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The NewsRoom
Release: # 3705
Date: August 23, 2007
MMS Begins Planning for Next Arctic Sales
Multiple Sale EIS
Incorporates Planning and Analysis
for Arctic Sales
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Minerals Management
Service (MMS) today issued a Call for Information and Nominations
and a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) for two Beaufort Sea and two Chukchi Sea oil and gas lease
sales proposed under the Final 2007-2012 5-Year Program. This is the
second time the agency has issued a multiple-sale call for the
Arctic. A similar process was used for the three Beaufort Sea sales
in the 2002-2007 5-Year Program.
The multiple-sale process for the proposed Arctic
sales will incorporate planning and analysis for sales 209 and 217 in
the Beaufort Sea and sales 212 and 221 in the Chukchi Sea.
The Call for Information is the first step in a
process that will take about 2 years to complete.
This will be the first opportunity the public and
industry have to provide comments on and suggestions for the area of
the potential lease sales, identify environmental effects and other
uses of the area, and propose possible alternatives, lease terms, and
mitigating measures.
"Because many of the issues are the same, we plan
to evaluate sales in both the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas together,"
said MMS Alaska Regional Director John Goll. "This approach will
make it easier for the public and us to key in on the most important
issues and their effects.”
"We will prepare a single EIS for the four Arctic
sales in the 2007-2012 5-Year Program, which will maintain our strict
environmental standards and our commitment to producing a complete
scientific record on which to base leasing decisions," Goll said. "After the first EIS is completed for sales 209 and 212, we will
prepare an environmental assessment, or supplemental EIS, for sales
217 and 221. Consistency determinations will be prepared for each
sale individually. The public will have opportunity to comment on each
individual sale proposal.”
Since 1979, MMS has written 10 lease sale
Environmental Impact Statements and two lease sale environmental
assessments and has held 12 lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi
Seas. MMS oversees an extensive environmental, social, and economic
studies program that evaluates the impacts of offshore oil and gas
development in the arctic, as well as in other Outer Continental
Shelf (OCS) areas.
Some of the ongoing Beaufort Sea studies include
monitoring studies of the Northstar and Liberty development project
areas, under-ice currents, oil spill risk from oil production and
transportation in the arctic, the annual Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey,
and changes in trace metal concentrations.
The MMS sponsored a three-day scientific meeting in
Anchorage in November 2006 to review the monitoring needs that would
accompany oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea after Sale 193,
scheduled for February 2008. Ongoing studies in the Chukchi Sea
include monitoring marine birds in the eastern Chukchi nearshore
area, aerial photography of bowhead whales to estimate the size of
the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population, traditional knowledge about
Bowhead whales in the Chukchi Sea, and monitoring impacts on
offshore subsistence hunting.
The MMS is also co-sponsoring a project through the
National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) to examine the
coastal effects of diminished ice in the Arctic Ocean and the periodic
upwelling of zooplankton within a Bowhead whale feeding area near
Barrow, AK.
The Beaufort Sea planning area is located offshore
Alaska's northern coast. It extends from about three to approximately
205 statute miles offshore and covers about 33 million acres.
The Chukchi Sea planning area is located offshore
Alaska’s northwest coast from north of Point Barrow to northwest of
Cape Lisburne. The sale area extends from about 25 to 275 statute
miles offshore. The proposed sale area excludes waters within 25
miles of the coast. This buffer zone encompasses the “polynya,” a
system of ice leads through which the bowhead and beluga whales, other
marine mammals, and marine birds migrate north in the spring, and in
which local communities subsistent hunt. The sale area covers about 40
million acres.
Comments may be sent to:
MMS Alaska OCS Region
3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite
500
Anchorage, AK 99503-5823
or submitted via e-mail. Please call MMS at 907-334-5208 or
toll-free at 1-800-764-2627 if you have additional questions.
Media Contacts:
Robin Cacy 907-334-5208
1-800-764-2627
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for America
U.S. Department of the Interior
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