Lock the Gate Alliance has criticised the Albanese Government for failing to properly scrutinise American oil and gas company Black Mountain’s Valhalla Kimberley fracking project.
Today, the government determined the 20-frack well project would be subject to limited assessment under Federal environment laws, noting it would impact four matters of national significance including water and threatened species. This is the first time that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has applied the ‘water trigger’ to a fracking project after law changes made at the end of 2023.
However, the company will not be required to submit an Environmental Impact Statement, with the government set to rely instead on “preliminary documentation” supplied by Black Mountain.
Black Mountain has already come under fire for failing to supply correct information to the Federal Government over its Valhalla Project. Last year, it resubmitted the project after initially only including six wells, instead of the true 20 well plan, and supplied two different threatened species surveys containing different information.
If approved, “Valhalla” would be built in the heart of the Martuwarra-Fitzroy River region in known bilby habitat.
Each of the 20 frackwells would be drilled three to five kilometres in length, and would be fracked up to 70 times. This would require up to two billion litres of groundwater.
This water would be mixed with a toxic cocktail of chemicals and sand, and plunged deep underground, stimulating rock to release the gas, in turn creating more than 1.1 billion litres of wastewater which would be stored in open air ponds.
Lock the Gate Alliance Western Australia spokesperson Claire McKinnon said, “Black Mountain’s Valhalla fracking project threatens water and wildlife in this part of the Kimberley. It is appalling that the Albanese Government has failed to submit this project to the highest possible level of scrutiny. Thousands of West Australians called for this project to be subjected to full federal assessment, yet this plea has been ignored.
“Black Mountain has already made a series of mistakes and bizarre announcements in Australia. The company has been fined for greenwashing, it delisted from the ASX because it couldn't find enough Australian investors, and suggested its project could be used to power remote crypto mining data centres.
“Black Mountain’s website makes it clear this company wants to expand to full production, meaning it would need to drill and frack many hundreds of wells across its tenements in the heart of the Martuwarra-Fitzroy River catchment. This would irreparably transform the beautiful Kimberley region into a pockmarked moonscape similar to the West Texas oil fields.
“The water and nature of the Kimberley is too precious to put at risk just so a billionaire backed American fracking company can experiment with a risky and fundamentally absurd fossil fuel extraction technique. These 20 wells would produce nearly 1.3 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gases, roughly equal to the yearly average emissions from 282,600 Australian cars.”
ENDS