A decision not to prosecute a Beetaloo Basin oil and gas company for an alleged breach of environmental laws sets a low standard for the Northern Territory’s environmental protections, according to a legal expert in the field.<\/p>\n
Imperial Oil and Gas was found to have breached its Environment Management Plan (EMP) by drilling in the Beetaloo Basin in 2022, according to a report approved by the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment (DLPE) in April this year.<\/p>\n
The DLPE found the company drilled the fracking well \u2014 dubbed Carpentaria-3H \u2014 without constructing an underground barrier between two major aquifers below, as required by its EMP.<\/p>\n
Imperial is a subsidiary of Empire Energy, which changed its name to Beetaloo Energy this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Beetaloo Basin has attracted a number of companies looking to mine natural gas in the NT. (ABC News: Jane Bardon)<\/p>\n
The ABC has seen documents released to anti-fracking group Lock the Gate, under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, which state the DLPE elected not to prosecute the company \u2014 instead, the government department sent a letter “intended [to] encourage behaviour change”.<\/p>\n
That was despite the DLPE report claiming Imperial had a “history of non-compliance”, “uncertain” risk of aquifer interaction, and an acknowledgement Empire may have benefited from the non-compliance.<\/p>\n
The department said it asked Imperial to alter its EMP in 2021, to reflect the detection of an aquifer \u2014 called Anthony Lagoon \u2014 near another aquifer, called Gum Ridge, below the well site.<\/p>\n
But Imperial declined the alter the plan, and told the department “the aquifers will be isolated as already required by the EMP”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The ABC has seen documents released to anti-fracking group Lock the Gate. (ABC News: Michael Donnelly)<\/p>\n
In late 2022, after drilling at Carpentaria-3H had begun, the DLPE said it discovered “Imperial had not isolated the Anthony Lagoon and Gum Ridge aquifers from each other”.<\/p>\n
The DLPE said the Department of Mining and Energy (DME) “took action to ensure it does not happen again” and “prosecution was considered disproportionate” to the alleged offending.<\/p>\n
“Prosecution was considered disproportionate to the actions taken by [the Department of Mining and Energy],” the DLPE said in its report.<\/p>\n
“The cost of remedial actions to comply with DME requirements is considered a sufficient deterrent.”<\/p>\n
However, the environment department’s report also noted “any remedial actions could compromise” the integrity of fracking wells in the NT.<\/p>\n
Company denies wrongdoing<\/p>\n
In a statement responding to the DLPE findings, Beetaloo Energy chief executive Alex Underwood said “there was no incident”.<\/p>\n
He said the report “was not previously seen by the company” and alleged it “contains numerous inaccurate and misleading statements”.<\/p>\n
NT Mining and Energy Minister Gerard Maley agreed with the company’s view.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gerard Maley says Imperial did not breach the law. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n
“There was no incident or non-compliance at the Carpentaria-3H well, under the regulatory responsibilities administered by the DME,” he said.<\/p>\n
Imperial only needed to separate the aquifers if they were not already connected, according to the minister.<\/p>\n
“Imperial had its own scientific evidence that indicated the Anthony Lagoon and Gum Ridge aquifers were in communication, plus publicly available scientific evidence from CSIRO publications on the area,” Mr Maley said.<\/p>\n
However, a 2021 report from the DLPE’s Water Resources Division said “the evidence to date on the degree of connectivity between the two aquifers is inconclusive”.<\/p>\n
What happens if aquifers connect?<\/p>\n
A study looking to determine connectivity between aquifers in the eastern Beetaloo Sub-Basin \u2014 including Anthony Lagoon and Gum Ridge \u2014 is underway, with the CSIRO due to deliver its findings next year.<\/p>\n
Pete Callender from Lock the Gate said it was incredibly important for any aquifers to remain separate if they were not already connected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pete Callender says Lock the Gate is worried about the potential for groundwater wells to be linked due to fracking activity. (Supplied: Frack Free NT)<\/p>\n
“Some of our aquifers are for example hypersaline, some contain heavy metals, toxins,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If they were to be connected to a freshwater aquifer, then that material could get in.”<\/p>\n
In its report earlier this year, the DLPE said “consequences from aquifer connectivity and interaction are uncertain”.<\/p>\n
Elaine Johnson, director of environmental law firm Johnson Legal, said if the DLPE was correct in its finding that Imperial breached its EMP, the company had broken the law.<\/p>\n
“It’s a legal requirement to comply with the terms of the Environment Management Plan,” she said.Claims company let ‘off the hook’<\/p>\n
NT Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Josh Burgoyne said the allegations raised in his department’s report had been “dealt with” by the previous Labor government, before the Country Liberal Party was elected late last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Josh Burgoyne says Imperial was dealt with by the DME. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)<\/p>\n
“Our department is now working to ensure that anything that happens now, and into the future, is obviously dealt with and all the processes are followed,” he said.<\/p>\n
But Ms Johnson said the NT’s environmental laws were weakened by successive governments choosing not to enforce them.<\/p>\n
“It’s essentially letting the company off the hook, so that when it goes to apply for a new licence or approval, its past non-compliance behaviour is not taken into account,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What that means is we set up an expectation with industry, that the requirements and rules to ensure environmental protections are not really going to be enforced \u2014 and in fact, we’ll turn a blind eye when you come back to us for a new approval.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Elaine Johnson says without proper enforcement, NT environmental protections could be weakened. (Supplied: Johnson Legal)<\/p>\n
In January, Beetaloo Energy disclosed a spill of contaminated water at its Carpentaria-1 well<\/a>, and last year it was investigated by the federal government for alleged misuse of a research grant<\/a>.<\/p>\n But regarding the allegations concerning aquifer separation below Carpentaria-3H, the company’s chief executive maintained drilling at the site had caused “no environmental harm or impact”.<\/p>\n “Beetaloo Energy has demonstrated our commitment to sustainable operations, transparency and accountability in the 12 years we have been active in the Beetaloo Basin,” Mr Underwood said.<\/p>\n “We continue to take those commitments very seriously.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decision not to prosecute a Beetaloo Basin oil and gas company for an alleged breach of environmental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[125075,125065,125079,125068,125073,125071,125083,47573,125060,125077,24487,106458,125072,192,125061,85261,125067,125069,125082,125070,125076,125066,125062,125063,125074,125081,5474,125080,125078,20820,61114,125064,1728,79],"class_list":["post-222649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-anthony-lagoon","tag-beetaloo","tag-beetaloo-compliance","tag-beetaloo-drilling","tag-beetaloo-energy","tag-carpentaria-3h","tag-commonwealth-scientific-and-industrial-research-organisation","tag-csiro","tag-department-of-lands-planning-and-environment","tag-department-of-mining-and-energy","tag-drill","tag-drilling","tag-empire-energy","tag-environment","tag-environmental-department","tag-environmental-laws","tag-environmental-management-plan","tag-fracking","tag-fracking-compliance","tag-fracking-well","tag-gum-ridge","tag-imperial-oil-and-gas","tag-law-breach","tag-laws-broken","tag-lock-the-gate","tag-mine-compliance","tag-mining","tag-mining-compliance","tag-mining-law-breach","tag-nt","tag-nt-government","tag-pamayu","tag-research","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}