Assessment of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Studies Program I. Physical Oceanography (1990) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 7-24
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of oil as well as natural gas the largest accidental oil spill in history (NRC, 1983) and the grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez on March 24, 1989, which released approximately 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound.
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DOI, 1989~. Environmental Concerns Resulting from OC:i Activities The potential impacts of oil spills resulting from OCS development and production on resources, such as fisheries and endangered species, have caused environmental concern.
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76. FIGURE 2 Outer Continental Shelf planning areas (contiguous United States)
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1344) , MMS must manage the oil and gas leasing program with consideration for the economic, social, and environmental values of both renewable and nonrenewable resources in the OCS; the marine, coastal, and human environments that could be affected; the laws, goals, and policies of affected states; and the equitable sharing of developmental benefits and environmental risks among the various regions.
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To balance the benefits of the leasing program with environmental concerns, MMS must conduct studies to develop information needed for "the assessment and management of environmental impacts on the human, marine, and coastal environments of the OCS and the coastal areas that may be affected by oil and gas development" in the proposed leasing area
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~. Specifically, MMS must predict impacts on the marine biota that could result from chronic low-level pollution or large oil spills associated with OCS production or trom the Introduction of argot cuttings and ring muds in the area and impacts of offshore development on the affected coastal areas (43 U.S.C.
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Separate permits are required prior to conducting geological and geophysical surveys, exploration, development, and production. Exploration, development, and production plans must be submitted to MMS together with an environmental report and a certificate of consistency with state coastal zone management plans from the affected coastal states.
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For a regional listing of all physical oceanographic studies, see Appendix C TABLE 6 Cumulative Funding for Physical Oceanography Studies by Region, 1973-1988 Region Funding in Dollars Alaska Atlantic Gulf of Mexico Pacific Washington, D.C.
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. Under the mandate to establish procedures for conducting environmental studies, guidance was developed by an OCS ad hoc advisory committee and published in "Study Design for Resource Management Decisions: OCS Oil and Gas Development and the Environment" (U.S.
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. 1ME PRESENT STUDY In 1986, in response to a request from MMS to review the ESP and recommend future directions, the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the NRC formed the Committee to Review the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Studies Program.
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The BES coordinates the development of a "national studies list" from the proposed study topics and ranks them for funding priority based on criteria that include consideration of how the proposed study fulfills legislative mandates and other legal requirements ant! of whether the study will be completed in time for use in specific leasing decisions.
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TABLE 7 Planning and Implementation Steps in the OCS Environmental Studies Program and Lease-Sale Process -34 -30 -27 -20 -17 -12 7 3 o 1 5-9 12 13 14 18 Draft regional study plan (described above) Final regional study plan (described above)
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It provides the quantitative basis for calculating the probability of occurrence of an oil spill combined with the probability that a given spill will come into contact with resources. Physical oceanographic support of OSRA modeling has been provided directly through numerical modeling studies of the circulation of each of the major OCS regions the outputs of the circulation models are "data" for OSRA models and indirectly in the form of extensive data bases obtained through large-scale field observation programs.
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20 do ~a: (3~ LUG AS EN toz U.O OF LU~ I,OL UZ' 1 .
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Trajectory calculations are made by assuming random start times within the time period of the environmental data sets. The OSRA model is then used to complete predictions of the probability of oil-spill occurrence, hits on environmental resources and shoreline segments, and conditional impact probabilities, just as for lease areas of the contiguous United States.
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However the actual influence of the results of the large-scale physical oceanographic field programs on preparation of impact assessments in EISs is less clear. The information derived from the observational programs is integrates!
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The physical oceanographic component of the required information should consist of robust estimates of fields of exposure-including expected duration-to chemical contaminants for valuable living resources in and near a lease area. In addition, physical oceanographic knowledge must be sufficient to estimate oil-spill trajectories for projected specific sites of production and transport (e.g., platforms, pipelines, and barge and tanker routes)
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