Environmental groups and traditional owners say they still hold grave concerns about the Northern Territory's largest groundwater licence, despite new conditions.
Fortune Agribusiness has again been granted the right to extract 40,000 megalitres of water a year from Singleton Station in remote Central Australia.
The staged licence was first approved in April, but in September underwent a formal review process overseen by a panel of independent groundwater experts.
It was re-approved on Monday with new requirements, including a better understanding of the region's sacred sites.
Lesley Turner from the Central Land Council said this was "encouraging" but said the CLC did not trust the NT government to protect sacred sites.
The new conditions also included further study of the aquifer.
Kirsty Howey from Environment Centre NT said both of the studies should have been done before the licence was approved.
"What we see here is an approach which they're calling adaptive management, but I would describe as a suck it and see approach," she said.
The new licence was granted by Minister Kate Worden instead of Minister for Environment Eva Lawler.
Ms Lawler said she excused herself because of a perceived conflict of interest over her extension of the licence from 10 years to 30 years.
Expert panel identified 'risks'
The expert panel found aspects of the project were "problematic" and it did not adequately manage "risks" or "uncertainty".
The panel found not enough was known about the aquifer to say weather or not it was safe to extract the amount of water the project was proposing.
"These risks and uncertainties need to be better defined before there can be confidence in the decision to provide the volumes of water that the licence makes available to the proponent," the report said.
The review panel did not recommend reducing the size of the licence, but did recommend further studies be carried out by Fortune Agribusiness.
Ms Howey said it was "concerning" this work had not already been done by the government.
The review panel also recommended the first stage of the project be increased from two years to five, to give authorities a better understanding of the aquifer.
The first stage of the licence was increased from two years to three, instead of the recommended five.
When questioned about this decision, Ms Lawler said she was unsure because it had not been her decision, it had been Ms Worden's.
"But there has been, it's not just this one project, this Singleton project, there has been extensive work around the water allocation for that area," she said.
Review 'worked'
Ms Lawler said the formal review's findings that more work was needed showed "the process works".
"And we listened to the review report. That work will then continue."
Ms Lawler said it gave her no reason to doubt the work of the water controller or her Department of Environment.
"I will back them in the work that they do, as I said they are exceptional people that have integrity."
Fortune Agribusiness declined to comment for this story.
