'Total disrespect' - traditional owners against water allocation plans at Singleton Station

The CLC says the Northern Territory Government is expected to make a decision next week on a 40,000 megalitre-a-year water license application made by Fortune Agribusiness for Singleton Station, about 120km south of Tennant Creek.

If approved, it will operate for 30 years and be the biggest groundwater licence in the history of the NT.

The Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security could not confirm the decision date.

CLC executive officer Michael Liddle said there has not been enough data or research collected to make a decision yet.

"We are very concerned about the lack of scientific data about groundwater availability and how such a massive and unprecedented proposal would affect the water our people, animals and plants are relying on for their long-term survival," he said.

CLC chief executive officer Joe Martin-Jard said there is much to learn about groundwater in the region, and the NT Government have not committed to researching the effects of increased water usage.

"There are big gaps in our knowledge about the region's groundwater and how it moves between the network of aquifers," he said.

"That's why we want the government to collect data to verify its assumptions and modelling about how much water is really underground and test the impact of irrigation on groundwater dependent ecosystems and cultural sites before allowing this proposal to go ahead."

Environment Centre NT's co-director Kirsty Howey said the unprecedented size of the proposed water allocation will cause environmental damage.

"This proposal is absolutely extraordinary in its scale and impacts that will occur to that aquifer," she said.

"That proposal cannot be said to be sustainable... it will damage life above the ground, it will make accessing surrounding water systems harder."

Ms Howey said the centre is concerned the approval of the application would be a "signal of what's to come" and influence other water allocation decisions, such as the NT Farmers Association's push to extract 520 billion litres from the Douglas Daly catchment.

"We don't feel industries of this scale have the social licence or support of the wider community," she said.

"The Singleton Station licence, if it's granted, sets a terrifying precedent for what might happen in other river systems."

Mr Liddle has family connections to local Traditional Owners. He said they are concerned climate change will combine with the potential impacts of increased water usage.

"We don't know how it's going to impact the environment and with climate change there are all sorts of impacts that could be irreversible," he said.

"We are deaf and blind when it comes to understanding the destruction that climate change is doing, how do we know rains are going to come and replenish this water?"

Mr Liddle said Traditional Owners have not been appropriately consulted throughout the government's decision making process,

He claimed the NT Government turned down a meeting with Traditional Owners.

"No, they haven't been listened to," he said.

"That's just not fair, regardless of the decision made there should have been discussion around the issue."

CLC said it asked Water Minister Eva Lawler to delay the decision until after a meeting of affected remote community residents, traditional owners and native title holders in Tennant Creek on February 24.

The Katherine Times asked the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security if Traditional Owners were consulted appropriately, and if enough data has been obtained to make a decision.

The department did not reply before publication.

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