George Walley, a local Noongar elder, looks out across an Alcoa mine site on the outskirts of Pinjarra, Western Australia, on… XXX. “The bauxite mining activity is taking from Mother Earth … from what is ours,” Walley said.
A one-of-a-kind ecosystem lies above the bauxite Alcoa says it needs for its future. The company’s request to expand mining in Australia is drawing objections from scientists and the land’s original inhabitants.
From 7,000 feet, the reddish ruts dug by one of the world’s largest bauxite mines cut for miles through an endangered biodiversity hotspot. The ore beneath Australia’s Northern Jarrah Forest fuels Alcoa’s $12 billion global aluminum operation. As demand surges, the Pittsburgh-based metals giant wants approval to mine more land. But the forest has already been taken to its knees by a warming world and decades of deforestation. Scientists say further loss threatens total ecological collapse.
Read the story Hollowed Out, part of the investigative reporting project EQT’s Gas Play, by Quinn Glabicki and PublicSource.
Alcoa mines sprawl for miles across Western Australia’s Northern Jarrah Forest. The company’s mining lease covers much of the forest, and the company is seeking an expansion of its access.
Botanist Kingsley Dixon inspects a kingia australis, an ancient plant endemic to Western Australia, in unmined forest near an Alcoa mine site in Waroona. “Two things want bauxite: The Aluminum Company of America and the jarrah forest. They both have an utter, total dependence on it. Who wins?” Dixon questioned.
Michael Durdevich stands beneath a water tank installed by EQT contractors at his home on the outskirts of New Freeport, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 2024. Residents of New Freeport, including Durdevich, reported water contamination, red painful rashes and chemical odors after an EQT hydraulic fracturing accident in 2022.
EQT President and Chief Executive Officer, Toby Rice (on right in checkered shirt), is confronted by residents of New Freeport, Pennsylvania on August 24, 2023 in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. After a 2022 hydraulic fracturing accident, residents of New Freeport reported contaminated water, including painful red rashes after showering and oily, chemical-smelling water. The company and Rice have denied responsibility, arguing to regulators that the incident never occurred. A class-action lawsuit is pending in federal court. After residents confronted Rice, the company supplied some residents with large tanks of water, refilled weekly.
Christopher Nannup processes a kangaroo during a hunt on a reserve recently acquired by the Noongar people of pinjarra.
Dolls belonging to Piper Tennant, 11, rest outside the house where the family relocated in Paden City, West Virginia, on February 16, 2024. The family sealed many of their belongings in plastic to avoid exposure to volatile organic compounds that may have contaminated them.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.
Tom Bussoletti stands next to the abandoned gas well in the forest near his home which was percolating “like a coffee pot” with methane, less than a mile from EQT’s Lumber pad site on the outskirts of New Freeport, Pennsylvania, on July 18, 2022.
Michael Durdevich stands beneath a water tank installed by EQT contractors at his home on the outskirts of New Freeport, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 2024. Residents of New Freeport, including Durdevich, reported water contamination, red painful rashes and chemical odors after an EQT hydraulic fracturing accident in 2022.
Main Street in New Freeport, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 2024. New Freeport is the site of a 2022 hydraulic fracturing accident by EQT Corporation, which residents say contaminated local water supplies, and which has led to a class action lawsuit pending in federal court.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.
(Left) A conveyor belt used by Alcoa to transport Bauxite from the mines to the refineries near the coast. (Right) A Jarrah tree near Pinjarra.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.
Greg Hollabaugh hunches over a tree to catch his breath in the woods above the cabin where his family relocated after experiencing years of illness after EQT began to extract natural gas next door, in Knob Fork, West Virginia, on November 20, 2023. “Didn’t used to be like this before they put the wells in,” he said. Hollabaugh experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to airborne volatile organic compounds, including chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, rashes and extreme lethargy.