A report has found that plans for a massive water licence in the NT could pose a risk to cultural sites. 

Fortune Agribusiness (FA) is seeking a staged 40,000-megalitre licence to create farmland on 3,300 hectares of arid country at Singleton Station, south of Tennant Creek.

The Northern Territory government and FA say the project is safe. It was been referred for environmental assessment in November, with public consultation now closed. 

A report commissioned in 2021 by Central Land Council (CLC) Indigenous representatives found up to 40 sacred sites in the region relied on the region's groundwater. 

This week, an addendum to that report found the safety of those sites is outside the scope of current sacred site protections in the Territory.

“The potential impacts will likely or almost certainly result in highly significant cultural values to be lost, degraded and damaged, as well as notably altered, modified, obscured or diminished,” says report author Susan Donaldson.

“The planned action, in my view, is likely to alter the existing use of a number of cultural and ceremonial sites, causing their values to notably diminish over time.”

FA has knocked back the concerns of the traditional owners group.

FA chair Peter Wood says the company’s referral to the EPA was “extremely comprehensive”.

“It includes detailed analyses and assessments by subject matter experts and actions to be taken by Fortune Agri to ensure that potential risks and impacts are satisfactorily managed,” he said.  

The company says all risks to the environment and cultural values could be mitigated, with the project only posing a “medium” risk to sacred sites in the region. 

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) will soon determine what level of assessment the project requires.