Fracking: Friends of the Earth objects to permit for North Yorkshire project

Friends of the Earth has formally objected to an Environment Agency proposal to grant Europa Gas and Oil a permit for its planned fracking operations in Burniston, North Yorkshire.

The environmental permit is one of the key regulatory consents Europa needs before it can begin extracting gas using a controversial fracking technique known as ‘proppant squeeze’.

However, the project also needs planning permission, which is a separate consent concerned with planning law and policy. North Yorkshire Council rejected Europa’s planning application in May following strong objections to the project from local residents, Friends of the Earth and local group community group, Frack Free Coastal Communities. Europa has said it will appeal the council’s decision but has yet to do so.

An environmental permit is required for activities that could pollute, increase flood risk, affect land drainage or affect water resources [1].

Friends of the Earth is urging the Environment Agency – which says it is minded to grant the application for an environmental permit – to reconsider its position, warning that it has failed to adequately consider a number of serious environmental and health concerns (see below).

Friends of the Earth’s interim head of legal, Katie de Kauwe, said:

"If the Environment Agency gives the go-ahead to this permit based on its current reasoning, then it will, in our view, be failing in its fundamental duty to ensure a high level of protection for our environment and public health.

“We don’t believe it has properly accounted for the environmental and health risks associated with this fracking project.

“Alongside the risk of earthquakes, this development would also release toxic pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and benzene.

“The Environment Agency says it has followed the relevant guidance and legislation, but we can find no evidence that it has properly considered the latest science on air quality, including the World Health Organisation’s authoritative guidelines. This is particularly concerning given the project’s close proximity to Burniston.”

Friends of the Earth has raised a number of concerns about the Environment Agency’s provisional decision to allow the environment permit, including: 

•    Seismicity risks: Although a moratorium on fracking has been in force since 2019 (apart from a brief period under Liz Truss) it does not cover every type of fracking for fossil fuels. This leaves the door open to applications for lower-volume fracking techniques – such as ‘proppant squeeze’– to go ahead. Professor Stuart Hazeldine, one of the UK’s top geologists, has warned that seismicity risks from low and high-volume fracking can be “equally large and equally unpredictable”. Friends of the Earth therefore believes that the Environment Agency’s conclusion that there are only very low seismic risks from the project is wrong.

•    Air quality: Friends of the Earth is also concerned that the Environment Agency underestimates the risks posed by dangerous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and Benzene from the site. The environmental justice campaigners believe the Environment Agency should take account of the latest scientific evidence, including the World Health Organisation’s guidelines from 2021. Friends of the Earth says the Environment Agency’s failure to do so runs counter to its primary function to safeguard human and environmental health.

•    Odour and environmental risk: Friends of the Earth questions why the Environment Agency is proposing to authorise a permit, when it has concluded that the odour management plan provided by the developer is “unsatisfactory.”

•    Groundwater: Friends of the Earth has also raised concerns about how potential impacts to groundwater have been assessed. The Environment Agency acknowledges that the project could result in some discharge into groundwater. It also acknowledges that 50-70% of the proppant fluid will remain underground after the operations are finished. The total volume of fluid involved could be around 2,000 m3. If 70% were left underground that would amount to 1,400 m3 – equivalent to over half the volume of a 50m Olympic Swimming Pool.

Friends of the Earth is also concerned at the internal contradictions in the Environment Agency's reasoning. In one part of its proposed decision notice, it concludes the proppant fluid contains only non-hazardous chemicals, and elsewhere, that a “small fraction” is hazardous.

ENDS

Notes to editors:  

1.    The Environment Agency proposes in its draft decision notice to grant Europa Gas and Oil a permit for four regulated activities:
o    a mining waste operation
o    an underground non-hazardous Mining Waste Facility involving the “permanent deposit and accumulation” of what it describes as “non-hazardous waste in the Carboniferous sandstones as the well test is completed,” although: “The non-hazardous waste will include drill cuttings coated with residual Low Toxicity Oil Based Muds”
o    incineration by flaring of hazardous waste – “namely natural gas above 10 tonnes per day”
o    groundwater activity, in relation to “well stimulation” – i.e. the low volume fracking operation
 

2. Friends of the Earth is grateful to Estelle Dehon OBE KC and Camille Richards, both of Cornerstone Barristers Chambers, for reviewing and contributing to Friends of the Earth’s consultation response.