North Slope Borough will not join anti-drilling lawsuits

One day after two separate groups filed lawsuits to block Shell Oil from exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea next year, the North Slope Borough says it will not join in the effort.

The Minerals Management Service gave conditional approval to the project in October, with requirements that Shell suspend operations during traditional hunts for migrating bowhead whales.

On Monday a variety of groups including the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, and several environmental and Native organizations represented by EarthJustice filed lawsuits in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the government's decision to permit Shell's drilling project. The groups argue the government did not adequately assess the impact of noise and pollutants on bowhead whales and polar bears, and question Shell's ability to respond to an arctic oil spill.

Lily Tuzroyluke, executive director of the Native Village of Point Hope, which is also part of the EarthJustice suit, calls the planned drilling "reckless," and believes it will endanger the traditional way of life villagers have sustained for thousands of years.

Shell Oil is optimistic that MMS will prevail in court.

"Shell has gone to great lengths to minimize the impact of our drilling program, including a voluntary shutdown during the fall subsistence whaling harvest of Nuiqsut and Kaktovik, installing the best available discharge technology and reducing the number of wells," said Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith.

Nuiqsut is a small village in Northern Alaska about 35 miles from the coast of the Beaufort Sea; Kaktovik, an island community, sits directly on the coast further to the east. Both communities are part of an eight-village region encompassed by the North Slope Borough.

"This is the first time that the Minerals Management Service has required a shutdown of drilling activities during our fall hunt of the bowhead whale," Borough Mayor Edward Itta said in a written press release explaining the borough's decision to not join the lawsuits. "The certainty of this protection is a positive step. The whalers in Barrow, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik can rest assured that their fall hunt will not be interrupted by Shell's industrial noise."

Shell Oil is scheduled for exploration activity in the Beaufort Sea from July to October 2010, and earlier this month the company also received approval earlier for a 2010 well drilling project in the Chukchi Sea.

Contact Jill Burke at jill_alaskadispatch.com.