Environment harm remains from Alaska drilling - study
Date: 06-Mar-03
Country: USA
The report could be interpreted to support the Bush administration's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, while green groups could use it to back their concerns that energy exploration hurts Alaska's environment.
Oil fields on land and off the coast of Alaska's North Slope have produced about 14 billion barrels of oil since large amounts of crude were discovered in the region in 1968. Another 20 billion barrels could still be extracted from the area.
The North Slope - an area slightly larger that Minnesota - currently accounts for about 15 percent of U.S. oil output.
Environmentalists claim oil production in the area, especially future activity, is harmful to wildlife, while oil firms argue that advanced drilling technology allows them to operate with decreasing impact on the land.
A new report from the National Academy of Sciences concluded that both sides are correct.
"Oil and gas production on the North Slope has brought positive and negative consequences - economic, social and environmental," the Academy said its report, which will be formally released on Wednesday.
The Academy said advances in locating and extracting oil have reduced the number of exploration wells and remote sensing devices needed to find oil.
"Oil drilling platforms also are smaller, leaving smaller physical imprints on the tundra, and some roads and drilling sites are now being constructed with ice instead of gravel," the report said.
However, the Academy warned when oil and gas production ends on the North Slope, equipment, building, gravel roads and other installations will likely remain because of the high costs to remove them and restore the affected area.
The Academy said drilling has had an accumulating impact on animal populations, such as forcing bowhead whales to travel a different route in their fall migration to avoid the noise from exploration activities.
Meanwhile, more people on the North Slope has meant more refuse for scavenging bears, foxes, ravens and gulls, which has boosted their population.
However, these animals prey on the eggs and nestlings of many bird species, some of which are listed as endangered, the report said.
Oil development has not caused large declines in the overall size of the Central Arctic caribou herd on the North Slope so far, but it has affected their reproductive success at times, according to the report.
The Academy said oil spills in the tundra have been small and have had only local impacts, and the damaged areas have recovered.
As for the native Alaskans that live on the North Slope, the money from oil exploration has improved schools, health care, housing and other community services, the report said.
"At the same time, however, balancing the economic benefits of oil activities against the accompanying loss of traditional culture and other societal problems that can occur is often a dilemma for North Slope residents," the Academy said.
The Academy said it was beyond the scope of its study to say whether the benefits derived from oil and gas production justify the accompanying undesirable environmental consequences.
"Society as a whole must debate and decide that issue," the report said.
The Academy did not make a recommendation on whether Congress should allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying it could not conclude whether it was a good or bad idea.
Congress asked the Academy to review the oil and gas activities on Alaska's North Slope and to assess their known and likely future effects on the physical, biological and human environment.