Interior approves $4 million for ANWR

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

On June 7 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced $50 million in funding for the rebuilding of critical U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service infrastructure, including $4 million for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The ANWR funding is characterized as targeting improvements to existing facilities and the construction of outbuildings, to support heightened activities in readiness for oil exploration in the 1002 area of the ANWR coastal plain.

The Department of the Interior has not responded to a request for further information about the ANWR funding. However, Associated Press has reported that the funding will pay for six projects for facility improvement or construction. Those projects involve an aviation fuel storage facility in the village of Kaktovik, on the northern edge of the 1002 area, and storage buildings in the village to protect vehicles from bears. Funding will also enable the expansion of a cabin in Galbraith Lake and the construction of a cabin in Arctic Village, the AP report says.

Galbraith Lake is located adjacent the North Slope Haul Road on the north side of the Brooks Range. Arctic Village is on the south side of the Brooks Range, on the southern edge of ANWR, some 150 miles south of the coast plain.

Zinke has indicated that he sees tackling a backlog in deferred maintenance on Interior-administered federal lands as one of his top priorities. In Alaska the Fish and Wildlife Service funding will also be used for the rehabilitation of a number of public use trails, cabins, a boardwalk and a boat ramp in the Kenai and Kodiak National Wildlife Refuges.

- ALAN BAILEY