Today (25th November) the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Western Australia announced the EIA level of assessment for the Western ‘Green’ Energy Hub (WGEH) will be set at the highest level of assessment, that of Public Environmental Review (PER).
This outcome is expected considering the scale of the project and its potential impact to outstanding natural and cultural heritage values.
It is very encouraging to see that 282 public submissions were made to the EPA despite the short 7-day period, and the vast majority (92%) recommended the proposal be subject to PER, highest level of public scrutiny.
It is also encouraging to see that the EPA have taken heed of at least a few of the serious deficiencies evident in the WGEH supporting document-26, which were spotlighted in the public submissions.
For example, three key environmental factors not considered important by WGEH have been added by the EPA as preliminary key environmental factors for consideration, namely: landforms, subterranean fauna, and inland waters.
The public review period has been set at 10 weeks.
The public record extract of determination can be viewed here (look under the Referral 2 menu at bottom of page):
https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/proposals/western-green-energy-hub
The EPA Steps through the assessment process explained here:
https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/step-step-through-proposal-assessment-process
To keep informed, and contribute to the public review process, you can subscribe for email updates from the EPA: