Did you know a gas company plans to clear hundreds of hectares of farmland and native bush so it can conduct seismic tests in WA's Mid West?

Tell the EPA today why you object to this project, and that you want them to Assess as a Public Environmental Review (PER). Make sure to click 'Submit' on the final page after clicking continue.

WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is asking for your comments on whether to assess the 28,000 hectare ‘Ocean Hill’ seismic survey by Strike Energy.

The impacted area where Strike want to explore for gas covers many farms and extremely biodiverse and rare wildflower country near Eneabba in the Mid West.

We can’t leave this up to a private assessment between the EPA and the gas corporation! Deadline: this Thursday 19 August, at midnight!

Strike Energy have planned this work in exploration leases where fracking is not banned by the McGowan Government. Exploration work such as this has the sole purpose of gathering data to facilitate gasfields. This region is known to have tight sands gas reserves, which would require fracking to access. So while Strike may not currently have a plan to frack, nothing rules that out in the future.

Seismic surveys require clearing of native bushland where there isn’t a road or farm land already, then ‘thumper trucks’ come through in lines at 250m intervals, sending vibrations through the ground, compacting the soil (including in cropping land), and bring with it various risks including biosecurity for farmers.

The total area that the trucks will thump will be nearly 1000 hectares, and over 100 ha of native vegetation/bush will need to be cleared within that area. This process will take 13 weeks. It’s 8km east of the town of Eneabba, within the Shires of Carnamah and Coorow. There is significant community opposition to fracking gasfields in the area.

On top of that, the 'natural' gas that they would extract if this gasfield goes ahead is methane, a fossil gas that is much more potent than carbon in our atmosphere.

Will you urge the EPA to publicly assess this proposal so locals and concerned people and groups further afield can get the full information about the company’s plans?

Follow this link to fill out the easy form before the deadline, midnight on Thursday 19 August.

https://consultation.epa.wa.gov.au/seven-day-comment-on-referrals/ocean-hill-3d/consultation/intro/

Tick the 'Assess - Public Environmental Review' and make a short comment on why you want it assessed, and why it should be a public assessment. Click continue and then click 'submit' on the next page.

If you have a link to the region, we suggest mentioning if you're a farmer, resident, landcarer, teacher, Traditional Custodian, tourism operator etc.

Some of the reasons might be;

• High level of public interest and concern regarding gas exploration activities in the region.
• Farmers do not have the legal right to veto gas exploration over their own land.
• Impact of soil compaction on agricultural land and bush land.
• Increase the spread of weeds and fragment bushland, with a risk of spreading dieback into a dieback-free area.
• Increase in the risk of bushfire.               
• Dust and noise will impact farmers, farm land, bush land and animals.
• Farmers report issues with burst water pipes for livestock and fences being left open
• Increase in emissions that contribute to air pollution and climate change, due to gas exploration opening up new gasfields.
• Impacts on mental health from not having the right to veto gas exploration (seismic, but also other activities including potentional future exploration fracking down the track) for farmers and Traditional Custodians.
• Disturbance to habitat of conservation significant birds, reptiles and mammals that were surveyed in the area or are likely to occur (including Rainbow bee-eaters and Western Brush Wallaby’s).
  
• Clearing 100 hectares of Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo foraging habitat..  
• 15 Priority wildflower species recorded, and the bushland is recorded as ‘pristine’.
• Fishbone banksia will be impacted especially, with nearly 30% of this species in the project area to be cut down.
• Concern about tight gas and fracking in the future, what are Strike Energy’s exact plans if they find gas, and tight gas (how many total wells are possible in the future, will the company rule out ever fracking if they find tight sands or shale gas?)

The deadline to comment is midnight on Thursday evening (19 August 2021).

Tick the 'Assess - Public Environmental Review' option, and make a short comment with your reasons. Make sure you click on 'continue', and 'submit' on the next page!

We need affected communities to have the opportunity to have a say on the details. We can’t leave this up to a private assessment between the EPA and the gas corporations.

To read full documents, click on 1. Referral to view the PDFs: https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/proposals/ocean-hill-3d-seismic-survey

For more ways to help stop fracking across WA:

Sign our petition: www.frackfreewa.org.au/petition

Get involved: www.frackfreewa.org.au/volunteer