Strong regulation is the key message a DMP team aims to get across at the Mid West Expo in Mingenew.
| Date: | Thursday, 04 September 2014 |
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The Mid West’s major annual agricultural event provides DMP with the opportunity to talk to the community about shale and tight gas.
A community engagement team from the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) will head north later this month to present the facts on shale and tight gas at the annual Mid West Expo in Mingenew.
DMP representatives will man a booth during the two-day Expo on September 18 and 19 to discuss any community concerns over the emerging industry and the associated process of hydraulic fracturing.
“The Mingenew Lions Expo is the largest two-day agricultural field day in the Mid West so it’s a perfect opportunity to talk to lots of local people,” DMP Petroleum Tenure and Land Access General Manager Beverley Bower said.
Ms Bower, who will lead the team, said the department was keen to let the community know how the industry in would be regulated.
“This trip is an important part of DMP’s continuing program of community engagement to present people with factual information on shale and tight gas and hydraulic fracturing,” she said.
“We know people have concerns about potential risks to water resources and the environment.
“We want to reassure them that if the industry does go ahead – and it will be at least five to 10 years before we see that happening – that it will be subject to stringent regulation by DMP.”
Ms Bower said that DMP’s regulations were already among the world’s most robust and would become even tougher when new resource management regulations become law, hopefully before the end of the year.
