The Central Land Council (CLC) is calling for the highest level of environmental scrutiny for a record-breaking Singleton Station water licence, after a report it commissioned found cultural and ceremonial values will "almost certainly" be damaged and sites diminished.
Fortune Agribusiness (FA) plans to use the staged 40,000-megalitre licence to develop a nationally significant food bowl on 3,300 hectares of arid country south of Tennant Creek at Singleton Station.
But traditional owners fear the development could significantly lower the region's watertable, in turn damaging sacred trees, soakages and water holes that draw on the same groundwater FA plans to harvest.
CLC policy manager Francine McCarthy wanted the project to receive a tier-three assessment by government authorities, which was the most stringent.
It would enable three opportunities for public comment to be taken into account, rather than a tier-two assessment that only enables one.
"Kaytete traditional owners have maintained their country for millenia and we owe to them to the highest level of assessment," Ms McCarthy said.
The Northern Territory government and FA say the project is safe and will generate $180 million in revenue annually.
FA referred the project for environmental assessment in November, with public consultation closing on February 13.
Once consultation closes, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) will determine what level of assessment the project requires.
Report predicts damage to sites
A report commissioned in 2021 by CLC found up to 40 sacred sites in the region relied on the region's groundwater.
This week, an addendum to that report found the safety of those sites fell outside the scope of current sacred site protections in the territory, and could only be captured by the most stringent level of analysis.
Report author Susan Donaldson found:
"The potential impacts will likely or almost certainly result in highly significant cultural values to be lost, degraded and damaged, as well as notably altered, modified, obscured or diminished. The planned action, in my view, is likely to alter the existing use of a number of cultural and ceremonial sites, causing their values to notably diminish over time."
FA said the concerns of the traditional owners group were not justified.
Chairperson Peter Wood said the company's referral to the EPA was "extremely comprehensive".
"It includes detailed analyses and assessments by subject matter experts and actions to be taken by Fortune Agri to ensure that potential risks and impacts are satisfactorily managed," he said.
The company's risk assessment for the project found all risks to the environment and cultural values could be mitigated, and that at most the project would only cause a "medium" risk to sacred sites in the region.
Mr Wood said the company supported the "full scrutiny" of the EPA and welcomed "community enquiries."
Environmental groups join calls
The Arid Lands Environment Centre has thrown its weight behind calls for the licence to receive a tier-three assessment.
Chief executive and former NT government water planner Adrian Tomlinson said the community deserved to have a voice in such a significant project.
"It's essentially a longer process with a number of steps along the way where community input can influence the decision," he said.
"It's the biggest groundwater extraction licence we've seen in the territory and in my view the existing processes we have aren't designed to asses something like this."
