Take action on the oil spill- submissions close Dec 22!

For more than two months the West Atlas Montara oil rig spewed oil into the ocean off Western Australia's Kimberley coast covering thousands of square kilometres of turtle, whale and dolphin habitat. This disaster should never have happened. Help us ensure the Kimberley coast and marine environment is protected from this toxic industry. Submissions to the federal Inquiry are open until Dec 22, 2009.

Submit to the inquiry now!

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Submissions to the Montara Oil Spill Inquiry - Commissioned by David Brotherwick

The final result of Australia’s worst rig oil spill

The West Atlas Oil Rig belched out an unknown quantity of oil and greenhouse gases into the Timor Sea for 74 days. Estimates of the quantities of polluting oil ranged from 400 to 2000 barrels of oil per day.  

After 74 days of spewing oil and gas into the environment and a major fire, this is what the rig looks like now.

Seventy two days after the spill began, the rig caught fire and burnt out of control for 2 more days until it was finally capped on Nov 3rd, 2009. This is what remains of the West Atlas rig (right).

Clearly, the regulations for oil and gas operations have failed our ecologically important and sensitive Kimberley.  First the Federal government (via Resources Minister Martin Ferguson) tried to downplay the seriousness of the spill. Then it defended the company’s failed attempts at stemming the flow by calling the rig operations "world's best practice". 

Such difficulties in controlling a spill reminds Australians that despite its technology, the oil and gas industry cannot prevent large scale pollution and long-term toxic impacts on the environment it works in.  This questions whether our pristine Kimberley waters should be industrialised by an industry that cannot prevent, nor adequately manage to clean up its toxic mess.

Martin Ferguson initially commented that the light crude oil would evaporate. Also, he failed to disclose another rig spill in the same area that began weeks before. He considered it minor saying,

What needs to be done?

The Kimberley’s waters are a ‘marine wonderland’ of global significance, but currently less than 1% of its waters have any marine protected areas. The Wilderness Society is calling on the Federal Government to declare a moratorium on further approvals and expansion of the oil and gas industry in the region until plans to establish marine sanctuaries across the North West marine region are finalized and implemented.

In the 1970’s Australia said ‘no’ to oil and gas mining on the Great Barrier Reef  and now it has excellent protection attracting millions of people and dollars to Queensland.  The Kimberley too, is an extraordinary marine environment and deserves similar protection.

The Greens have successfully called for a Federal inquiry into the oil spill. This inquiry must determine the cause of the spill and provide recommendations to the government to improve the response time, cleanup, ensure adequate monitoring and hopefully prevent this from happening again. Commissioner of the inquiry, David Borthwick, will also receive public submissions before December 22nd, 2009.

Sign online - If you want to put your 'hands up' for the Kimberley wilderness!