Unconventional gas industry
HON ALISON XAMON (East Metropolitan) [3.10 pm]: I present a petition containing 97 signatures, couched in the following terms —
To the President and Members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled.
We the undersigned residents of Western Australia oppose the expansion of the unconventional gas industry in Western Australia until the following minimum standards apply to all unconventional gas activities in WA and until such time as the Government of Western Australia can guarantee these minimum standards apply and enact legal enforceability of these minimum standards.
- A requirement for full public disclosure and rigorous independent testing of all chemicals before they are used, to demonstrate that drilling and fracking operations will have no adverse impacts on groundwater, human health and the environment;
- Rigorous independent assessment of hydrogeology, including aquifer connectivity and groundwater level and quality prior to any drilling in a project area;
- Independent testing and modelling of faulting, stress-fields and any other geological features that can influence the direction and depth of the fractures, fluid migration and hydrocarbon migration from project activities;
- Independent assessment of the cumulative impact of gas fracking proposals (including surface operations, groundwater impacts and carbon pollution) to demonstrate that the activities will not have an adverse impact on WA’s unique ecosystems or agricultural lands;
- Public release of all other information relating to environmental management and compliance by the fracking industry, including proponent documentation, management plans, compliance reports and groundwater and environmental monitoring data;
- Any liability for contamination of lands, groundwater, or other community assets, or greenhouse emissions due to methane leakage, to be borne by the company conducting the operations rather than the State and people of Western Australia;
- Private and Indigenous landholders to have a legal veto to prevent gas fracking activities occurring on or beneath their lands.
- No reduction of groundwater levels or quality as a result of water use in gas fracking operations
- No uncontrolled methane leakage from drilled locations, wellheads or bore-fields
- No reduction in available agricultural land in WA.
Your petitioners therefore respectfully request the Legislative Council to support the enactment of a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until such time as these guarantees can be made.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
[See paper 4429.]