Is your water at risk?

Industry tells us their practices are safe, but fracking wells have already started leaking pollution in Western Australia.

Last year, gas started bubbling up through the Corybas well, just south of Dongara. It is not surprising. Last year an independent study by Cornell University found that 6-7% of fracked wells were leaking into water aquifers within a year of drilling. With estimates suggesting that WA could see 130,000 wells, that is a scary statistic. Because once our groundwater is polluted, it will be forever.

Our water is too precious to lose. That’s why we’ve launched our new campaign, Clean Water Healthy Land, to tell our politicians that it’s time to take control of gas fracking before it’s too late. Email your local state election candidates.

Currently, instead of protecting us from this industry, the state government has halved the royalties for gas fracking companies, used Royalties for Regions money to sponsor fracking exploration, and failed to ensure that the Environmental Protection Authority assesses projects – instead placing control over projects in the hands of the deeply conflicted Department of Mines and Petroleum.

With encouragement like this, fracking will soon be pockmarking the landscapes we love. Indeed, the pristine Kimberley, the Ningaloo coast, and the farming districts and wildflower country in the Midwest are considered the most prospective gasfields in WA.

Feel like you’d like to know more about shale gas fracking? Shale gas is extracted from deep rock bodies by fracturing (‘fracking’) them, by pumping a mixture of chemicals, sand and vast amounts of water at high pressure to unlock the gas. Find out more here.