Village of False Pass v. Watt

Decision Date06 May 1983
Docket NumberNo. A 83-176 Civ.,A 83-176 Civ.
Citation565 F. Supp. 1123
PartiesVILLAGE OF FALSE PASS; Village of Nelson Lagoon; Aleutians East Coastal Resource Service Area Board; Bering Sea Fishermen's Association; United Fishermen of Alaska; Jack U. Williams; Trustees for Alaska; Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.; Friends of the Earth; National Audubon Society; Alaska Center for the Environment, Plaintiffs, v. James G. WATT, Secretary of the Interior; the United States Department of the Interior; John V. Byrne, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Defendants, Amoco Production Company, Arco Alaska, Inc., Exxon Corporation, Gulf Oil Corporation, Mobil Oil Corporation, Murphy Oil Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Texaco Inc., and Union Oil Company of California, Intervenors.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Alaska

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Eric Smith, Trustees for Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, Sarah Chasis, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Michael W. Reed/James M. Spears, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Land & Natural Resources Div., Washington, D.C., Cynthia Christianson/Bruce M. Landon, Attys., Dept. of Justice Land & Natural Resources Div., United States Attorney's Office, Anchorage, Alaska, for defendants.

Carl J.D. Bauman, Hughes, Thorsness, Gantz, Powell, & Brundin, Anchorage, Alaska, E. Edward Bruce, John T. Smith & Bobby Burchfield, Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., for intervenors.

OPINION

FITZGERALD, District Judge.

In July of 1982, Secretary of the Interior James Watt approved a final five year plan for opening vast areas of the outer continental shelf to oil and gas leasing, exploration and development. The present sale, Lease Sale No. 70, proposes to lease 479 tracts in the St. George Basin of Alaska's Bering Sea. Like almost every lease sale that the department has undertaken, this sale has been met with a formidable court challenge.1

The plaintiffs are the Villages of False Pass and Nelson Lagoon; the Bering Sea Fishermen's Association and the United Fishermen of Alaska; Jack U. Williams, a resident of Mekoryuk, Nunivak Island; the Aleutian East Coast Service Area Board, and several conservation and public interest organizations including the National Audubon Society, the Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Trustees for Alaska, and the Alaska Center for the Environment. The defendants are the Department of the Interior and its secretary, James G. Watt, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its administrator, John V. Byrne. The plaintiffs ask for declaratory and injunctive relief nullifying the decision of the Secretary of the Interior to lease approximately 2.7 million acres of the St. George Basin for oil and gas exploration and development.

The St. George Basin holds some of the most important fish and wildlife resources in Alaska. Located in the southeastern Bering Sea between the eastern Aleutians and the Pribilof Islands, this basin is the gateway for virtually every marine mammal, fish, and bird species moving between the North Pacific and the Bering Sea; it also includes or adjoins wintering grounds for most of the species that move between the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea and North Pacific. The diversity and seasonal abundance of these animals in and adjacent to Unimak Pass and along the continental slope can be found in no other part of Alaska and perhaps the world. The ecological significance of this region to marine mammals (as well as other wildlife and fishes) is not yet fully understood, but in sheer numbers and multitude of species it is a region of primary importance. Of about 35 marine mammal species in the northern North Pacific and Bering Sea, 89 percent of the baleen whales, 57 percent of the toothed whales, and 73 percent of the seals and walruses regularly frequent the basin. The area contains important breeding and feeding habitats for many of these animals and is a transition zone during migration for others.

About 75 percent of the world population of northern fur seals breed and feed in the basin and the adjacent Pribilof Islands. For the eastern North Pacific gray whale, the basin and immediately adjacent waters are also vital during migration. Large numbers of Steller (northern) sea lions, harbor seals, spotted seals, ribbon seals, bearded seals, walruses, fin whales, and sea otters feed in and near the basin and, in several cases, mate, pup, and rear their young there as well.

About half of the St. George Basin lease area is comprised of shallow continental shelf waters from 200 to 400 meters deep; depths in the southern half range mainly from 200 to 3,500 meters. The proposed lease area is located on the outer continental shelf, within the basin proper, in waters 100-200 meters deep, about midway between the Pribilofs and Unimak Island. The importance of the lease area as a migratory corridor for many species of marine mammals, as well as fish and birds entered and leaving the Bering Sea, is well documented. The basin and Unimak Pass are also on the main shipping lane between the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean, and will be on the route taken for tankers carrying oil from more northern fields after production begins.

According to the environmental impact statement prepared by the Department of the Interior, the likelihood of success for the proposed lease sale is 28% that commercial oil and 37% that commercial gas resources will be discovered within the lease area. Hence, the probability is 72% that no commercial oil will be discovered and 63% that no commercial gas discovery will be made. In the event of discovery of commercial oil, it is estimated with a 95% statistical probability that 1.12 billion barrels of oil will be recovered from the area covered by the lease. St. George Basin Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) at II-1-2.

Should the sale be completed the exploratory period is expected to begin in 1983 and end by 1987. Peak exploratory drilling activities should occur in 1985 with the employment of five drilling rigs and the completion of 15 wells. If hydrocarbons are located during the exploratory period, the development period could begin as early as 1985 with the placement of a production platform. The development period should end by 1991. During this period, as many as 250 production and service wells may be drilled from 11 production platforms. Pipeline construction should begin in 1987 and be completed in 1988. Total pipeline mileage in place would vary according to the location of the onshore processing facilities. Pipelines would likely be laid entirely under water except for the final few kilometers. However, if a facility is located at a port on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, then approximately 48 kilometers of the pipeline would have to travel over land. Oil production is expected to begin in 1989 and reach a peak output of 242 million barrels in 1991. Gas production could also begin in 1989. However, peak production of gas would not occur until 1993. Beyond 1991, industry activities could be expected to be confined to production operations. The volume of recovery is expected to decline with oil output ending in 2010 and gas reserves completely exhausted in 2019. FEIS, Table II. B.1.a-1.

The plaintiffs have mounted a broad base attack claiming the Secretary's decision is inadequate on many grounds. According to plaintiffs:

1. The Secretary has arbitrarily and capriciously failed to fulfill his duty under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to insure that offshore oil and gas activities are conducted in a balanced manner and without unreasonable risk to the biological resources of the St. George Basin.

2. Secretary Watt has violated the National Environmental Policy Act by preparing an inadequate environmental impact statement for Lease Sale 70.

3. The final environmental impact statement is inadequate because it fails to contain a worst case analysis of impacts on the resources of the Lease Sale 70 region.

4. The environmental impact statement is inadequate because it fails to adequately analyze adverse effects of Lease Sale 70.

5. The Secretary violated the Endangered Species Act by acting before he had received the biological opinion for the St. George Basin from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

6. The Secretary failed to insure that the gray and right whales will not be jeopardized by activities in the area of Lease Sale 70.2

Soon after the complaint was filed, plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction with supporting papers, including extensive memoranda and numerous exhibits. An expedited hearing on plaintiffs' application was scheduled for April 8, 1983. Shortly before the hearing, AMOCO Production Company, Exxon Corporation, Mobil Oil Corporation, ARCO Alaska, Inc., Gulf Oil Corporation, Murphy Oil Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Union Oil Company of California, and Texaco, Inc., applied for and were granted leave to intervene. The federal defendants and the intervenors filed papers on April 7, 1983, responding in detail to all claims advanced by plaintiffs. After the matter was fully argued on April 8, 1983, the parties agreed to file supplemental papers and to submit all issues for final decision. The plaintiffs agreed to withdraw their application for a preliminary injunction, following the government's agreement that no leases would be executed until after the close of business on May 12, 1983.

A. THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS ACT

In 1978, Congress, responding to increasingly serious domestic energy problems, passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments of 1978. P.L. 95-372, 92 Stat. 630. The stated purpose of these amendments was to expedite the exploration and development of the outer continental shelf...

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19 cases
  • Village of False Pass v. Clark
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
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