By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A lengthy, multi-million dollar federal exercise that will determine whether offshore oil and gas exploration proceeds in the North Aleutian Basin is now open for extensive public input.

The Alaska office of the U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service set public scoping meetings in Anchorage and Dutch Harbor in mid-May, and more are being considered.

The agency is working to set up a meeting for June 3 in Kodiak, to coincide with the meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, agency spokeswoman Robin Cacy said May 13. MMS is also talking with Sand Point, Dillingham, King Salmon, Nelson Lagoon and Cold Bay.

Those sessions will probably be held in late August or September to avoid conflict with fishery openings.

The meetings aim to gather public input on what studies are needed to determine if offshore oil and gas drilling should be allowed in the North Aleutian Basin, areas that should have special mitigation, and other issues to be evaluated in the environmental impact statement, Cacy said.

Work on the environmental impact statement will start soon. The draft EIS is due in 2010, Cacy said. Once the EIS is out for public review, the Minerals Management Service will hold public hearings, then review all comments made at those hearings. Analysts will address all comments. The final EIS will then be published, and the notice of sale will be published at least 30 days prior to the sale.

“We've given ourselves a long lead time to complete the studies we have ongoing and to possibly start and complete other studies that may be suggested during scoping,” Cacy said. “We prepare a report that outlines all the scoping comments, and it will be used as a basis that helps us design the EIS.”

Interest in offshore lease sales has increased dramatically over the last couple of years, and Cacy said she expects considerable comment during the scoping sessions.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry and environmental organizations were notified by e-mail about two weeks in advance of the Anchorage and Dutch Harbor meetings, and public service announcements were made available to radio stations at the same time, Cacy said. Public notice was released in print news media May 8, she said.

The notice was short, said Kelly Harrell, Friends of Bristol Bay coordinator for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

“The extremely short window of notice on these vital forums for the public to gain knowledge and comment on offshore drilling in the nation's largest fishing grounds should be a red flag for everyone,” she said. “The agency has an appalling lack of concern for public participation in decisions that will affect some of the most valuable, renewable resources in Alaska and the world.”

Cacy said the agency had some budget restraints and counted on those notified by e-mail to help spread word of the meetings.

“We feel we do the best we can,” she said. “We're not going to be able to please everyone.”

Among those who received the e-mail alerts was the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Marilyn Crockett, executive director of AOGA, said the organization had no plans to comment at the initial scoping meeting in Anchorage held May 13, but would comment throughout the process.

The opportunity to comment will be open until July 7, Crockett said.

Curtis Smith, spokesman for Shell Oil, said Shell remained interested in the potential lease sale, but didn't plan to offer comments during the initial scoping process.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.