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Plan to expand NPR-A exploration meets resistance North Slope subsistence hunters question BLM proposal to expand leasing to oil-rich corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska The Associated Press
North Slope subsistence hunters are questioning a federal proposal to expand exploration in an oil-rich corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, saying new drill pads, bridges and ice roads in the wrong places could damage the wildlife they rely on for food.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants to revisit environmental protections approved in 1998 that officials now say are keeping nearly two-thirds of the oil in the NPR-A’s northeastern section off-limits. They say that by amending provisions of the plan, the BLM can protect subsistence resources yet still enable oil companies to tap more than 2 billion barrels of crude.
But Inupiat hunters and fishermen say the protected area, more than 800,000 acres around Teshekpuk Lake, is a crucial nursery for fish, game and birds that feed hundreds of families. At meetings in Barrow, Nuiqsut and other North Slope villages in recent weeks, they asked the BLM to honor the habitat protections they helped develop in 1998.
“I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep at night if I allow this to happen,” North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmaogak told the Anchorage Daily News. “I’m all for sensible oil and gas development, development with a scientific basis. But this kind of activity proposed by the BLM, it doesn’t make any sense.”
President Harding established the 23.5 million-acre petroleum reserve in 1923, expecting it would eventually contribute to U.S. oil production. Current estimates suggest that the entire NPR-A contains between 6 billion and 13 billion barrels of recoverable oil and that the northeast section might hold 3.2 billion barrels.
In contrast, Prudhoe Bay has pumped more than 13 billion barrels through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. No oil yet from NPR-A No oil has yet been produced from the NPR-A, but its time is coming, BLM spokeswoman Jody Weil said. Leases were sold in the northeast section in 1999 and 2002, and more than a dozen exploratory wells have been drilled. Two ConocoPhillips wells could begin producing in four or five years, she said.
As development occurs in the northeast section, it will be controlled by a land use plan approved in 1998 by the BLM, which at the time was under the direction of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The plan took 18 months to develop and included substantial input from the North Slope Borough and the four villages that lie in or near this section of the reserve.
It opens 87 percent of the 4.6 million-acre northeast section to exploration and development. The remaining land is around Teshekpuk Lake. Nearly 600,000 acres north and east of the lake cannot be leased. Another 240,000 acres south and west were open to exploration but closed to surface development. Deposits beneath the section would be tapped by directional drilling from outside the closed area. Much learned since 1998 The BLM has learned much since the 1998 environmental impact statement was completed, Weil said. Wildlife studies, information from exploratory wells and industry innovations elsewhere on the North Slope persuaded the agency to consider revising its 5-year-old management plan.
“It’s worth looking at whether we can continue to protect those subsistence resources and still get in there” to retrieve oil thought to lie below the off-limits areas, Weil said. “Maybe we can’t. But it’s worth looking.”
The agency has been taking comments on whether to amend the plan and should decide later this fall, Weil said. If amendments are warranted, it will hold more public hearings on what changes might be made and could finish the new plan next year, she said.
But North Slope residents voiced strong support for maintaining the current plan and its protections of the Teshekpuk Lake area.
“That’s a really critical habitat area for us,” Atqasuk hunter Paul Bodfish said. “We depend on that area so much throughout the year. The less traffic they put over there, it’s going to better for the wildlife.”
The area is a breadbasket for 5,000 residents of Barrow and the villages around the NPR-A, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Geoff Carroll. It’s a crucial nesting and molting area for large numbers of black brants, white-fronted geese and other waterfowl sought by subsistence hunters from the North Slope to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Fishermen take salmon, whitefish, burbot and other species from lakes and streams in the area, he said. Teshekpuk caribou herd important subsistence resource But perhaps the most important subsistence resource in the region is the Teshekpuk caribou herd, Carroll said. It provides 2,500 or more animals to hunters each year, making it more valuable to local residents than any other caribou herd, he said. The animals congregate at Teshekpuk in spring to calve. By early summer, they funnel through narrow corridors and head north for insect relief.
“Oil development certainly has benefits, and we could probably have oil development and healthy wild populations,” Carroll said, “but only if you take into account there are crucial areas you should keep oil development out of.”
His fear is that drill rigs and other development in the most sensitive areas could disrupt caribou calf survival. If the herd declines in size, it can’t support the current hunting level, he said. Similarly, development could affect waterfowl populations and fish, he said.
The North Slope Borough has long opposed offshore drilling, fearing its effect on bowhead whales, Ahmaogak said. But now, after development has crept up to the village of Nuiqsut, concern over onshore development is rising too, he said.
“Nuiqsut is surrounded by roads, pipelines, drilling pads and pump stations. There’s been lease sales by the state and BLM. And now they’re going to the foothills south of (Nuiqsut). They’re totally surrounded. What people have seen has changed their attitude all of a sudden,” Ahmaogak said. In Barrow and other villages near the NPR-A, he said, “we don’t want to become another Nuiqsut.”
At the Barrow meeting, Ahmaogak took issue with the BLM’s claim that new information supports the idea of reopening closed areas and easing mitigation measures. Ahmaogak says no good reason “We do not believe either that new information exists sufficient to justify this process, or that the state of information alone is behind the proposal. The politics of power and influence are clearly at work as well,” Ahmaogak said. He cited recent statements by the Bush administration that suggest lifting NPR-A restrictions.
In a later interview, Ahmaogak said the borough might take a different view of the BLM’s proposal if there were good reason.
“If they had scientific evidence, we could discuss it. But you can’t just change the rules with no justification. People depend on this area for subsistence, and if we go in there without any scientific evidence, we’ll do some major damage. I’m not an environmentalist or conservationist by any means, but I know what’s happened in the past,” he said.
In addition to maintaining protections around Teshekpuk Lake, the borough also wants the BLM to establish guidelines for removing old oil development infrastructure and for rehabilitation measures.
Another source of friction between the borough and the BLM is over the mitigation measures in place for the northeast section and those proposed for the northwest section that has yet to be leased.
The northeast restrictions, called prescriptive, are exact. They spell out, for example, that a pipeline must be a certain height above ground to allow caribou to pass. For the northwest section, the BLM has proposed “performance-based” stipulations. They might require that a pipeline allow caribou passage but not specify a height.
The agency has proposed revising the northeast measures already in place to match those in the northwest, for consistency. Ahmaogak wants the opposite, for the northwest to match those in the northeast.
“I think the mitigation plans should be understood upfront,” he said, and not left to oil companies and the BLM to work out case by case. Nuiqsut concerned about losing subsistence opportunities Not all North Slope residents oppose the BLM plans. Jimmy Nayukok, president of the village corporation in Atqasuk, 50 miles west of the northeast section, agreed that the Teshekpuk Lake area is important subsistence habitat. But area residents also need jobs, he said.
“I want them to come over to our area and to explore for whatever they can find,” he said. “Some people may be opposed to it. They think it will harm the caribou herd, but I don’t think so. It’s a big North Slope up here,” Nayukok said. “They’ve already drilled a lot at Prudhoe. There’s still animals out there.”
But in Nuiqsut, the village most affected by the expanding North Slope oil industry, the attitude toward additional development is conservative, said Leonard Lampe, president of the village council. While the village has benefited from oil industry jobs and development, many residents are concerned about losing the valuable subsistence opportunities that have supported the Inupiat for generations, he said.
“It’s a balancing act,” Lampe said. “We’re not strangers to oil and gas leasing and development. We’ve seen this coming. The only thing we can do is try to protect our own resources.”
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