Santos has published plans to drill 12 fracking wells at Tanumbirini Station, a 5,000 sq km cattle station about 340km south-east of Katherine. Dr Kirsty Howey, executive director of the Environment Centre NT, described the plan as “the biggest ever gas play in the Beetaloo for Santos”. “Fracking undoubtedly poses a major risk to this huge, quite incredible aquifer that many Aboriginal communities and pastoralists rely on,” Howey said. Methane bubbles have been observed at hot springs at Tanumbirini Station, suggesting connections between surface water and the shale gas layer to be targeted for fracking. “We’ve already seen incidents of uncontrolled releases of wastewater from shale gas fracking sites in the Beetaloo from other operators,” he said.
