidays.

If Woodside’s Browse facility gets approval, Broome can expect far worse.

“Not only is Woodside’s Browse a disaster for our climate and for WA nature, but it will create absolute helicopter hell for residents in Broome,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard.

“This is just one more reason why Woodside’s Browse project can’t be allowed to go ahead. We need federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to protect our beautiful Kimberley coast and Broome’s multi-million dollar tourism industry, and to stop Woodside in its tracks.”

Proprietor of the Broome Hire Centre and local tourism operator Don Bacon said Woodside’s helicopters were too damaging for tourism: “Tourists come to Broome for the relaxed holiday feel - why would they holiday here if they are going to be assaulted by a pre-dawn chorus of military style helicopters? This can’t be allowed to happen. The town’s main industry is tourism; industrial noise is not compatible with a thriving visitor economy here. We want Broome to be Broome, not to turn it into Karratha!”

BACKGROUND:

In July 2017, the Prelude FLNG arrived in WA waters, some 475 kms north of Broome. Eighteen months later, on Boxing Day 2018, it became operational. Inpex also started producing at the neighboring Ichthys facility that year.

Construction and mining workers at both of these offshore facilities need to travel there by helicopter from Broome. The initial stages of setting up these facilities are particularly labour intensive and require large numbers of helicopter movements.

“As the offshore facilities are progressively hooked-up and commissioned, the number of workers and vessels required offshore will gradually reduce,” Inpex wrote at the time. “This transition will also see an aligned reduction in the number of helicopter flights operating out of Broome.”

Over those two years, noise complaints in Broome went through the roof. Airservices Australia data, released exclusively to Greenpeace Australia Pacific, show a tenfold increase in complaints from Broome in 2017-18 compared with other years.

It is little wonder that this happened. Helicopter traffic regularly peaked at over 1000 flights per month in that period. That’s 33 per day, and if all those flights had been crammed into daylight hours, it equals one flight almost every 20 minutes. Unfortunately, much of the traffic occurred at night or early in the morning, making the noise particularly disruptive, according to complaints.

No other time has come close to matching this. Throughout much of the period, starting in June 2017, when PHI began flying its helicopters out of Broome, helicopter flights made up a third of all traffic at Broome airport.

The helicopters used are twin-engined models that are significantly larger than joyflight tourist helicopters also seen in Broome.

Greenpeace has obtained copies of complaints made in Broome during the construction period. Highlighting the extent of the issue, the complaints included the following statements:

• “It's 6 am on Saturday morning and I have been awake since about 5am this morning due to the continuous loud helicopter noise, which has also woken my small children.”
• “These aircraft fly over early every morning and then fly in and out all day.”
• “Helicopter noise from Broome airport is so loud it woke me up. It drones on and on, before sunrise, in the day and now after 11pm at night. Can't sleep at night, can't sleep in in the mornings, can't concentrate in the day with these incessant periodic noise events. Health hazard.”
• “I have had tourists telling me they won't be coming back to Broome next year if this is how it is going to be, too bloody noisy.”
• "Sick to death of living in what feels and sounds [like] a war zone."
• “The impact of these helicopters is immense and it's really unbearable to hear those blades over your house. I contacted these cowboys and the airport in the past but now they don't take my calls anymore.”
•  “The helicopters are using my place as a navigational point. They should be flying somewhere else instead of right over my house.”
•  “The airport is very close into the Broome township. The helicopters make unacceptable noise levels near residential areas. When is the helicopter base going to be moved?”
• “Why do the helicopters sound like they are just driving up and down for an hour, its very noisy and if its not at 7-9pm its 5.45am-6.45am its very annoying and being a shift worker either end is hard to sleep. I cant wear and shouldn't have to wear earplugs.”
• “Would like to lodge a complaint for helicopter noise last twenty minutes or so, just sitting there on the runway, also excessive noise from helicopters early in the mornings taking off and returning as well as training ones on Friday nights.”

If Woodside’s Browse facility gets approval, Broome can expect far worse.

Woodside’s proposed project will dwarf what is already in place in terms of both scale and complexity - and that will mean a sharp rise in helicopter traffic.

“The complexities of projects like Browse are myriad,” the AFR has reported, “and they stretch way beyond the technical, geological and geographic.”

Woodside’s Browse operation is massively bigger than what is already in place, and will triple local production. At 11.4 million tonnes per annum, Woodside’s Browse operation is more than double the combined capacities of Prelude and Ichthys (3.6 MTPA and 1.6 MTPA).

Woodside’s project will exist in waters as deep as 700 metres, more than twice as deep as the 250 metre waters where the existing projects operate.

This will all, of course, also require a workforce that is significantly greater than was previously used.

The airport says 45,000 per year are already transported by helicopter to work on oil and gas facilities.

Unfortunately for residents, tourists and tourism operators in Broome, the approval of Woodside’s project will mean many more helicopters - in the short term, and in the long run.

WA Premier Roger Cook’s proposed changes to the EPA would slash environmental protections that the West Australian community has spent over 50 years fighting for, according to Broome based conservation group Environs Kimberley.

“These changes would slash environmental protection for iconic places like the Kimberley at a time when its recognised we are in a nature survival crisis and there has been no consultation with conservation groups,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard.

The proposed changes include stacking the EPA Board with more industry representatives, getting private consultants to rush through decisions and the removal of the public’s right to appeal decisions on the environment.

“This is straight out of the fossil fuel industry’s playbook, they’ve been trying to weaken our environmental laws for decades. It’s an effective privatisation of what is supposed to be an independent advisor to government on WA’s globally significant environment,” Mr Pritchard said.

“The Premier’s assertion that reforms are needed due to ‘green tape strangling development’ are disingenuous. Delays have come about due to the lack of resources and staff in the EPA and the WA government should take responsibility for that.”

“We’re calling for public consultation on any proposed reforms and that a primary emphasis be put on protecting the environment not rushing damaging developments through.”

“We need a stronger EPA and environment laws. What is currently being proposed is exactly what Liberal Premier Colin Barnett wanted and we can’t believe the Labor Government is willing to gut our environmental laws to fast track damaging projects.”