Aleutians borough votes ‘yes’ to oil leasing

The six-village Aleutians East Borough Assembly has voted unanimously to allow offshore oil and gas leasing in Bristol Bay.

The resolution expresses support for offshore leasing so long as fish are protected, exploration is environmentally safe, and oil and gas companies provide business opportunities to local residents.

The borough is the closest local government to the offshore area, which may contain trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

Shell Oil has talked of drilling offshore to find and develop the gas, a project that could generate hundreds of millions of tax dollars for local and state government.

Borough villages, including King Cove, Sand Point, Akutan, Cold Bay, False Pass and Nelson Lagoon depend heavily on commercial fishing. Millions of salmon migrate past the borough each summer, and the bay also is rich in king crab, whales and other sea life.

Aleutians East Borough Mayor Stanley Mack noted that federal leasing would occur in waters at least three miles offshore, and the main target is natural gas. He said those two factors would decrease the threat to fisheries.

But many others in the area oppose offshore searches for oil.

“The majority of the tribes in the Bristol Bay region are against offshore oil exploration and drilling,” said Norman Anderson, a Naknek commercial salmon fisherman and coordinator of a group called Friends of Bristol Bay. The group is working to preserve the ban on offshore drilling.

The Bristol Bay Native Association and the Bristol Bay Borough also oppose offshore oil and gas activity, Anderson said.

A Native association resolution passed earlier in September says offshore drilling could damage commercial fisheries and the subsistence way of life, which “outweighs the value of short-term oil and gas potential.”

The state is planning to lease onshore acreage along the Alaska Peninsula on Oct. 26. Drillers could use horizontal drilling to probe a mile or two underneath near-shore waters.

The resolution is nonbinding, according to Justine Gunderson, whose village of Nelson Lagoon is closest to offshore waters believed the most prospective for a major natural gas discovery.

“We can always get off the train,” Gunderson said.

—The Associated Press