http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2012/02/national_park_service_mississi.html
Published: Friday, February 10, 2012, 7:30 PM
By The Associated Press
The National Park Service says it opposes offshore drilling rules proposed by the Mississippi Development Authority. The federal agency said allowing drilling within one mile of Horn and Petit Bois islands would spoil the islands’ congressionally designated wilderness character.
Meanwhile, casino operators say they’re not opposed to drilling but don’t want tourist areas overrun by industrial equipment, boats and workers. The drilling is mainly expected to produce natural gas.
The letters were among those MDA received during a 43-day comment period and in public hearings on its draft of offshore leasing and seismic surveying rules. Environmental groups were critical of MDA for not extending the comment period.
Daniel Brown, superintendent of Gulf Islands National Seashore, wrote a Jan. 31 letter to MDA saying the state should not allow industrial structures that would spoil the scenic and wild character of the islands. He wrote that the park service “opposes final development and subsequent issuance of the proposed rules for offshore seismic surveying and minerals leasing within Mississippi state waters, as those proposed rules are written.”
A group that opposes drilling in state waters sent Brown’s letter Friday to The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Brown said the park service needed more time to evaluate how the rules would affect the seashore, which includes all or part of five barrier islands in the Mississippi Sound. He noted 10 problems, among them the possibility for degraded scenery at the seashore, as well as light, water and air pollution that could harm birds, turtles and dolphins
“Due to their untrammeled and pristine character, the barrier islands attract approximately 1.1 million visitors per year,” Brown wrote, saying the park service has a duty to preserve the islands forever. “One of the primary attractions is the opportunity to enjoy unencumbered scenic view sheds of the Gulf of Mexico, the night sky and other recreational attributes that are inherent to a natural setting that is unaffected by artificial sights and noise.”
The Sun Herald reports the casino letter was sent to the MDA by lawyers for Beau Rivage, Island View and IP casinos. The Beau Rivage and IP are in Biloxi and the Island View is in Gulfport.
In the letter, the casino operators want to know where ports to support exploration and drilling would be located and what routes would be used to move equipment to and from drilling and exploration sites.
The casino operators recommended MDA include in its leasing- and seismic-testing rules language from a 2004 offshore oil and gas law that prohibits activity in most of the near-shore waters of the Mississippi Sound.
Many environmentalists and some coastal business leaders still oppose any offshore exploration or drilling and have said even after most of the Sound was put off limits, the barrier islands and other areas could still be harmed.
Casino and some other business leaders reigned in their protest when the 2004 law was written to secure protection for most near-shore water. Only two areas, on the Alabama and Louisiana lines, would allow exploration and drilling nearshore.
Opponents have said the Legislature could easily come back later and open water inside the Sound to drilling, and the Alabama-line area is near fragile habitat.
MDA officials told the newspaper that they will consider the casinos’ concerns and meet with tourism leaders. They said they were uncertain where landside operations will be based or exactly who might regulate their operations, but they don’t believe drilling will harm tourism or the environment.
“From MDA’s standpoint, tourism is vital,” said MDA spokesman Dan Turner. “Between (oil and gas) and tourism, tourism is a bigger deal — at least it is now. It’s here. It’s happening now and we want it to continue to grow.”
Jack Moody, MDA’s program director for mineral leasing, said, “We don’t want to turn a tourist area into an industrial one.”
He said the Mississippi Coast already has three industrial ports, and likely any oil and gas operations would be based in those.
But, he said, “we want to maintain flexibility” with rules, because some area boaters and fishermen might want to work with oil and gas.
“We want to allow Mississippians to get those jobs,” Moody said.
Cathy Beeding, attorney for Island View, said casinos just want to see “a balanced approach” to exploration and drilling that protects tourism.
“We certainly understand the state’s interest in economic development, and we don’t want to stymie that,” Beeding said. “As they move to the next steps, we want to make sure they balance those concerns.”
The Mississippi Sierra Club and the Gulf Restoration Network sent out a news release Friday that said the process was not transparent and had resulted in mistakes.
Louie Miller, state director of the Mississippi Sierra Club, said in the news release that the process was an “outrage and insulting” to the public and officials “who have voiced concerns about a rush to judgment on these rules before the public has had an opportunity to properly review them.”
MDA has estimated there is around 350 billion cubic feet of natural gas offshore and that the state could receive $250 million to $500 million over however many years it takes to pump it out.
Local governments would also receive severance payments.
Special thanks to Richard Charter