CJ wrote:
>
> "pitcairn" <
pitc...@bvimailbox.com> wrote in message
> news:f3aec3c6.02060...@posting.google.com...
> > The wildlilfe in Alaska is very importnat and as for your cars I don't
> > give a toss you are the world's greatest enviornmental hazard and you
> > don't even have hte guts to do anything about it
>
> Nothing to be done about it.
>
> Answer this question.....how would the wildlife in Alaska suffer just
> because we are doing some drilling?
> Do the drilling facilities take up 5000 square miles or something?
>
> I'll be waiting for your explanation.
THE IMPACT OF OIL DEVELOPMENT ON PRUDHOE BAY
by
Pamela A. Miller
Arctic Connections
Pollution
There is about a spill a day at Prudhoe Bay. The Prudhoe Bay oil
fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 409 spills
annually on the North Slope since 1996 (Alaska Department of
Environmental Conservation spill database 1996-1999). Roughly 40
different substances from acid to waste oil are spilled during routine
operations. Over 1.3 million gallons spilled between 1996 and 1999,
most commonly diesel and crude oil. Diesel fuel is acutely toxic to
plant life.
A study of diesel spills in Alaska's arctic found that 28 years later
there were still substantial hydrocarbons in the soil and little
vegetation recovery. The Exxon Valdez studies show petroleum
hydrocarbons pose higher risks to fish and wildlife than previously
known and that there is long-lasting ecological damage. Prudhoe Bay is
a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The oil
industry on Alaska's North Slope annual emits approximately 56,427
tons of oxides of nitrogen, which contributes to smog and acid rain.
This is more than twice the amount emitted by Washington, DC (EPA
National Air Pollutant Emissions Trends 1900-1998, 2000). North Slope
oil facilities release roughly 24,000-114,000 tons of methane, a
greenhouse gas. Substances associated with Prudhoe Bay drilling
operations, natural gas facilities, and incinerators were detected in
accumulated snow in the area. Despite improvements in drilling waste
disposal techniques over the years, problems remain: During horizontal
drilling of the Colville River pipeline crossing for Arco's Alpine
field, 2.3 million gallons of drilling muds disappeared under the
river in 1998. It is unknown where they ended up and if they will
ultimately pollute Alaska's largest arctic river. At Endicott,
contractors for British Petroleum illegally disposed of hazardous
drilling wastes containing benzene and other toxics for at least three
years until a whistleblower came forward. Some of the waste reached
the surface and workers were exposed to hazardous fumes. In February
2000, BP was ordered to pay $15.5 million in criminal fines and to
implement a new environmental management program, and to serve 5-years
probation for its failure in reporting the dumping. BP also paid $6.5
million in civil penalties. Its contractor pled guilty to 15 counts of
violating the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and paid a $3 million fine. A
huge cleanup job remains across the North Slope.
For example: Hundreds of old exploratory and production drilling waste
pits have yet to be closed out and the sites restored. More than 55
contaminated sites associated with the oil industry exist on the North
Slope (Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation). Many gravel
pads are contaminated by chronic spills. Oil companies will not re-use
gravel from many abandoned sites due to concerns about contamination.
Although there have been some pilot studies of rehabilitation
techniques for gravel pads in the arctic oil fields, the technical or
economic feasibility of restoring the tens of thousands of acres of
roads and drilling sites has yet to be proven.
Industrial Sprawl
Proponents of drilling in the Arctic Refuge point to the Prudhoe Bay
oil fields as an example that development would not harm the
environment. Consider these facts:
Since the Prudhoe Bay oil discovery in 1968, the oil industry has
dramatically transformed a vast arctic wilderness. Prudhoe Bay and 18
other producing oil fields sprawl over more than 1,000 square miles of
America's Arctic-- an area the size of Rhode Island. Today the North
Slope oil fields include 3,893 exploratory and producing wells, 170
production and exploratory drill pads, 500 miles of roads, 1,100 miles
of trunk and feeder pipelines, 2 refineries, many airports, many camps
with living quarters for hundreds of workers, 5 docks and gravel
causeways, and a total of 25 production plants, gas processing
facilities, seawater treatment plants, and power plants. Many impacts
exceed the Interior Department's predictions in a 1972 Trans-Alaska
Pipeline EIS. Gravel mines extracted 400% more gravel. Oil companies
drilled five times more wells. Road mileage was double. Gravel pads
for drilling and oil facilities were predicted to cover 2,155 acres,
but such infrastructure fills three times the area. Drilling
proponents say that impacts will be small due to technological
improvements. Despite advancements, there are unavoidable impacts from
the latest North Slope oil development.
The industrial network continues to expand across the landscape each
year with new drilling pads, roads, pipelines, processing plants, and
other facilities and operations that add to the cumulative impact.
Technological advances have reduced the size of individual drilling
pads and some roads, but oil development unavoidably involves
construction of many permanent industrial facilities and noisy
operations spread across vast expanses of the landscape. No matter how
well done, oil development would industrialize a unique, wild area
that is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge. Industry focuses
attention on the direct "footprint" where facilities will be built but
ignores the secondary and cumulative impacts of the industrial network
on wildlife habitats.
For example: Roughly 22,000 acres of tundra wetlands, floodplains, and
other habitats have been directly lost due to the oil fields and
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. But the impacts to wildlife and their
tundra habitats extend well beyond the sites of constructed
facilities. A study of major landscape impacts due to the Prudhoe Bay
oil fields in Science found that secondary effects such as
hydrological changes to wetlands lagged behind construction and the
total area eventually disturbed greatly exceeded direct impacts. "The
extent of disturbance greatly exceeds the physical "footprint" of an
oil-field complex," according to caribou biologists Nellemann and
Cameron (1998). Many studies recorded decreased caribou densities
within 4-km of pipelines and roads and regional changes in calving
distribution for the Central Arctic Herd at Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe Bay
air emissions have been detected nearly 200 miles away in Barrow,
Alaska.
--
Correction: In the thread 'Canada Faces Disruption of Edible Tuber
Supply', I recently posted
'2.5 million Canadians live in Toronto, on taro root alone'.
This should have read
'2.5 million Canadians live in Toronto, Ontario, alone'.
I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.