For those who are interested but didn't visit the webpage today for this
article, I'm am posting it.
Jane Clark


Arctic drilling bill caps development size
Monday, November 12, 2001

By BEN SPIESS AND LIZ RUSKIN
SCRIPPS-MCCLATCHY WESTERN SERVICE

WASHINGTON -- Supporters have told Congress that drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge would have little impact on the environment.

With sideways drilling and other advances, they say, the oil beneath the 1.5
million-acre coastal plain can be tapped with a "footprint" on the surface
no larger than 2,000 acres. To win support for the drilling before the U.S.
House vote on energy legislation, Rep. John Sununu, R-N.H., put the promise
in the bill, saying the "surface acreage covered by production and support
facilities" must not exceed 2,000 acres.

After passing the House, the bill is now in the Senate, where the 2,000-acre
limit has appeared as part of two attempts to open the refuge to oil
companies.

But critics of ANWR drilling said the limit is a hollow gesture to protect
Alaska's Arctic. Under the 2,000-acre limit, development could still span 1
million of the 1.5 million acres on the coastal plain. Also, they say, the
measure has loopholes exempting gravel mines and roads near the fields from
the acreage cap, which could add hundreds more acres to the affected area.

"With 2,000 acres, companies can industrialize almost the entire area," said
Peter Van Tuyn, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage
environmental law firm.

Oil drilling supporters do not disagree. But the 2,000-acre cap is not a
meaningless gesture, they argue. That limit would force design of compact
facilities and put a premium on low-impact development.

"Could they recover the reserves? Yes," said Ken Boyd, a geologist in Eagle
River. "But it forces the industry to be smart and careful in what they
choose to do."

How development in the 19 million-acre reserve would look under the
2,000-acre cap is unclear.

Assuming oil is spread evenly beneath the coastal plain -- which geologists
say is unlikely -- oil companies could build 20 oil fields each of 100
acres. Assuming drill bits reach five miles from each site, production pads
spaced 10 miles apart could tap more than 1 million acres of the coastal
plain. The fields could be supported from the air and connected only by
pipeline.

Phillips Petroleum Co.'s new Alpine field west of ANWR is less than 100
acres and considered the model of Arctic oil development today. But Pam
Miller, an Anchorage environmental consultant, said the field is becoming a
springboard for sprawl.

Five other fields have been discovered nearby. While the combined acreage of
development would likely be under 500 acres, the pipeline and facilities
span more than 128,000 acres. Air traffic in the area is constant. Caribou
patterns have been disturbed, villagers say.

Development supporters draw a different picture. Development would be
concentrated in the western half of the coastal plain, where oil reserves
are likely concentrated, said Roger Herrera, a lobbyist for Arctic Power, a
state- and industry-funded ANWR development group.

While roads are not itemized in the House bill, he said, it is implied that
they are part of the limit. Either way, winter ice roads would likely be the
main transportation, he said. Any gravel mines would likely be sculpted into
the river banks, and, he said, assuming they fill with water, the mines
would create bird habitat.

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