Arctic: pollution on its way. Oil drilling in Chukchi Sea threatens clean air, water, ocean resources & sea life

Shall we protect Nature as it is,
reserve some land, ocean, resources
for coming generations, for our children’s children?
Shall we, or shall we not? In words, or in action?

(quote) Approval of oil drilling in Chukchi Sea fails to include recent science and violates laws that protect clean air, water, and ocean resources. Oceana, together with Arctic communities and other conservation groups filed a legal challenge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) approval of Shell Offshore Inc.’s proposed exploration drilling in the Chukchi Sea. The groups argue that MMS and Shell have not complied with federal laws that require thorough analysis of potential impacts and protections for clean air, water, and marine life.

“We all deserve clean air and clean water,” said Michael LeVine, Pacific Senior Counsel for Oceana. “Shell, like anyone else, must comply with the law, and it is the government’s responsibility to enforce the laws that protect our air, water and ocean resources. Neither Shell nor MMS has lived up to its legal obligations in this case, and it is our responsibility to take action to make sure that our air and water are protected.”

Shell proposes to bring ice-breakers, a drill rig, and other support vessels and aircraft to a remote and biologically important area. They do so without updating basic science or examining alternatives in an environmental impact statement. With this plan comes the substantial risk of an oil spill, noise and other pollution, invasive species, and industrialization in a region facing incredible impacts from climate change, including the loss of sea ice and predicted rising levels of ocean acidity.

“Oceana, local communities, and many others have tried to work with the Obama administration to bring science back to decisions about the Arctic Ocean,” said LeVine. “Unfortunately, Shell and MMS are focused only on oil and gas, and we have been forced to go to court to have a broader conversation about clean air and water in the Arctic.”

Chukchi drilling poses risks of oil spills and other pollution; noise that would disturb marine mammals such as walruses; and other hazards in a sensitive region already under stress because of climate change. Environmental and Alaska Native groups have filed a legal challenge seeking to overturn US approval of Shell’s plans to drill up to three wells this year off the shore of Alaska, representatives said today, Wednesday, 20 January, 2010. The petition in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seeks to void the US Minerals Management Service's 7 December approval of Shell's plan for wells about 60 miles off Alaska's north-western coast. In their Chukchi challenge, the groups say the MMS failed to properly consider the hazards posed by drilling in the remote sea area.

The petitioners said Chukchi drilling poses risks of oil spills and other pollution; noise that would disturb marine mammals such as walruses; and other hazards in a sensitive region already under stress because of climate change. "It is a major industrial undertaking in a big, poorly understood and changing ocean," Michael LeVine, senior counsel for Oceana, one of the environmental groups participating in the challenge, said in a Reuters report. The combination of Beaufort and Chukchi drill plans adds to the risks, he said.

Shell clears EPA hurdle for Alaska drill: A Shell’s manager said EPA's tentative approval was an important step for Shell, which is seeking to drill some of the Chukchi Sea leases that it paid $2.1 billion in 2008 to acquire. "We very much appreciate the work done by EPA Region 10 to issue Shell a draft air permit for our 2010 Chukchi drilling program," Pete Slaiby, Shell Alaska's vice president, said in a statement. "The issuance of this draft permit starts the clock on a critical timeline of events that will ultimately determine if we can explore our Alaska leases in 2010," he added. The proposed permit has been hotly debated by some drilling supporters and opponents within Alaska, and it remains subject to an additional public-comment period that runs through 17 February.

Groups challenging the approval, including the native village of Point Hope and 12 conservation organizations, said it had received only a "cursory environmental review," despite the threat to habitat for polar bears, walrus, whales and other Arctic wildlife.

“We were really hoping for a new, careful approach by the federal government toward America’s Arctic,” said David Dickson, Western Arctic and Oceans Program director for the Alaska Wilderness League. “This disappointing shortcut approval for Shell’s drilling program indicates that the old drill-now approach, regardless of the risks, is still in place.”

Chronic hydrocarbon pollution: The pollution of the sea from hydrocarbons (crude oil, fuel, petrol, oily waste, etc.) is a global problem that entails between two and ten million tons of these products reaching the sea each year. Although the bulk of public attention is focused on the oil slicks caused by major oil tanker accidents, chronic dumping of these substances – in other words, the residue from ordinary maritime traffic – is 3 times higher.

Washing out the tanks of oil tankers, dumping bilge water and minor spillages on board or in port are the main sources of hydrocarbon pollution of marine origin. Unfortunately, the pollution problem is hard to solve because no one wants to take responsibility for causing it or cleaning it up.

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Photos courtesy of upstreamonline.com, Jack Smith / Associated Press, Oceana, sea-turtles.net, Chronicle / Kurt Rogers, IFAW, AP / Houston Chronicle / Julio Cortez, and Green Lent