WA groundwater at risk by gas fracking

WA groundwater at risk by gas fracking

A LACK of legislation which would force mining companies to carry out stress surveys before fracking in WA is putting groundwater resources at risk, according to a leading petroleum researcher. 

“Constituents of fracking fluids are often considered ‘trade secrets’ and not revealed. Even regulators are left in the dark,” —Dr Lloyd-Smith. Image: iStock

Fracking or hydrofracking, is a controversial mining technique which involves blasting water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to increase the extraction rates and recovery of trapped pockets of gas (or oil).

The process has been banned or suspended in France and parts of the US, UK, Canada and South Africa after it was linked to falling water tables, groundwater pollution and local seismic events.

Prof Evans said the problems with fracking in the US and Queensland occurred because companies did not properly evaluate stress fields in those areas.

“They assumed that the overburden stress was greater than the horizontal stress,” Prof Evans said.

“What’s happened in that case is when the horizontal stress gets to a certain level it can cause the fractures to go vertically or horizontally depending on the stress direction.

“If the facture goes [vertical] you will then have contaminants entering into groundwater.

There is no legislation saying that companies have to do these stress field analyses,” Prof Evans says. “That is the problem.”

Fracking, is dangerous, destructive, and harmful to human health

All around the country people are finding that hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is dangerous, destructive, and harmful to human health. Contaminated water and harmful air pollution are just a few of the all-too-real side effects associated with unconventional oil and unconventional gas development.

Pregnant women, mothers, and their babies are at particular risk from toxic chemical exposures that can lead to infertility, miscarriage, impaired learning and intellectual development, birth defects, respiratory problems, heart disease, and cancer.

Fracking

ceh.org

CEH Report: Toxic & Dirty Secrets: The Truth about Fracking and Your Family's Health This week, CEH has released a report that clarifies how fracking can

Nothing is safe

The DMP is looking at giving out petroleum leases on the Peninsula –

 

L12-15 - http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/L12-15.pdf

L12-16 - http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/L12-16.pdf

This could lead to fracking for shale gas in the future with all its attendant problems.

Sheffield claims heavy mineral sands discovery at Dampier

Sheffield claims heavy mineral sands discovery at Dampier

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mineral sands exploration play Sheffield Resources (ASX:SFX) has claimed a new discovery has been identified by drilling at the company’s Dampier heavy mineral sand (HMS) project near Derby in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Labelled the Thunderbird discovery it was the first target to be drilled by Sheffield within the Dampier HMS project area.

Media Watch: Playing to your audience (03/06/2013)

Media Watch: Playing to your audience (03/06/2013)

Playing to your audience

They’re a famously bolshie lot, Fairfax’s reporters. As we noted three weeks ago, former business reporter Paddy Manning lost his job forhaving a spray in Crikey against his own bosses...especially at the Australian Financial Review...


The AFR’s business journalism is built on a fundamental contract between company and reporter: high-level access in exchange for soft coverage.

— Crikey, 8th April, 2013

Kimberley corals

Kimberley corals
Kimberley corals on the shoreline of Australia appear to have adapted to survive in higher temperatures and more extreme and turbid conditions than previously thought.

The coloring in this green coral actually comes from an algae living in a symbiotic relationship with the coral polyps. The algae is called zooxanthellae and while creating spectacularly beautiful colored patterns, also provides nutrient to the host coral through a process of photosynthesis and the absorption of excess CO2 from the ocean waters.

Australia: Buru Energy reaches agreement for operations to recommence at Ungani

Australia: Buru Energy reaches agreement for operations to recommence at Ungani

Buru Energy has announced that following extensive consultation and negotiations between Buru and representatives of the Nyikina Mangala and Karajarri Traditional Owners, Buru and the Nyikina Mangala and Karajarri Traditional Owner
s have reached an agreement which provides a process by which Buru and the relevant Traditional Owners may engage, in relation to Buru’s activities in the Canning Basin, and in relation to the recommencement of Buru’s exploration program, on certain terms.

As a result of this Agreement, field activity in the Ungani area is planned to recommence shortly. The seismic crew will be remobilised to complete the 240 sq km Ungani 3D seismic survey as soon as it has completed its current job which is expected to occur in mid July. Following the Ungani 3D acquisition program, a 670 km 2D seismic program is planned along trend from Ungani (subject to receipt of required approvals), to delineate additional drilling targets analogous to the Ungani Oilfield. These prospects will be evaluated during the extensive drilling campaign scheduled to commence later this year.

News: Australian Stock, Share & Commodity Markets News - Tradingroom.com.au

News: Australian Stock, Share & Commodity Markets News - Tradingroom.com.au

Premier Colin Barnett has been increasingly bullish about shale gas after Woodside Petroleum shelved a plan to process Browse Basin gas onshore at James Price Point.

But critics point to a lack of infrastructure in the Canning Basin, remoteness and potentially high costs to remove and market the gas.

While major oil and gas players are looking at the potential of the Canning Basin, commercial production would take at least five to 10 years once successful exploration results had been achieved.

"You wouldn't have (multinationals) Conoco Phillips, you wouldn't have Hess, you wouldn't have Mitsubishi in there if they didn't think there was real potential," Mr Sellers said.

Australian Oil and gas player Santos began exploiting shale gas in the Cooper Basin in South Australia late last year, almost a decade after starting its unconventional gas program.

So far in the Canning Basin there is only one drilling rig capable of drilling to the required depths for shale and tight gas.

HAZARD ALERT - Worker Exposure to Silica during Hydraulic Fracturing

HAZARD ALERT - Worker Exposure to Silica during Hydraulic Fracturing

Health Hazards of Silica

Hydraulic fracturing sand contains up to 99% silica. Breathing silica can cause silicosis. Silicosis is a lung disease where lung tissue around trapped silica particles reacts, causing inflammation and scarring and reducing the lungs' ability to take in oxygen.ⁱⁱ Workers who breathe silica day after day are at greater risk of developing silicosis. Silica can also cause lung cancer and has been linked to other diseases, such as tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and kidney and autoimmune disease.ⁱⁱⁱ

---

ⁱⁱ NIOSH [1986] Occupational respiratory diseases. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 86-102.
ⁱⁱⁱ NIOSH [2002] Hazard Review, Health Effects of Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-129.

Why does this government pretend that it does not need to speak to anybody?

MS J. FARRER (Kimberley) 

I rise to speak on the Natural Gas (Canning Basin Joint Venture) Agreement Bill 2013. There has been no consultation with traditional owners whatsoever. The first step that should be taken is to show some respect to these people. We see this project covering a huge area of the country for some of the biggest language groups across the west and into part of the East Kimberley areas, including the Nyikana–Mangala, Karrajarri, Gooniyandi, Ngurrara, Tjurabalan, Walmajarri, Juwaliny, Yawuru, Bunuba and some Jaru land. There are 10 different language groups. These languages are different from each other. A few are similar in dialect. We all know that a development of this type will have a big impact on the land use and practises of local Aboriginal people, and also the social impact that will occur once areas become established. Why is our Premier supporting large multicultural joint venture partners such as Mitsubishi, which we hear are foreign owned, and not protecting the rights of some of his most disadvantaged constituents? 

The interaction between the state agreement act and the future act regime of the Native Title Act clearly blunts the few powerful instruments that traditional owners have in those areas by consistently and negatively affecting their rights to negotiate or to object to this development, which covers an enormous area of 17 000 square kilometres. That area is bigger than Perth through to the outer lying suburbs, which is estimated to be roughly 300 kilometres in circumference. The area of this project extends from Broome and Derby, which are in the Shire of Derby–West Kimberley, through to Halls Creek in the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley. That accommodates the Gooniyandi and the Jaru groups. We all know that when any changes or development in that 300-kilometre radius around Perth is proposed, people are consulted by their shires or electorates before any development occurs. 

Why does this government pretend that it does not need to speak to anybody? This government needs to meet and speak to native title holders about their lands. It should remember that these lands are home to a large number of Aboriginal people. Respect should be shown to these people and their families. After all, their native title rights have been recognised as only they can speak for their country. 

I believe that the Premier should meet with members from these 10 different language groups within the claim area that Buru has outlined. After all, it is their country and lands and it is recognised under the national Native Title Act as belonging to them and their families. Respect should be shown at all times. If some mining companies can do this, surely this government should be able to do this. After all, we are elected into government for only a few years, not forever.

AFP spied on phone and internet records, over 40,000 accessed without warrant | News.com.au

AFP spied on phone and internet records, over 40,000 accessed without warrant | News.com.au

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police accessed more than 40,000 phone and computer records last year without a warrant.

Revelations in a Senate estimates hearing in May also show efforts by the AFP to obtain Facebook and Google data.

It comes as controversy rages over the US National Security Agency's (NSA) controversial PRISM program, details of which were leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Under PRISM, which has been running for six years, the NSA can issue directives to internet firms demanding access to emails, online chats, pictures, files, videos and more uploaded by foreign users.

Less than two weeks ago, AFP deputy commissioner Michael Phelan reportedly told a Senate estimates hearing that last financial year, federal police made 43,362 internal requests for "metadata" on Australians' phone and internet records.

Gas fracking will cause 'irreversible' damage, says Conservation Council of WA | News.com.au

Gas fracking will cause 'irreversible' damage, says Conservation Council of WA | News.com.au

“Recently I had an opportunity to visit shale gas fracking areas in the USA and I was horrified,” he wrote in a campaign letter sent out to CCWA supporters and donors this week.

“I met sick families who could not move off their land. I saw gas bubbling out of natural groundwater springs that could be set alight. I was told stories of sick and dying livestock. I met regulators who were turning a blind eye and I saw the gas industry’s armed security guards preventing farmers access to their own land.

“After seeing this I vowed I would do whatever I could to stop this happening in Western Australia…I have no doubt that gas fracking is one of the most serious environmental challenges facing Western Australia.”

Read more: http://www.perthnow.com.au/national-news/western-australia/gas-fracking-will-cause-irreversible-damge-says-conservation-council-of-wa/story-fnii5thn-1226660869144#ixzz2Vnm496GX

Wide ramifications for EPA decisions from trial - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Wide ramifications for EPA decisions from trial - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Goolarabooloo people Richard Hunter brought their case against the project at the end of 2012, when a Woodside-led gas hub at James Price Point north of Broome was still a live option.

They're contesting the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA's) approval on specific points which fall under three broad areas.

1) The EPA should have considered options aside from James Price Point,

2) The conflicted members of the EPA Board should have been excluded from the assessment processes long before they finally were, and non-conflicted experts empanelled to assess the proposal when the conflicts were first identified, and

3) The EPA Chairman, Doctor Paul Vogel should not have made the final decision as a 'board of one'.

Conflicts of interest

What actually happened was unprecedented.

The uncontested facts are that four members of the EPA Board had conflicts of interest.

One dropped out before the Browse assessment, as she'd worked for the proponent, the WA Department of State Development.

The three others were not excluded until relatively late in the day.

Denis Glennon and Doctor Chris Whitaker had shares in Woodside through self-managed super funds, and Rod Lukatelich was an employee of joint venture partner BP.

The Chairman told the Environment Minister in March, 2012 ,that he'd decided to exclude other board members from consideration of the proposal.

No evidence or suggestion has arisen that any of the excluded board members used their positions on the board to bring themselves financial advantage.

Nevertheless, the final report and recommendations fell to Doctor Paul Vogel.

His consideration of the proposal lasted for a total of four months out of four years.

The other EPA Board members had taken part in discussions for the first 44 months.

Chief Justice reserves decision in gas hub case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Chief Justice reserves decision in gas hub case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The Chief Justice has reserved his decision in the Wilderness Society's case against the approval of the James Price Point gas hub, north of Broome.

The Wilderness Society and Goolarabooloo man Richard Hunter had taken legal action against the project before Woodside announced that it would not proceed with the hub.

They have been contesting the validity of the EPA's recommendation for approval in light of the conflicts of interest of some board members.

They also said the EPA's chairman Paul Vogel should not have made the decision alone and the authority should have considered other sites.

As the state was putting its case, the Chief Justice Wayne Martin said, "If I decide the assessment was undertaken over four years, your case has significant problems."

He referred to the assessment process and said questions were decided by people who should not have been voting.

But, Rob Mitchell SC for the state, said the EPA chairman's final assessment fit the statutory requirement, good or bad.

The Chief Justice said he would publish his reasons as soon as he could.

Australians Lock the Gate on mining -- New Internationalist

Australians Lock the Gate on mining -- New Internationalist

The power of the Lock the Gate movement, which has mobilized thousands of people, is no mean feat in a country dominated by the interests of billionaires, who’ve made their fortunes drilling and digging holes. In Australia, mineral resources are legally the property of the state, but the profits are well and truly private.

In 2012, the Country Women’s Association, the largest conservative women’s organization in the country, often stereotyped as ‘great scone-bakers’, broke with 90 years of tradition and took to the streets, joining an anti-CSG rally of around 10,000 people in Sydney.

But until now, the rhetoric of the movement has largely focussed on protecting farmland and water resources, often peppered with nationalistic sentiments. On the surface the potential for a radical challenge to corporate mining interests would seem somewhat blunted. The fight seems to have pitted emerging, cashed-up mining magnates against entrenched agricultural elites. This includes millionaires from Sydney, who own vineyards and breed race-horses in New South Wales’ coal rich Hunter Valley.

In the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, an exciting branch of the campaign has decisively shifted the focus away from protecting patches of private property. Vast numbers of volunteers have been mobilized through town meetings, going door-to-door, sharing information on mining processes and surveying roads and towns.

The results of the survey process have been universally positive, with the overwhelming majority of residents electing to declare their roads and towns free from mining development. Subsequently, large numbers of people have been trained in peaceful civil disobedience, including techniques like blockading access to drilling sites and ‘lock-ons’, where people chain themselves to equipment or strategic locations.

Blockades in Glenugie and Doubtful Creek both lasted around 50 days, costing Metagsco, the company involved, tens of millions of dollars. Groups like the Knitting Nannas Against Gas, made up of retirees willing to be arrested (and knit) for a cause, have made it impossible for the mainstream media, governments and companies to dismiss the resistance as ‘the usual bunch of hippies and ferals’.

3rd Degree

3rd Degree:
Woodside has signed an agreement with Shell to develop floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) technology at the Browse Basin project at James Price Point near Broome.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman stated that the FLNG has the "potential to commercialise the Browse resources in the earliest possible time frame."

Repeating the mistakes of JPP and lacking consultation and common sense

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has stopped the clock on the Commonwealth's environmental approval process for the James Price Point gas hub until he receives fresh details of any reworked State plans for the site.

The decision complicates the Barnett Government's attempt to rescue something from the wreckage of the decision by Woodside Petroleum and its joint venture partners to walk away from the controversial $40 billion land-based LNG hub, amid spiralling costs.

As part of this drive, Premier Colin Barnett yesterday reintroduced legislation into the WA Parliament to help develop massive gas reserves in the onshore Canning Basin, which are considered a possible Plan B for James Price Point-based exports.

Canning Basin development Bill introduced

• Legislation will allow for the development of the Canning Basin gas
• Domestic gas project the first priority
• Will ensure gas supplies for State’s future energy needs

Western Australia has taken another important step in ensuring the development of the vast gas resources of the Canning Basin.

Premier and State Development Minister Colin Barnett said the vast onshore gas resources of Canning Basin would be developed under the provisions of a Bill read into State Parliament today.

Mr Barnett said the Bill ratified the Natural Gas (Canning Basin Joint Venture) Agreement signed by the State Government with joint venture partners, Buru Energy Limited and Mitsubishi Corporation.

“This legislation will bring about the continued exploration for natural gas in the remote Canning Basin, the development of a gas pipeline to the Pilbara and ensure Western Australian consumers have first use of any gas discovered,” he said.

The Premier said the US Energy Information Administration estimated the Canning Basin unconventional gas resources at about 229 trillion cubic feet - about one and a half times WA’s currently identified offshore resources. 

The Canning Basin covers 530,000 sq. km stretching from the coast between Port Hedland and Broome, to the State’s eastern border.

The gas resources in this arid area are located between two and four kilometres below the ground’s surface.

“Tapping this vast resource will guarantee Western Australia’s domestic gas supplies well into the future,” Mr Barnett said.

“Because this gas is located onshore, it is also entirely owned by the State Government.

“This agreement ensures gas discoveries are rapidly brought into production, and that gas is delivered to the State’s domestic gas network, before any is exported.”

Once the domestic gas project is under development, the agreement provides for potential future gas supply for gas export.

Natural gas provides about 50 per cent of the State’s domestic electricity generation, and contributes to the production of key resource exports including iron ore, alumina, base metals and gold.

“This will also ensure that future energy-intensive mining opportunities and other manufacturing industries will benefit considerably from an expansion of WA’s domestic gas supply sources,” the Premier said.

“Natural gas is also an ideal partner for the State’s growing renewable energy production as a back-up in times of adverse weather conditions and peak demand.”

The Premier said the agreement provided additional security of tenure for 17,000 sq. km (1.7 million hectares) covered by five exploration permits held by the joint venture. These permits anchor the joint venture’s Canning Basin Domestic Gas Project, with the agreement facilitating further targeted gas exploration in these permits and the development of a pipeline to transport gas south to existing industrial areas.

If commercially viable gas resources are discovered, by mid-2016 the partners will be required to submit a plan for construction of the domestic gas project, including a pipeline connecting to the existing State gas network in the Pilbara.

Under the agreement, the partners are still required to obtain relevant State and Commonwealth environmental, safety, Aboriginal heritage and Native Title approvals for their exploration, development and infrastructure proposals. 

          Fact File

• The agreement, which is for an initial term of 25 years, with a possible 25 years extension, will:
• encourage investment in a significant exploration and evaluation program to determine the technical and economic viability of the natural gas resources
• enable the Government to set firm timetables for development of gas discoveries
• ensure domestic gas production and delivery occurs before any gas is supplied for export
• ensure an amount equivalent to 15% of any gas processed for export is reserved for domestic use
• make available for sale related products such as ethane, propane, butane and condensate, for the possible manufacture of chemicals or use as transport fuel
• defer relinquishment conditions of the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 for five key permits
• facilitate the development of pipelines and other infrastructure to deliver gas to the State’s domestic gas network
• This Bill was also introduced to Parliament in November last year but lapsed with the prorogation

Premier’s office - 6552 5000

 

Chaney says floating LNG processing most likely - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Chaney says floating LNG processing most likely - Business - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
Mr Chaney has told the ABC that while other options will be evaluated, floating LNG is the most likely to succeed.

"The capital cost of the floating LNG option is considerably cheaper," he said.

Cousins floats new threat to Woodside | The Australian

Cousins floats new threat to Woodside | The Australian: "Well the royalty stream is going to be precisely the same with the floating option so the money will still be there. And if the aim all along was to help the Aboriginal people, then I assume they're going to do that just as they promised."

Mr Cousins said Woodside and the state government would be "hypocrites" if they did not go through with their compensation packages, given they had cited the need for greater investment in remote Aboriginal communities when arguing with environmental groups over the merits of the James Price Point plan.

Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman last week made clear the $1.5bn compensation package previously negotiated with indigenous claimants around James Price Point would not materialise in the event that the Browse gas was processed through alternative methods.

Woodside backs floating LNG for Browse | The Australian

Woodside backs floating LNG for Browse | The Australian:

Environs Kimberley welcomed Woodside's "common sense" and said even a smaller onshore plant at James Price Point would have been an environmental disaster.

"It's now clear that it would be economic and political madness for any other company to think about developing this site for heavy industry," Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said.

He also called on the state government to extend the Great Kimberley Marine Park, promised at the state election, to cover the sea at James Price Point.