Text 12306, 155 rader
Skriven 2005-04-28 12:30:28 av Alan Hess
Ärende: it's not just ANWR
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Lots more than ANWR vulnerable to drilling.
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Why are we talking about just ANWR?
By Nick Jans
My friend Seth Kantner and I pause on the crest of a wind-swept pass on the
northern flank of Alaska's Brooks Range. We're far from the nearest Eskimo
village, amid some of the wildest and most spectacular country on the planet -
a seemingly endless procession of blue-white mountains and tundra valleys.
Though we're past the Arctic Circle, the land is alive: Bands of caribou forage
in the April snow; a few miles back, we glimpsed a big grizzly, fresh out of
his den; wolf trails wind along the creek bottom.

But before us lies an invisible line: the southern boundary of NPR-A (National
Petroleum Reserve-Alaska) - 23 million acres of pristine public lands that
pro-development forces plan to transform into an industrial park of staggering
proportions, stretching off to a hazy, smog-laden horizon.

No, this isn't the fabled Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the focus of
a decades-long tug of war between big oil and the environmental coalition. That
chunk of equally pristine, hotly contested real estate lies more than 150 miles
to the east. But because of the sound-byte mentality of our times, the Arctic
Refuge has come to be, in the public mind, the chunk of wild Alaska where the
develop-or-preserve passion play hangs in the balance. Just last week, the
House passed and sent to the Senate an energy bill that includes a provision to
open up ANWR to exploration.

The truth, however, is that 95% of Alaska's Arctic coastal plain is, by law,
open to gas and oil leasing. This 600-mile-long strip of land at the very top
of the state is an area vital to hundreds of thousands of caribou, millions of
migrating birds and a host of rare species of flora and fauna. The lease areas
extend well offshore along virtually the entire Arctic coast, including the
refuge, into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. These areas are critical habitat
for polar bears, seals and the endangered bowhead whale. Most of what hasn't
already been offered up for sale to the highest corporate bidder is slated for
auction within the next few years.
       ARCTIC COAST, BY THE NUMBERS          
100  Sites ruled contaminated by toxic waste in the North Slope oil fields.
570  Miles of permanent gravel roads built.
1,000     In square miles, the total area encompassed by the existing 27 oil
fields.
1,800     Miles of connecting pipeline.
2,958     Toxic spills (crude oil, diesel fuel, acids and waste oil, etc.)
recorded in North Slope oil fields between 1996 and 2002, totaling more than
1.7 million gallons.
4,800     Pumping or exploratory oil and gas wells.
32,000    Miles of tundra-scarring "seismic trails" made from 1990 to 2001 in
the process of oil and gas exploration on the Arctic slope.
70,413    Tons of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog and acid rain,
annually emitted by the North Slope oil fields.
Sources: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation; National Research
Council; National Resources Defense Council

If that line about the Arctic coast becoming an "industrial park" seems an
exercise in greenie-weenie hyperbole, you haven't been to Prudhoe Bay, where
the oil rush began decades ago. Already, the 27 North Slope oilfields cover
1,000 square miles. They include more than 4,800 oil wells, two refineries and
28 production plants connected by 570 miles of permanent gravel roads and 1,800
miles of pipeline. And they are served by an array of airports and landing
strips, the largest of which can handle commercial jetliners. There are
power-generating stations, seawater-treatment plants, living quarters and
maintenance and repair facilities. These huge, big-box steel buildings rise
from the tundra like an endless mirage, illuminated by burning natural gas
flares.

A move westward

That's just what's here today, and it will be dwarfed if the current pace
continues. Contrary to the commonly held belief that Alaskan Arctic oil is
playing out, development is radiating outward from the Prudhoe epicenter at an
unprecedented rate, even compared with the heyday of the first big oil boom.
And the direction of much of this development is not east toward the Arctic
Refuge, but west toward NPR-A, where oil is plentiful and public awareness is
minimal.

In fact, oil giants ConocoPhillips and British Petroleum have ceased
contributing lobbying funds for drilling in ANWR. They're simply too busy
elsewhere on the Slope. It's as if a kid's mother told him he couldn't touch a
certain sliver of pie, but then informed him, offhand, that he could have the
remaining nine-tenths.

As a barometer of the current radical rush to drill, consider that even
sensitive areas set aside by former Interior secretary James Watt, the bane of
environmentalists for his dig-it-up, cut-it-down agenda during the Reagan
years, are back on the block. These include the globally recognized, highly
sensitive Teshekpuk Lake, the world's most important molting ground for the
Pacific black brant and countless other geese, and the Utukok Uplands, calving
ground to the Western Arctic caribou herd - by far the largest in Alaska.

Last year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), at the direction of the Bush
administration, removed all protections from Teshekpuk. Vehement opposition by
bipartisan groups - including local Eskimos (who depend on Teshekpuk as an
important subsistence area), the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, an array
of conservation groups and pro-hunting wildlife organizations such as Ducks
Unlimited - was disregarded, as were warnings of negative impact by the
National Academy of Sciences. The BLM hasn't given an inch, and the march west
toward Utukok's caribou calving grounds continues.

To watch this huge, wild land fade away breaks my heart. I speak not as an
environmental tourist, but as a 20-year resident of Arctic Alaska who lived
among the Inupiat and shared their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Of course, I
can't expect most of you to feel the same way; you haven't traveled its expanse
for half of your life. But you should care nonetheless. This is public land
that belongs to all of us, and it's being carved up and sold piecemeal as we
speak, with no going back. Not even Eskimo hunters, whose ancestors traveled it
for thousands of years, will be allowed inside the perimeter of these
high-security corporate fields, patrolled by armed guards in pickups. Neither
will you. And to claim, as pro-development forces do, that the environmental
impact is minimal and that the caribou, whales and geese can handle it, falls
into the "Big Lie" category.

A brutal imprint

While the oil companies have indeed made efforts to improve their practices,
the toll on this fragile, timeless land is brutal. Most of the scars of
drilling pads and roads will last for centuries, even millennia. The pollution
is severe. Talk of high-tech, low-impact development practices is a sham. The
BLM, describing the so-called state-of-the-art, "roadless" Alpine oil field,
states, " 'roadless' does not mean without roads." In fact, the planned and
approved Alpine field expansion currently includes 31 miles of permanent roads
- including the main access route into NPR-A.

Our last great Arctic wilderness exchanged for, at best, a few more years of
our gasaholic ways and a fistful of dollars is a bleak prospect. Yet perhaps,
against all odds, the American people will rise up and assert their claim to
what is rightfully theirs - for a start, by renewing demands that the Arctic
Refuge, a refuge in the fullest sense of the word, containing the last 5% of
tenuously protected coastline on the northern fringe of the continent, will
remain preserved as a legacy, to offer at least a glimpse to our children of
what once was.

It's an embarrassingly modest proposal, and one that lies within our grasp. But
only if we raise our voices now.

Alaskan writer Nick Jans is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors. He
also is author of the forthcoming book The Grizzly Maze, to be published in
July.
 
 
 
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-04-26-arctic-edit_x.htm
 
 
 

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