HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PROJECT SEA DRAGON?
Project Sea Dragon is a seriously big project for the Territory. Its proponents and the company responsible for it talk enthusiastically about the major economic benefits the project will bring, while its detractors express serious concerns about its potential impacts, both environmental and cultural.
This brief article doesn’t propose to enter that debate one way or the other, it simply aims to raise awareness of the project and inform people of the rights of public participation that will arise through the environmental assessment process.
Background to Project Sea Dragon Global demand for seafood is growing. The World Bank 2014 report “Fish to 2030: Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture” concluded that aquaculture, or fish farming, will have a growing role in food production in this century, helping to “improve food security and livelihoods for the world’s poorest”. That same report found that the increasing demand will be largely generated in Asia.
Australian company, Seafarms Group Ltd (Seafarms) is looking to capitalise on that growing demand with the proposed development of (the jaw-droppingly large) Project Sea Dragon. Seafarms describes the project as “a unique and world class aquaculture opportunity”. For the sake of simple language, it can be more easily understood as an enormous prawn farm with other associated developments, like a hatchery and processing facility.
The main farm operation is proposed at a location called Legune Station, south-west of Darwin near the border of Western Australia. Prawns will be bred at a hatchery and breeding centre, currently planned for the Darwin (Bynoe Harbour) area, then farmed to size at Legune Station. Processing will occur in Kununurra before the prawns are exported from Wyndham or Darwin for their final destinations on plates across Asia.
According to the company’s website, Project Sea Dragon will have a capital expenditure in excess of 1.2 billion and generate 1400 full time equivalent jobs. The area of all the ponds (after all stages are developed) is predicted to be approximately 10,000 ha – that’s 5,000 Melbourne Cricket Grounds… It’s difficult to fully appreciate the scale of the project, but it was described by former NT Minister for Agriculture, Willem Westra van Holthe as “mind boggling”.
The Northern Territory Government has given the project “Major Project Status”. This is a sensible step for a project of this size, which will require a large range of approvals. It makes sense to have a dedicated point of contact within government to help the proponent coordinate these necessary approvals. Major status does not, and should not, allow a project to take shortcuts. However, Major Project Status is an indication of support from government and indeed, there is more than just in-principle support if a June 2016 report in the Australian is to be believed. According to that article, the NT and WA governments have given “clear indications” that they would “fund the $70 million sealing of the 130km road linking Legune station to Kununurra in 2017”.
The project hasn’t just caught the eye of the NT and WA governments either. According to another article in the Australian in August, Chinese companies are seriously considering large investments in the project.
So, it sounds like it has plenty of upside, lots of prawns, lots of international interest, lots of jobs! But, with big operations come big potential impacts and, with its seriously remote location, it is important that Project Sea Dragon ensures and convinces the community – that its operations won’t come at an unacceptable cost to the unique environment where it proposes to situate the Project’s various elements.
Project Sea Dragon’s stages & the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) That’s where the environmental assessment process comes in. It has been determined that Project Sea Dragon will trigger environmental assessments, both by the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory and will require an environmental impact statement (EIS) to be prepared. Due to an arrangement between the Commonwealth and the NT, the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority (NTEPA) will undertake this assessment process.
We’re already a little way down the EIS path, with Seafarms having already submitted their notice of intention (in July 2015) and the NTEPA having issued Terms of Reference for the EIS (in late 2015). Some of the issues that the NTEPA has specifically asked Seafarms to address in the EIS include:
Risks to biodiversity
Risks to surface and groundwater
Appropriate waste management
Protection of historic and cultural heritage
Abatement of greenhouse gas emissions
The EIS will also need to assess the cumulative impacts of the proposal. This point will be of particular importance for Project Sea Dragon as the development is planned in stages and the company wants to have them assessed on a stage-by-stage basis.
Stage 1 of the project is a smaller version (approximately 10%) of the total project. Stage 1 will involve the establishment of 1,080 ha (of the eventual approximately 10,000 ha) of grow-out ponds for prawns on Legune Station.
Although not much detail about subsequent stages is available, it is understood they will involve assessing the feasibility of the project on the basis of Stage 1. In April 2016, Seafarms announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that it was seeking ways to accelerate the development with an early feasibility study for Stage 2, which would double the pond development at Legune Station.
Some of the issues that have been brought to the attention of the EDO are that the project’s proposed location, Legune Station, is home to the Legune Wetlands (which are wetlands of national importance) and the Legune coastal floodplain (a site of conservation significance – according to the NT Government). The impacts on these environments and how Seafarms proposes to mitigate and manage them will, no doubt, be a major focus of the EIS. While there is no deadline for Seafarms to complete the EIS, Seafarms has indicated publicly that it aims to complete the EIS in the last quarter of 2016.
The public will get to have their say on the Draft EIS (for stage 1) once it is published for public comment. The public will have at least 28 days to make comments on the draft EIS. The EDO will ensure that we let people know about the public comment period for Project Sea Dragon on our website and various social media platforms. So, that’s it! I hope that you now know a little more than you did five minutes ago about Project Sea Dragon.
David Morris is the Principal Lawyer for the Environmental Defenders Office NT.
