Green group mounts landmark legal challenge against “risky” gas fracking

An environmental group “very concerned” about the impact of fracking on water has launched the first test of recently expanded national laws. 

A plan to frack 15 gas wells in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin is being challenged by Lock The Gate Alliance in the Federal Court on Monday.

The group is asking the court to grant an injunction and to compel the federal government to assess the project under the water trigger provisions of federal environmental laws. 

Lock The Gate Alliance research and investigations head Georgina Woods said their legal challenge was significant because work is already underway on the Shenandoah fracking pilot.

“We are very concerned about the potential of the project to significantly impact groundwater resources through contamination,” she said. 

“The whole of the Northern Territory relies on groundwater. Water is life up there.”

Fracking involves injecting a combination of water, chemicals and sand into deep shale layers underground at high pressure to extract gas. 

“It is an inherently risky activity and does carry the risk of contamination of groundwater sources and that’s why we’ve taken this case,” Ms Woods said. 

The federal water trigger legislation was expanded by federal parliament in 2023 to require the assessment of the impact of large coal mining and coal seam gas projects on water resources.

However, the natural gas company defending the court challenge on Monday – Tamboran B2 – has not referred itself to the national regulator and the government hasn’t selected the project for consideration. 

Parent company Tamboran is the largest acreage holder and operator in the Beetaloo basin, with about 770,000 net prospective hectares.

Anti-fossil fuel activists gathered outside the courthouse in Sydney on Monday morning to show their support for Lock the Gate, holding signs declaring “No water, no life” and “Cry me a river”.

The Federal Court case will be the first legal challenge launched against fracking under the water trigger and is expected to run for several days.

Source: AAP