A contaminated water spill ocurred at the Empire Energy Exploratory fracking site in late December with about 2000 litres pumped out of waste water storage onto vegetation, stressing that vegetation.

This contamination event, from just one exploratory fracking well, shows the risk a full blown production-scale fracking industry poses to the NT, its water resources, and environment. Fracking companies are likely to drill thousands of fracking wells across the NT if they are allowed to proceed.

Traditional Owners in the Beetaloo Basin say this is yet another example of fracking companies like Empire breaking the rules and causing damage to water and Country. They are concerned about risks of poisoned water if more fracking goes ahead. They urge Federal Labor to take action to protect water. 

This breach highlights the urgency of Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek appling the ‘Water Trigger’ in national environment laws to fracking projects in the Northern Territory.

Action: Send an email to Federal Labor to Urgently apply the water trigger to Beetaloo fracking.

The contamination spill comes after the  Independent Expert Scientific Committee’s (IESC) advice on the potential impacts on water resources from shale gas exploration in the Beetaloo Basin was published right before christmas on 20th December.

This advice indicates there is a clear case for calling in Tamboran and Empire Energy’s shale gas exploration projects under Federal Environment law. But don’t just read the summary which glosses over many of the issues.

This scientific assessment was very general in nature on exploratory fracking and considered impacts and risks from industry best practice, but did not investigate the specific practices being employed by Empire Energy and Tamboran Resources at these sites.

It highlighted substantial knowledge gaps and recommended the need for project specific assessments.

It specifies that ‘there remains a need for site- and project-specific investigations’. That is, it needs Environment Minster Tanya Plibersek to apply the Water Trigger to these projects while site and project specific investigations into hydrology and hydrogeology impacts can be adequately done.

Here are five issues raised by the Independent Expert Scientific Committee report:

1. The IESC identified major knowledge gaps which limited their assessment.
   
   The IESC did not actually assess any specific information on current and proposed fracking exploration and appraisal projects in the NT.  They state that: 
   
   Page 5 – The following advice is a high-level, independent, scientific assessment of the risks of potential impacts on the Basin’s water resources from activities associated with exploration and appraisal for unconventional gas and does not address any specific current or proposed projects.
   
   Page 4 – Information is needed on where, how much and when exploration and appraisal activities are likely to occur, and their proximity to surface and subterranean water resources in the Basin. Detailed information is also needed on treatment, transport and disposal of flowback wastewaters.
   
2. The IESC concluded that there are major gaps in knowledge that affected their ability to provide advice.
   
   Page 4 – Material gaps remain in the current scientific understanding of the hydrology, hydrogeology and other aspects of the Beetaloo Basin that affected the IESC’s ability to provide advice on potential impacts, impact pathways and risks associated with exploration and appraisal activities. These include:

• geological and hydrogeological characterisation of the aquitards and aquifers, including their inter-connectivity;
• spatial and temporal dynamics of runoff, surface water flows, groundwater recharge and surface water-groundwater connections and how these affect water resources;
• adequate baseline groundwater and surface water quality data; and
• species composition, distribution, groundwater-dependence and condition of subterranean, aquatic and terrestrial GDEs.

3. Even with these constraints, they identify a number of high likelihood/high consequence risks from potential exploration and appraisal fracking projects .
   
   The IESC prepared “impact pathway diagrams” (IPDs) sketching potential impacts and estimating their likelihood and consequences (ie see page 11).  For the southern basin, this identified a number of high likelihood/high consequence risks including to aquatic groundwater dependent ecosystems and to permanent/semi-permanent refugial pools like Longreach waterhole.

4. Many of the risks they identify are risks that have been concerns of Territorians for a long time.  
   
   Page 2 – The IESC considers that the key potential impacts from these activities are loss and fragmentation of native vegetation and altered surface runoff (mainly from constructing access roads to well pads), and groundwater drawdown caused by wells supplying groundwater for use in hydraulic fracturing. Impacts may also arise from accidental spills of chemicals or flowback wastewaters, failure of well integrity and the spread of invasive species.

5. They rely on the application of ‘industry best practice’ (p2) and ‘mitigation strategies being adopted and correctly implemented’ (p2), but do not define that and fail to address whether that is occurring in the NT.  
   
   On page 9, they state that “The Impact Pathway Diagrams assume that the impact pathways portrayed reflect ‘best available practice’ in the mitigation, monitoring and management of potential impacts, but the IESC acknowledges that sometimes these may fail such as during extreme weather events or as a result of human error.On page 11 they state that “For this advice, the IESC assumed that wastewater will not be discharged into local waterways or stored in open ponds but will be transported off site by road”. 
   
   However, wastewater IS stored in open ponds in the fracking exploration and appraisal projects in the NT.

Action: Send an email to Federal Labor to Urgently apply the water trigger to Beetaloo fracking.

References

IESC, 19 December, 2024, Advice on unconventional gas, IESC 2024-150: Beetaloo Basin – Unconventional gas exploration and appraisal https://www.iesc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-12/iesc-advice-beetaloo-basin-2024-150.pdf

Lock the Gate Media release on the Independent Scientific Expert Committee report, 20 December 2024, Scientific Committee’s Beetaloo shale gas advice raises more questions than it answers: project-scale assessment is urgently needed https://www.lockthegate.org.au/scientific_committee_s_beetaloo_shale_gas_advice_raises_more_questions_than_it_answers_project_scale_assessment_is_urgently_needed

ABC News, 15 January, 2025, Contaminated water pumped onto vegetation at Beetaloo Basin fracking site https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-15/nt-beetaloo-basin-incident-experts-concerned/104816526

Lock the Gate, 14 January 2025, Exploration fracking in the Northern Territory causes Christmas contamination https://www.lockthegate.org.au/exploration_fracking_in_the_northern_territory_causes_christmas_contamination

National Indigenous Times, 14 January 2025, Beetaloo Basin Traditional Owners urge federal action after spill https://nit.com.au/14-01-2025/15754/beetaloo-basin-traditional-owners-urge-federal-action-after-spill

Lock the Gate Action: Federal Labor: Urgently apply the water trigger to Beetaloo fracking https://www.lockthegate.org.au/beetaloo