Greens Member of Parliament, Robin Chapple MLC, said he is absolutely astounded at the Environment Minister Albert Jacob’s refusal to assess a proposal to undertake tests for tight gas flows using hydraulic fracturing or fracking in the Kimberley.
“In refusing my appeal against the decision not to assess the Laurel Formation Tight Gas Pilot Exploration Program in the Kimberley Region, the Minister has claimed this small scale project would be used to ‘inform the environmental impact assessment of proposals progressing to commercial scale production, including the likely cumulative impacts from foreseeable future projects’.
‘This sounds to me like the Environment Minster has already given his own personal go ahead on all future fracking projects and calls into question his credibility as the WA Environment Minister and the EPA appeals process,’ said Mr Chapple.
“Plenty of studies have shown there are major environmental and health issues associated with fracking and the public are against it.
“I cannot fathom how the Environment Minister is not concerned about the contamination of groundwater and surface water, and the impacts on air quality and biodiversity for the people in the Kimberley Region.
“The Minister claims in his decision not to assess, ‘he considered the values of the environment and the extent of likely impacts’ and has confidence in the Department of Mines (DMP) to evaluate, regulate and mitigate future fracking projects.
“I am left speechless! This leaves the DMP in charge of the whole process where environmental conditions are commercially in-confidence, lacking any transparency.
The Greens oppose fracking in the Kimberley given its potential to harm the environment, water sources, community and cultural values of the region, Mr Chapple said.
The Minister advised a total of 48 appeals were investigated by the Appeals Convener, all of which were rejected.
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
The fracking industry is hiding behind commercial-in-confidence laws and may be breaching environmental regulations, according to Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple MLC.
Mr Chapple said he was particularly concerned about contaminated water leaks from lined dams at several of Buru Energy Limited’s Yulleroo wells in February this year, but had been unable to gain access to the relevant environmental information from the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
“I’m absolutely astounded by the lack of transparency here,” he said.
“To the best of my knowledge, it’s the first time in history that environmental regulations have been commercial-in-confidence.
“We don’t know the environmental requirements of Buru Energy with regards to this site, nor are we allowed to access them so how can we possibly hold them accountable for any environmental breaches that may or may not have happened.
“The Fracking industry is being managed by a set of rules and regulations without public oversight.”
Mr Chapple said the Department of Mines and Petroleum had refused to acknowledge the leakages in February this year despite him having provided photographic evidence.
“They don’t want to have to deal with this issue,” he said.
“Modifications to the Yulleroo wells were made in May last year after a similar overtopping incident occurred.
“These modifications were supposed to prevent any further leakages; they haven’t.
“The DMP haven’t even inspected the site nor have they notified the Environmental Protection Authority or the Department of Environmental Regulation.
Mr Chapple said it was even more alarming that the Department of Water weren’t notified of any water leakages from Buru’s Yulleroo sites as, according to the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967, jurisdiction for this matter remained solely with the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
In response to questions in parliament a spokesperson for the Minister for Environment stated the Buru proposal was a small scale, “proof of concept” project unlikely to have a significant effect on the environment and would therefore be handled by the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The federal government’s decision to rule out cuts to the diesel fuel rebate in the upcoming federal budget is a disincentive for miners to alter bad practices, according to Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple MLC.
Mr Chapple says the presence of diesel particulates is extremely detrimental to the health of miners working underground.
“Underground miners are already subject to a plethora of risks,” he said.
“The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has publicised recently through the World Health Organisation (WHO) that miners exposed to diesel fumes are found to have a significantly increased risk of death from lung cancer.
“Furthermore, a recent study in Resources Safety Matters vol. 2 no. 1 January 2014 of 29 goldfields mines found that diesel particulate exposure at 10 of these sites exceeded the accepted standards.”
Mr Chapple said governments should be looking at ways to reduce the use of diesel as a primary fuel source in underground mining operations rather than maintaining its commercial viability.
“The diesel fuel rebate provides big miners with an incentive to keep using diesel – it’s essentially paying them to do it,” he said.
“We need to be doing the opposite. We need to incentivise big miners to transition towards better mining practices at least for the safety of their workers, if nothing else.”
Mr Chapple pointed out that there are other commercially viable technologies available for reducing diesel emissions in underground mines that are not being utilised.
“Underground electric monorails have been utilised to great effect in South Africa since the late 90s as a response to rising diesel prices,” he said.
“The study I mentioned earlier has also shown mine sites that committed to using diesel particulate filters on all underground machinery had the lowest exposure data across the board.
There appears to be no funding either in the state budget to progress the findings of their recent study or to deal with the health aspects of diesel emissions underground.
“We need to be pushing for the implementation of technologies such as these whilst simultaneously stripping back current fuel exemptions to this industry.”
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
