BHP : East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice - 17 July 2024

BHP Pilbara Strategic Assessment

East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice

17 July 2024

BHP	East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice

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Document Version

						Date	Of
	Description	Of		Date Validation	Date Validation Notice	Validation
Rev	Amendment		Organisation	Notice Finalised	Effective From	Notice Expiry
Rev 0	N/A		BHP Iron Ore Pty Ltd

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BHP	East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice

Glossary and Abbreviations

Term	Meaning
Activity	The Activity refers to the East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Program being undertaken in the Thirteen
	Creek and Caramulla Creek area, as described in Sections 1.4 and 2.2.
Activity Area	The area in which the Activity will be undertaken within as described in Section 1.5.
AER	Annual Environmental Reporting
APOP	Pilbara Strategic Assessment and Assurance Plan and Offsets Plan, Revision 2.3. Published April
	2023. Supersedes BHP (2018a and 2018b) versions.
Approval	The approval of the taking of an action or class of actions granted by the Minister on 19 June 2017 in
	accordance with the Program given under section 146B of the EPBC Act.
Approval Holder	Any person or persons named in an Approval as an Approval Holder who may take action in
	accordance with the Program.
BHP	BHP Iron Ore Pty Ltd
DCCEEW	Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (formerly DAWE)
Department, the	The Australian Government Department responsible for the administration of the EPBC Act or
	successors.
Direct Disturbance	The clearing of native vegetation and/or moving of earth as a result of activities undertaken within the
	Strategic Assessment Area in accordance with the Program.
DMIRS	Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety
DoE	Department of the Environment
DWER	Department of Water and Environment Regulation
EPA	Environmental Protection Authority
EPBC	Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Impact or impacts	As defined in section 527E of the EPBC Act.

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	East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice
Term	Meaning
Important population	A population that is necessary for a species' long-term survival and recover (N.B. variations of this
	definition may exist for the Program Matters - See Section 4.1.1).
Indicative Footprint	The area where the clearing of native vegetation and/or moving of earth as a result of activities is
	planned to occur.
IRR	Impact Reconciliation Report
m bgl	Metres below ground level
MAR	Managed aquifer recharge
Minister	Minister responsible for administering the EPBC Act (being, at the date of this Validation Notice, the
	Minister for the Environment).
MNES	Matters of National Environmental Significance
MS	Ministerial Statement
NJV	Newman Joint Venture
Notifiable Action	An activity that is considered likely to have a relevant impact on a Program Matter based on an
	assessment of the proposed Activity against the thresholds defined for Program Matters in the
	Assurance Plan and Offset Plan. In relation to the voluntary part of the Program, this includes an
	activity that is considered likely to have a relevant impact on a New Listing or a New Matter.
NVCP	Native Vegetation Clearing Permit
Offsets Plan	The plan that provides further detail on the processes that will be implemented to identify and deliver
	offsets associated with a Notifiable Action, as approved by the Minister on 15 May 2023. Supersedes
	BHP (2018b) version.
PEOF	Pilbara Environmental Offset Fund
PMO	Program Matter Outcomes
Program	The BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pilbara Strategic Assessment Program endorsed by the Minister on 11 May
	2017. Whilst the Agreement refers to a Plan, it was agreed with the Department that the term Program
	is a better reflection of the systems and processes to be delivered by BHP.

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Term	Meaning
Program Matters	The listed threatened species Pilbara Leaf-nosed Bat (Rhinonicteris aurantius), Northern Quoll
	(Dasyurus hallucatus), Greater Bilby (Macrotis lagotis) Ghost Bat (Macroderma gigas), Pilbara Olive
	Python (Liasis olivaceus barroni), Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) and Grey Falcon (Falco
	hypoleucos) as detailed in the Pilbara Strategic Assessment Assurance Plan and Offsets Plan (BHP
	2023).
	Strategic Assessment Area: The geographical extent of the assessment and boundaries within which
SAA	the Program must be implemented, as depicted in Appendix 1.
SEA	Strategic Environmental Approval
SM4	Song Meter 4 (acoustic recording device)
Study Area	The geographical extent of a survey's boundaries.
TSS	Total suspended solids
TSSC	Threatened Species Scientific Community
Validation Notice	This Validation Notice under Part C of the endorsed program.
WA	Western Australia

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BHP	East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice

Contents

1	Introduction	1
1.1	Background	1
1.2	Framework	1
1.3	Program, Assurance Plan and Offsets Plan Requirements	3
1.4	Activity Overview	4
1.5	Activity Area	4
1.6	Timeframes	5
1.7	Decision for a Validation Notice	5

2	Project Disturbance and Description	21
2.1	Proposed Disturbance	21
2.2	Activity Description	22
	2.2.2	Hydrogeological testing and surface water discharge	23
	2.2.3	Closure and Decommissioning	24

3	Stakeholder Engagement	25
3.1	Stakeholder Consultation	25
3.2	Public Consultation	25
4	Validation Process	27
4.1	Guidance	27
	4.1.1	Important Population	28
	4.1.2	Critical Habitat	28
4.2	Surveys and Studies	28
	4.2.1	Contemporary Surveys	28
	4.2.2	Other Surveys	34
5	Existing environmental values	37
5.1	Fauna habitats	37
5.2	Greater Bilby	41
	5.2.1	General Species Information	41
	5.2.2	Regional Habitat	41
	5.2.3	Local Habitat	47
	5.2.4	Greater Bilby Records	48

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	5.2.5	Impact Assessment	52
	5.2.6	Mitigation Hierarchy	54
	5.2.7	Residual Impact	55
	5.2.8	Review of Program Matter Outcomes	55
	5.2.9	Monitoring	56
5.3	Ghost Bat	56
	5.3.1	General Species Information	56
	5.3.2	Local Habitat	56
	5.3.3	Ghost Bat Records	57
	5.3.4	Impact Assessment	61
	5.3.5	Summary	62
5.4	Northern Quoll	62
	5.4.1	General Species Information	62
	5.4.2	Local Habitat	63
	5.4.3	Northern Quoll Records	63
	5.4.4	Impact Assessment	67
	5.4.5	Summary	68
5.5	Pilbara Olive Python	68
	5.5.1	General Species Information	68
	5.5.2	Local Habitat	69
	5.5.3	Pilbara Olive Python Records	69
	5.5.4	Impact Assessment	73
	5.5.5	Summary	74
5.6	Pilbara Leaf-nosed Bat	75
	5.6.1	General Species Information	75
	5.6.2	Local Habitat	75
	5.6.3	Pilbara Leaf-nosedBat Records	76
	5.6.4	Impact Assessment	80
	5.6.5	Summary	81
5.7	Grey Falcon	81
	5.7.1	General Species Information	81
	5.7.2	Local Habitat	82
	5.7.3	Grey Falcon Records	82
	5.7.4	Impact Assessment	86
	5.7.5	Summary	87

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5.8	Night Parrot	87
	5.8.1	General Species Information	87
	5.8.2	Local Habitat	88
	5.8.4	Impact Assessment	91
	5.8.5	Summary	92
5.9	Validation Reporting	92
6	Offset Proposal	94
6.1	Residual Impacts	94
6.2	Offset Requirements	94
6.3	Proposed Offset	97
6.4	Offset Calculation	97
	6.4.1	Baseline Conditions	97
	6.4.2	Offset Value	97
	6.4.3	Offset Rates	98
6.5	Proposed Schedule	98
6.6	Offsets Reporting	99
	6.6.1	Payment of Financial Contributions	99
	6.6.2	Implementation of PEOF Projects	100
7	Commitments	101
7.1	Clearing Commitments	101
7.2	Management Commitments	102
7.3	Offset Commitments	103
8	References	104

Appendices	109
Tables
Table 1-1: Content of Validation Notice	3
Table 1-2: Notifiable Action Triggers for the Activity	8
Table 2-1: SAA Disturbance Allocation	21
Table 3-1: Stakeholder Engagement to date	26
Table 4-1: Terrestrial Fauna - recent studies and surveys	30
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Table 4-2: Other surveys	34
Table 5-1: Fauna habitats in the Activity Area	38
Table 5-2: WA Rangeland systems within 25 km of the Activity Area	42
Table 5-3: Greater Bilby critical and supporting habitat within Activity Area and Indicative footprint	47
Table 5-4: Records of Greater Bilby within the Activity Area	49
Table 5-5: Avoidance/Mitigation management summary for identified direct and indirect impacts	54
Table 5-6: Review of Program Matter Outcomes (Greater Bilby)	55
Table 6-1: Impacts requiring offsetting	95
Table 6-2: Offsets reporting period	99
Table 6-3: PEOF contributions schedule	99
Table 7-1: Proposed clearing commitments - Greater Bilby	101
Table 7-2: Proposed management commitments - Greater Bilby	102
Table 7-3: Proposed offset commitments - Greater Bilby	103
Figures
Figure 1-1: Regional location	2
Figure 1-2: Activity Area and Indicative Footprint	7
Figure 4-1: Contemporary vertebrate fauna surveys undertaken in the Activity Area	35
Figure 5-1 Fauna habitat within the Activity Area	40
Figure 5-2: Greater Bilby regional records and distribution	45
Figure 5-3 Regional land systems	46
Figure 5-4-: Greater Bilby survey areas and sample sites	50
Figure 5-5: Greater Bilby mapped habitat and records	51
Figure 5-6: Ghost Bat regional records and distribution	58
Figure 5-7: Ghost Bat survey areas and methods	59
Figure 5-8: Ghost Bat mapped habitats and records	60
Figure 5-9: Northern Quoll survey areas and methods	65
Figure 5-10: Northern Quoll mapped habitats and records	66
Figure 5-11: Pilbara Olive Python regional records and distribution	70
Figure 5-12: Pilbara Olive Python Survey Coverage	71
Figure 5-13: Pilbara Olive Python mapped habitat and records	72
Figure 5-14: Pilbara Leaf-nosed Bat regional records and distribution	77
Figure 5-15: Pilbara Leaf-nosed Bat survey coverage	78
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East Pilbara Surplus Water Drilling Validation Notice
Figure 5-16: Pilbara Leaf-nosed Bat mapped habitat and records	79
Figure 5-17: Grey Falcon regional records and distribution	83
Figure 5-18: Grey Falcon survey coverage	84
Figure 5-19: Grey Falcon mapped habitats and records	85
Figure 5-20: Night Parrot regional records and distribution	89
Figure 5-21: Night Parrot survey coverage	90
Figure 6-1: Fauna habitat clearing offsets	96

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