Corps resolves Cook Inlet violations

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that it has resolved two separate permit violations by two oil and gas companies conducting 3-D seismic surveys in Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin. The two companies involved are Apache Alaska Corp. and Buccaneer Energy.

Apache was conducting a survey over a 684-square-mile area near Tyonek, on the west side of the Cook Inlet, and had drilled some shot holes within a Corps-stipulated no-drill buffer zone around some previously undiscovered cultural resources, in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Corps said in a March 19 statement. The company had not conducted an archaeological survey, as required by its Corps permit, prior to drilling the holes, the Corps said.

Apache proposed to resolve the problem by not detonating explosives in the holes, delaying the start of its operations and executing a modified plan to survey for cultural resources. The Corps consulted with the State Historic Preservation Officer, two federally recognized tribes and some other people to develop a programmatic agreement that included steps to mitigate adverse impacts from Apache’s survey, the Corps said.

In the incident involving Buccaneer and its seismic contractor Weems Geophysical, the companies disposed material from more than 800 shot holes in wetlands in Kenai prior to receiving a Clean Water Act permit that the company had applied for. Upon notification of a Clean Water Act violation, the companies voluntarily ceased their activities and the matter was resolved by the Corps granting an after-the-fact permit, the Corps said. The permit also authorized Buccaneer to drill an additional 266 shot holes in wetlands adjacent the mouth of the Kenai River — the shot hole drilling needs to be done in frozen ground at least 500 feet from the river, the Corps said.

“The violations resulted in delays in both companies’ schedules and reduced the amount of area they could survey during the winter, but the Corps takes seriously our responsibility to protect Alaska’s aquatic and historic resources, while allowing reasonable development,” wrote Kevin Morgan, chief of the Regulatory Division for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, in the Corps’ statement.

—Alan Bailey