{"id":485310,"date":"2026-06-10T07:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485310\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T07:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:43:11","slug":"concerns-over-us-companys-gas-fracking-plan-for-worlds-most-intact-tropical-savanna-in-wa-revealed-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485310\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns over US company\u2019s gas fracking plan for world\u2019s most intact tropical savanna in WA revealed | Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government has repeatedly raised concerns about an American company\u2019s bid to frack for gas in Western Australia\u2019s Kimberley region, part of the world\u2019s largest and most intact tropical savanna.<\/p>\n

Texas-based Black Mountain Energy<\/a>, through its subsidiary Bennett Resources, is seeking federal approval to drill 20 gas wells for its Valhalla project west of Fitzroy Crossing.<\/p>\n

The site is located near a creek that flows into the national heritage-listed Fitzroy River, potentially opening WA\u2019s Fitzroy valley landscape to fracking and affecting the region\u2019s endangered species.<\/p>\n

While WA\u2019s Environmental Protection Authority has recommended approval of the development under state laws, documents<\/a> released through freedom of information show the federal environment department has repeatedly raised concerns about the standard of the company\u2019s environmental assessments.<\/p>\n

The department warned the company it had not provided enough information about water resources and ecosystems that could be harmed by its gas drilling plans.<\/p>\n

Correspondence shows federal officials told Black Mountain Energy on multiple occasions last year that it had not done enough work to identify the region\u2019s surface water and groundwater resources and \u201ccharacterise\u201d ecosystems in the area that relied on groundwater for survival.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials wrote this prevented them from being able to fully assess the impacts fracking could have on the region\u2019s environment and vulnerable species, including the critically endangered northern blue-tongued skink and the endangered largetooth sawfish, which has an important nursery area in the Fitzroy River.<\/p>\n

The company was also instructed to consult with additional traditional owner groups with cultural and spiritual connections to the Fitzroy River.<\/p>\n

The department wrote that despite Black Mountain arguing there would be no impact on the Fitzroy River, there was \u201cinsufficient evidence\u201d that was the case. Officials said the company therefore needed to \u201cdemonstrate assessment of all impact pathways associated with the Rainbow Serpent Tradition Values\u201d.<\/p>\n

Conservation group Environs Kimberley, which applied for the documents, wrote to the federal environment minister, Murray Watt, last week to request he use his powers under national nature laws to terminate the project.<\/p>\n

Kimberley residents gather at Willare Bridge over the Martuwarra Fitzroy River to call on WA premier Roger Cook to ban fracking in the region. Photograph: Damian Kelly\/Environs Kimberley<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve called on him to essentially scrap the assessment because the company has clearly not done what the department has requested in terms of providing information,\u201d Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had long enough to undertake this work. They appear to be not wanting to do it and without that work there\u2019s no way the commonwealth could make a decision on whether there would be significant impacts or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environment officials said in a document in January this year that they shared concerns raised by an independent expert scientific committee<\/a> that Black Mountain had not provided enough data to thoroughly assess the project. The IESC advises government on the potential impacts of gas projects on water resources under the federal water trigger.<\/p>\n

The committee found Black Mountain had conducted a \u201climited and disjointed assessment\u201d and reached \u201clargely unsupported\u201d conclusions regarding the project\u2019s potential impacts to surface water and groundwater resources and related groundwater dependent ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The department agreed there was \u201csubstantial uncertainty regarding hydrogeological and hydrological processes, surface water-groundwater interactions and presence of groundwater dependent ecosystems \u2026 which limits the ability to assess all potential impacts on water resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

Officials wrote that the lack of work by the developer to identify \u201csite specific\u201d groundwater dependent ecosystems, or investigate \u201csurface water groundwater connectivity\u201d in the area \u201cdoes not allow the department to accurately assess the impact pathways associated with the northern blue-tongued skink and the largetooth sawfish\u201d.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia asked the department and Black Mountain Energy whether the company has since provided the requested data and information.<\/p>\n

Pritchard said the potential for the project to harm both species and the broader Martuwarra Fitzroy River and Kimberley region was concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last place in the world that should be industrialised by the oil and gas fracking industry,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has the largest, most intact tropical savanna in the world and it\u2019s in the top 4% of the least impacted coastlines anywhere on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not many places like that left in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A department spokesperson said because the project was under active assessment, the government could not comment on specific details. But they said \u201cany project being assessed under the national environment law must pass a rigorous assessment of potential impacts on protected matters, prior to approval\u201d.<\/p>\n

The project is being assessed for impacts on water resources, threatened species and the national heritage values of the West Kimberley. As part of the process, the developer would be required to publish its documentation for public comment and demonstrate how they have addressed the department\u2019s feedback.<\/p>\n

Comment was sought from Black Mountain Energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government has repeatedly raised concerns about an American company\u2019s bid to frack for gas in Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-485310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}