The SA government and BHP need to protect the Great Artesian Basin Mound Springs

David Noonan

Published in Chain Reaction #149, April 2025

For decades, millions of litres of Great Artesian Basin (GAB) water have been extracted daily for use at the Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine in central South Australia. That water extraction has severely impacted precious Mound Springs, oases sustained by the underlying GAB. There is now an opportunity to protect the Mound Springs, but that opportunity may be missed.

“I agree with you that the real opportunity to achieve significant beneficial environmental and cultural outcomes is to replace, or at least significantly reduce, Olympic Dam’s current extractions from the GAB with a new, sustainable water supply.”

Those were the words of Susan Close, SA Minister for Environment and Water, in a letter to me dated 18 July 2022.

Protection for unique and fragile Mound Springs1 and integrity of GAB waters2 can’t be left up to the undue influence of BHP, the mining giant that currently owns and operates the Olympic Dam mine. BHP’s very limited commitment is to retain its unviable Wellfield A operations and only close it by the end of fiscal year 2030 once the SA government provides a new water supply to BHP.3

The impacts of BHP’s larger scale Wellfield B water extraction operations are an untenable long-term insidious threat to the viability of Mound Spring flows. BHP wants to continue these operations.

The SA government’s Northern Water Project could provide BHP with a water supply for all envisaged mine expansion and new mining options and replace both Wellfields A and B extractions from the GAB.4

The project’s “Summary Business Case” (Feb. 2024) does recognise ongoing risks to GAB Mound Springs:5

“The 2021 Juukan Gorge Inquiry made the following observations: ‘These springs (Mound Springs) are of great significance to the Arabana people and they are an important part of their cultural heritage. There are fears that continued extraction from the Great Artesian Basin will result in a significant reduction to the ‘vitality and the ecological viability of the springs’, and that there is a high likelihood that more springs will go extinct.’ 

 “Northern Water will play a significant role in reducing reliance on the use of water supplies that hold significant cultural importance to Traditional Owners. Providing the opportunity for reduced water withdrawals from the Great Artesian Basin may play a role in preserving mound springs. As virtual oases in the desert, the springs were, and still are, of vital importance to Indigenous people.”

However, the SA government has a serious conflict of interest in dealing with BHP. SA wants to lever and maximise an array of BHP investments in north SA and to give certainty to BHP over water supply.

BHP is to set up Olympic Dam as a regional processing hub for copper-uranium ores from multiple mine expansions6 and to process ore from a major new deep underground BHP mine at Oak Dam.7

SA Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas decided the public is to pay the full capital costs for a major new marine desalination plant on Eyre Peninsula and to pay for the pipelines to deliver that water to BHP at Olympic Dam. Half of the new desal water supply, up to 130 million litres a day, is to go to mining.

The SA government claims Northern Water can have no adverse impacts, direct or indirect, on the Mound Springs and therefore excluded the Springs from the project’s federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act Referral 2023/09717.8 The government claims ‘there is no ongoing degradation of the Springs’, and that the Springs have ‘stabilised’.

Thus the state Environmental Impact Assessment process regarding Northern Water does not intend to assess impacts on Mound Springs or to require conditions be set to benefit the Springs in any approval of the project.

The EIS Assessment Requirements on Northern Water give only token consideration to the fate of the Mound Springs.9

The state government does not intend to direct BHP to protect the Springs but rather to ‘incentivise’ BHP toward negotiated outcomes and sees closing Wellfield A as an important but voluntary measure by BHP. ‘Significant beneficial environmental and cultural outcomes’ may be left until last or not realised at all.

Federal powers

Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has a responsibility to protect GAB Mound Springs and can use funding leverage and the federal EPBC Act to do so. Protection for GAB Mound Springs may finally rely on gaining exercise of federal influence, responsibilities and powers, given the SA government’s conflict of interest in support of mining and BHP’s undue influence.10

Minister Plibersek can use EPBC Act powers to place Approval Conditions on Northern Water through the state EIS process to protect GAB Mound Springs as a listed EPBC Act Endangered Ecological Community.11 $65 million of ‘Future Made in Australia’ funds has already been put into Northern Water but the Minister not yet taken action to require protection of the GAB Mound Springs.

ABC News reported on 17 May 2024:12

“’Valuable’ resources being overdrawn: Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the project was important to provide water for “thirsty” green hydrogen production and copper development. She said the only alternatives for those industries in SA would be a continued reliance the Murray River or the Great Artesian Basin. “Both of these sources are not as reliable as they need to be for industry,” Ms Plibersek said. “But they’re also incredibly valuable environmentally and the fact that we’ve been overdrawing on these resources has led to problems both for the environment and for the communities that rely on these water resources for farming, drinking and other purposes.”

Federal funds for Northern Water must be made conditional on closure of both Wellfields A and B. The window of influence ahead of the federal election is a key time to gain federal engagement to protect the unique and fragile Mound Springs as part of Minister Plibersek’s ‘Nature Positive’ agenda.

At stake are the GAB Mound Springs’ fundamental ongoing cultural and spiritual values to Indigenous People.

Social license, the SA government’s political credibility and public interest standing depend on this outcome.

Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas has tied his political fortunes in partnership with BHP13 to double the scale of BHP copper mining in north SA to 650,000 tonnes a year by mid-2030s.14

As reported in The Advertiser on 22 Feb. 2024, the Premier looks to commit $5 billion of public funds to Northern Water, with half the water to go to mining. Over half of the $5 billion ‘investment’ goes to pipe desal water to BHP as world’s largest miner.

The fate of the Mound Springs must not be left up to fraught state negotiations with BHP over ‘water pricing’ as the state tries to recoup some of the $5 billion of public funds and BHP aims to limit how much the company agrees to pay for a new water supply to be delivered to Olympic Dam.

The SA government wants to leave decisions on GAB Mound Springs until after the public Environmental Impact Assessment process on Northern Water and BHP wants to ‘hold over’ changes to Wellfield B until late in negotiations with the state.

The SA Copper Strategy15 and Northern Water Project lack a social license, and a $5 billion state and federal ‘investment’ fails contemporary public interest expectations unless the Mound Springs are protected for the long term through this opportunity to replace all BHP water extractions from the GAB.

When the first marine desal water turns up at Roxby Downs town and at the Olympic Dam mine, BHP should have to turn off the taps on GAB water extraction.

 Civil society needs a concerted public interest campaign to protect GAB Mound Springs throughout 2025.

 David Noonan is an independent environment campaigner based in Adelaide.

References:

  1. https://www.friendsofmoundsprings.org.au/
  2. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/national/great-artesian-basin
  3. https://www.bhp.com/sustainability/environment/water/shared-water-challenges
  4. https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/northern-water?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cm_newsletter
  5. https://www.northernwater.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/987413/240216_ISA_NWS_Business-Case-Summary_FINAL.pdf
  6. https://www.bhp.com/what-we-do/global-locations/australia/south-australia
  7. https://www.bhp.com/what-we-do/global-locations/australia/south-australia/oak-dam
  8. https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/open-for-comments/project-decision/?id=fd6798f9-6ddb-ee11-904c-6045bde708a5. See also the critique endorsed by Conservation SA on this government position. https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Noonan-2024-sub-to-EPBC-2023-09717-Re-Impact-on-Springs-of-the-GAB.pdf
  9. https://plan.sa.gov.au/development_applications/state_development/impact-assessed-development/majors/major_projects/majors/northern-water-project
  10. https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Noonan-2024-sub-to-EPBC-2023-09717-Re-Impact-on-Springs-of-the-GAB.pdf
  11. https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/open-for-comments/project-decision/?id=fd6798f9-6ddb-ee11-904c-6045bde708a5
  12. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-17/northern-water-supply-project-funding-jim-chalmers/103862108
  13. https://www.bhp.com/news/media-centre/releases/2024/08/bhp-takes-next-step-in-smelter-and-refinery-expansion-at-copper-south-australia
  14. https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/media-releases/news-archive/significant-milestone-as-bhps-sa-copper-plan-set-for-assessment
  15. https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Noonan-SA-Copper-Strategy-Northern-Water-December-2024.pdf