Federal environment minister knew of rock art fears before granting Woodside North West Shelf extension

Pollution from Woodside’s Karratha Gas Plant may be causing irreversible changes to ancient rock art, the federal environment minister was advised, before approving a 40-year extension of the project’s life.

Earlier this month, Woodside got the green light to continue operating its North West Shelf facilities in WA’s north following a seven-year battle with state and federal regulators.

The permission came with strict conditions aimed at protecting the area’s precious Murujuga rock carvings — some of which are thought to be up to 50,000 years old.

But in a document outlining the reasons for his decision, Environment Minister Murray Watt said he agreed there was sufficient scientific evidence that areas of the Burrup Peninsula had been exposed to industrial emissions capable of accelerating the rock art’s deterioration.

The document also revealed the original conditions the minister proposed in May were watered down after Woodside claimed some of them would essentially make the entire project unfeasible.

Irreversible impact

Minister Watt wrote he was presented with “multiple lines of evidence” that “on the balance of probabilities, it is more likely than not that industrial air emissions from the Karratha Gas Plant (and other emitters in the surrounding area) are resulting in the accelerated and irreversible weathering of the rocks that the Murujuga art is etched into”.

“And that accelerated weathering is likely to continue … unless emissions are appropriately regulated,” he wrote.

The minister said his department considered various scientific studies, including the most recent results of a multi-million-dollar ongoing study of the rock art on the Burrup Peninsula.

That Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program (MRAMP) report found rocks closest to industry had more porosity — or degradation — than those further way.

The department acknowledged increased porosity may lead directly to physical changes which could diminish the visibility and integrity of the rock art.

“Changes in porosity are irreversible and the damage to the values of the rock art, such as the value of the engravings as representative of culture and environment over time are unable to be restored once damaged,” Mr Watt stated.

The MRAMP study hypothesised that an old power station on the Burrup which closed in 2010 was potentially a major contributor to this because industrial emissions may have been two to three times higher in the past.

But Minister Watt decided there was considerable uncertainty about this theory, and he preferred to take a precautionary approach to protect the carvings.

“There is evidence that [Woodside’s] Karratha Gas Plant would likely have also been a significant or equivalent contributor to historical impacts,” he said in his ‘statement of reasons’ for allowing the extension.

Minister ‘blowing the whistle’

In its separate report into the extension of the project at a state level, WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) viewed the elevated degradation as most likely historical.

It found ongoing scientific monitoring has not detected pollution levels above its level of concern.

“Evidence suggests this occurred during historical periods of significantly higher industrial emissions and current activity in the area is not believed to be affecting the rock art,” a spokesman said.

Minister Watt found that despite there being insufficient scientific information to fully understand the likelihood and scale of impacts on the rock art, a “precautionary principle” should be applied.

“I will not use the lack of scientific certainty as a reason to postpone measures to prevent environmental degradation,” he stated.

Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper, a Murujuga traditional custodian, said the minister’s statement of reasons validated many of the concerns she had been raising.

“With this statement of reasons, the minister is effectively blowing the whistle on his own government,” she said in a statement.

“The minister states that there is clear scientific evidence that industrial emissions have had a significant impact on Murujuga rock art.”

WA Greens MLC Sophie McNeill said the federal minister’s statement showed the state government had downplayed the risk posed by industry on the Burrup and had not taken strong enough action to protect the art.

“While WA Labor tried to downplay the role of industry emissions and Woodside’s Karratha gas plant on the rock art, the federal department makes it clear they don’t believe that is the case,” she said.

Conditions watered down

The minister’s statement of reasons also revealed the conditions proposed in May were watered down following input from Woodside.

Under the original conditions, Woodside would have been required to achieve “no emissions above the detectable limit of air emissions that impact rock art” by 2031.

Minister Watt said Woodside considered that to be unachievable, quoting the company’s counterargument in his statement of reasons.

“This would have significant adverse operational consequences for the North West Shelf Project,” Woodside is quoted as stating.

“[It] would amount to a refusal of the NWS Project Extension as it is not technically feasible to reduce air emissions from the NWS Project Extension to comply with this limit.”

The federal department subsequently agreed with Woodside’s view that this was not feasible and changed the condition to be broken up and applied differently to each individual type of pollutant — such as oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide.

The conditions also leave room for adapting to any new science that emerges from the ongoing MRAMP study.

Minister Watt’s ultimate approval came with 48 conditions aimed at avoiding and mitigating significant impacts to the Murujuga rock art, which he said were necessary because the current WA government conditions were “insufficient to manage the likely impacts”.

Even with these conditions he noted the likely possibility of “residual impacts” from the project extension, and that he took into consideration the project’s “significant economic benefits”, among other things.

In a statement, Woodside said Murujuga was one of Australia’s most culturally significant landscapes and it took its responsibility to protect and manage cultural heritage seriously.

“Research to date on the impacts of emissions on rock art has not been conclusive,” a spokeswoman said.

It said it supported the need for further research and supported the MRAMP project, while the federal government’s conditions “provided clarity on the modifications required at Karratha Gas Plant that will support processing of other resource owners’ gas”.

A WA government spokesman said the ongoing MRAMP study would determine the regulations needed to protect the rock art.

“Both the state and federal governments have set strict conditions to ensure emissions are appropriately regulated to protect the Murujuga rock art from weathering beyond that which would naturally occur based on the findings of the MRAMP,” they said.

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