Bureau of Land Management Racing to Permit Destructive Seismic Exploration in Arctic Refuge

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a draft environmental assessment (EA) today regarding a seismic exploration project proposed in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this winter. 

Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska program director with Defenders of Wildlife, said “The Bureau of Land Management’s slapdash approach to seismic exploration permitting in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is reckless and dangerous to wildlife, especially polar bears.”

The proposal calls for damaging 3D seismic surveys covering over 352,000 acres in the coastal plain, and most of that in federally designated polar bear terrestrial denning critical habitat. Mobilization to the area begins around January 26, 2021. The equipment to be mobilized includes 12 “thumper” trucks weighing 90,000 pounds, over 40 Tucker vehicles and tractors, and 50 camp trailers supporting a crew of 180 people through the end of May. The proposed route to the survey area would entail a 136-mile trek through polar bear critical habitat as well. 

Seismic exploration would profoundly impact this important landscape for decades, scarring the tundra, damaging critical habitat for imperiled polar bears and potentially causing the death of denning mother bears with cubs. Yet BLM is preparing only an EA and offering just a two-week comment period on this dangerous foray into our nation’s most iconic national wildlife refuge. 

Oil exploration would occur during polar bear denning season, in critical habitat for the threatened Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population. These bears only number about 900 individuals, a 50% decline over the last two decades. Detecting and avoiding polar bears dens are exceedingly difficult, in part because dens in deeper snowdrifts cannot be detected by the infrared technology used. Surveys to search for dens are best initiated in December, when snow depth is generally less than later in the winter. This proposal is unable to start those surveys until late January at best. Weather conditions also need to be favorable for the surveys to be effective, and they frequently are not.

In addition to risking harm to polar bears, the proposal may also harm Arctic ringed seals, which are likewise listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. BLM’s decision allowing oil and gas activity on the coastal plain requires operators to first obtain authorization to impact marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The proposed seismic exploration includes work on grounded ice in the Beaufort Sea, which BLM’s own environmental impact statement completed for the oil and gas program admits can harm and even kill seals. The draft EA acknowledges that there may be impacts to seals but claims that no MMPA authorization from NMFS is required.

“As it did with the recently-announced, rushed lease sale, BLM is cutting corners to permit seismic exploration and hand over a national treasure to the oil industry before leaving office,” said Whittington-Evans.

This isn’t the first time that seismic testing has been proposed for Arctic refuge. Congress authorized seismic in the coastal plain of the Arctic refuge in the 1980s. During the winters of 1984 and 1985, seismic was conducted and 1,250 miles of trails were made by drill, vibrator and recording vehicles across the tundra of the coastal plain. The scars of that work remain visible on the coastal plain today.

Located in northeast Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comprises approximately 19.6 million acres of public lands and waters. It provides vital nesting habitat for hundreds of species of migratory birds from all 50 states and six continents; crucial onshore denning habitat for some of the most imperiled polar bears in the world; spawning streams for Dolly Varden trout and other valued fish species; and room to roam for caribou, wolves, muskoxen, Dall sheep, arctic foxes and many other wildlife species. 

Much of the Arctic Refuge was first protected over half a century ago by the Eisenhower administration to preserve its unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended Congress designate most of the coastal plain as wilderness.