Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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6 Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 Your Environment Padre Island Gas Drilling Debate Flares Up Again - Turtles At Risk Park Resumes Approval Process for 2 nd Drilling Operation by Erin Rogers, Grassroots Outreach Coordinator, Lone Star Chapter Padre Island National Seashore is back at it again. The park has issued another review of a proposal by BNP Petroleum, Inc. of Corpus Christi to drill a gas well at the “Lemon/Lemon Seed” location in the dunes of the national seashore. The park approved a first well in February (Dunn-Murdock #1), which gave BNP the green light to bulldoze fragile dunes in a popular area of the park and drive dozens of 18-wheeler trucks up and down the beach each day in order to support the operation. Not surprisingly, the drilling ran over schedule and right into the height of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nesting season. Park managers allowed the drilling to continue unabated, despite the fact that the permit granted to BNP had no contingency plans for protecting the highly endangered Kemp’s ridley from the truck traffic. In response, the Sierra Club filed suit against Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and the Park Service for failure to perform an adequate review of potential threats to the turtles, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Second Drilling Permit Meanwhile, the Park Service was busy issuing another environmental assessment for a second drilling permit (Lemon/Lemon Seed) desired by BNP. When the park issued that review, over a thousand Sierra Club members responded with emails, faxes and letters urging the park to reject BNP’s application for a drilling permit, much less an operation that would occur during the height of the summer visitation and turtle nesting season. In May the Sierra Club’s legal team met with park managers and representatives from BNP in an attempt to address the issues raised in the Club’s legal complaint and in comments on the Lemon/Lemon Seed environmental assessment. While the discussions ended without any agreements being reached, the Sierra team made a strong case to park managers that even if the drilling is allowed to proceed, no operations should be permitted during the summer months when nesting turtles and high numbers of visitors would be forced to share the beach with heavy trucks. Sadly, park managers have rejected this accommodation. In the amended environmental review for the Lemon/Lemon Seed well the park staff has gone to Kemp’s Ridley Courtesy of Doug Perrine lengths to coat the proposal in a lawsuit-proof teflon, but they have done nothing to ensure greater protection for the turtles or for the visitor experience. In fact, the park concludes in the revised assessment that a restriction on drilling to the winter months has been ruled out as a possibility because that option would compound the impact of drilling operations on wintering piping plovers, an endangered bird. The park’s argument is incredible, given that the EA for Dunn- Murdock, as well as the original EA for Lemon/Lemon Seed, both dismissed the need for any consideration to be given to the possible impact of the drilling on the plovers. The EAs asserted that BNP’s operations would be nowhere near plover habitat (in the winter plovers feed along the mud flat shores of the Laguna Madre). Sadly, the park seems to be most concerned about the threat to endangered species when it is
Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 7 Your Environment convenient for BNP. When the presence of an endangered species isn’t convenient for BNP, the park finds it all too easy to gloss over the need to conduct further analysis, gather data, or take any of the other cautionary steps required by the National Environmental Protection Act. In its handling of BNP’s drilling campaign, the over-riding concern of the seashore’s management team seems to be avoiding any possible ire from Secretary Norton and the clique of oil industry supplicants running the Interior Department. Thanks to strong grassroots pressure and invaluable help from the Club’s legal staff, we succeeded in forcing NPS to re-evaluate its EA for Lemon/Lemon Seed, and that has kept BNP’s 18 wheelers at bay since June. But BNP has deep pockets and an army of hired gun attorneys, and it will take even greater efforts by the Sierra Club and others to fight off the next round of drilling. The stakes are high: thanks to a seasonal closure of the Gulf shrimp fishery, Kemp’s ridleys nested along the Texas coast in greatly improved numbers this year. But just as the turtle population seems invigorated, we are faced with the prospect of BNP plowing their heavy trucks through turtle nesting grounds for the next fifteen years! Radioactive Drilling Tool On a related note, the Sierra Club uncovered the fact that in February of this year BNP abandoned a highly radioactive drilling tool that became stuck in one of its wells just outside Padre Island National Seashore. The material in the tool will remain radioactive for 4,000 years. This latest discovery underscores the shoddy environmental record of BNP. The company was cited previously by state regulators for irresponsible management of oil waste pits in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Drilling in National Parks As matter of principle, the Sierra Club believes that drilling for oil and gas is fundamentally incompatible with the purposes of national parks, which were created for public enjoyment and protection for future generations. Oil and gas drilling defeats both purposes. That sad contradiction appears to be lost on the Bush administration, however, which seems to have no comprehension of what national parks mean to the vast majority of Americans who cherish them as pristine examples of our natural heritage and havens for recreation. In May the Bush Administration agreed to buy out privately-held oil and gas holdings below Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. While many agree that the buyout was a politically motivated to boost Governor Jeb Bush’s re-election effort, Texans have every right to expect that the Bush Administration should offer the same degree of protection to Padre Island National Seashore. In pursuit of that end, the Lone Star Chapter is calling on state and federal officials to examine the cost of buying out the mineral rights beneath the seashore, which would put an end once and for all to drilling on the crown jewel of Texas beaches. SIGN UP NOW! For the Lone Star Chapter’s New E-mail Action Alert System! Since the Sierra Club Action Alert System was launched in March: • 1300 people have signed up • over 1000 faxes or e-mails have been sent to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to protect Texas’s wide open spaces • hundreds of comments have been sent to the Padre Island National Seashore superintendent objecting to new oil and gas drilling permits http://lonestar.sierraclubaction.org To participate in the system, simply go to the address above and enter your name, street address, and e-mail address so that the system can determine who your specific local elected officials are. Once you sign up you will receive an average of three to four e-mails per month about crucial decisions being made that affect air, water, wildlife, parks, and open spaces in Texas.
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Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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