Oil Drilling to Be Allowed in Alaska Bay

Bristol Bay, a rich Alaskan fishery that environmentalists have fought for years to protect, will be opened to oil drilling beginning next month under a plan announced Thursday by Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel.

Environmentalists and the state of Alaska immediately said they would file lawsuits to protect the bay, site of the nation’s largest commerical salmon and herring fisheries and the home or migration corridor for 1 million marine mammals, including whales, seals, sea otters and walruses.

In a decision widely interpreted as having repercussions for drilling off California, Hodel said 5.6 million acres in the bay would be offered to the oil industry at a lease sale Jan. 15. The state of Alaska had asked Hodel to postpone such a sale for 10 years to allow for further study.

“This does not bode well for California,” said spokesman Lisa Speer of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization. “If they can lease in Bristol Bay and we can’t stop them in court, then they’ll be able to lease anywhere.”

Speer called Bristol Bay “the jewel in the crown of the nation’s coastal and marine resources . . . a spectacularly rich fishery of global importance.”

But Hodel said the decision was the “most studied and the most carefully considered” lease sale ever proposed for federal offshore territory.

“The evidence is overwhelming that we can explore this area, and if oil and gas supplies are found, they can be produced in harmony with the fisheries and other resources of this basin,” he said.

Migration Route

Fishing in Bristol Bay is a $1-billion-a-year industry that employs 10,000 workers seasonally. Situated on the western side of the Alaskan Peninsula just north of the Aleutian Islands, the bay is the migration route for the total population of the gray whale and a spawning area for the diminishing Alaskan king crab.

Opponents have argued that the bay contains too little oil to justify the risks of operating in the icy, stormy waters, where a spill would be difficult--if not impossible--to clean up.

Henry Mitchell, executive director of the Anchorage-based Bering Sea Fishermen’s Assn., said the group may join court action to stop the sale.

“We’re upset with Secretary Hodel,” Mitchell said. “We feel he completely disregarded all the information that we provided.”

Work With Fishermen

But Interior Department officials said industry would work closely with fishermen to ensure that fishing rights are protected. Hodel noted that $4.5 million has been spent to study the area and that safeguards can be taken during exploration to protect the fish and endangered species that travel through the waters.

Despite estimates of low oil potential in the bay, Interior Department officials said they were confident that industry would bid on at least some of the 990 nine-square-mile tracts that will be offered. “Industry is interested in this area because it will add to their geographical data, providing clues as to which direction to head,” Hodel said.

California lawmakers recently feuded with Hodel over a plan to open up 150 nine-square-mile tracts off California. Fishermen and environmentalists have contended that industry interest in Bristol Bay is part of a calculated effort to set the stage for drilling in other politically sensitive areas such as California.

Offshore drilling has been banned from most of the state’s coastline under a four-year-old moratorium that expired at midnight Thursday. California’s congressmen tried but failed to win approval of a one-year extension of the ban. Members of the delegation now plan to meet with Hodel to negotiate a new agreement over how much of the coast will be opened to development.

But Alaska wields substantially less political clout than California. With a population of only 479,000, Alaska has only one member in the House. California, with a population of 25 million, has 45 representatives.

“It’s the politics that stop you,” admitted Bill Bettenberg, director of the Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service.

Decision ‘Encouraging’

John Peschke, assistant director of exploration for the American Petroleum Institute, called Hodel’s decision to allow the lease sale to proceed “encouraging.”

But Peschke noted the industry had hoped the sale would include more tracts. Former Interior Secretary James G. Watt had proposed to open up 32.5 million acres in the bay, but the proposal was scaled back to 5.6 million acres in negotiations between Alaska’s congressional delegation and former Interior Secretary William P. Clark, Watt’s successor.

Peschke called Hodel’s decision “an effort to be as responsive as he can possibly be to the environmental concerns and at the same time proceed with a very necessary evaluation of the resources.”