Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on July 30, 2014 at 2:49 PM, updated July 30, 2014 at 2:52 PM

As the federal government this summer considers revised rules on the decommissioning of Gulf of Mexico oil rigs, many environmental groups are pushing for a reexamination of the rigs-to-reefs program.

The program, extremely popular among most Louisiana anglers because the artificial reefs attract fish, allows some oil and gas companies to convert their decommissioned rigs to reefs instead of requiring the companies to remove them.

But on Wednesday, Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, joined calls for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to require the removal of rigs instead of converting them into such reefs.

There is debate about whether the artificial reefs promote aquatic life or simply attract fish, concentrating them for easy fishing access. And some environmental groups contend that their artificial habitats create more harm than good.

There are about 450 platforms in the Gulf that have been converted to permanent artificial reefs through the program that started in 1985. By far the majority of those reefs – more than 300 – are in Louisiana waters.

While the federal Idle Iron policy requires oil and gas companies “to dismantle and responsibly dispose of infrastructure after they plug non-producing wells,” the rigs-to-reefs programs allows some the decommissioned rigs to remain on the site as artificial marine habitats.

Guidry joined the authors of the recently released free e-book Bring Back the Gulf, which also advocates for requiring the removal of oil rigs.

Shrimpers often are against the artificial reefs, largely because the reefs can tangle their nets.

Guidry on Wednesday argued that the oil industry should “return Gulf bottoms to trawlable bottoms” and that that would “help everyone, not just shrimp fishermen, as it will help all users who have to navigate the Gulf.”

Last Wednesday (July 23), about 25 individuals, mainly representing environmental groups, signed a letter sent to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell urging “strong and consistent implementation of the Department of Interior’s Idle Iron policy requiring full decommissioning of spent oil and gas structures at the end of their useful economic life.”

“Industry has expanded their requests for Interior Department waivers to Idle Iron protocols – instead seeking permanent seabed disposal of disused oil and gas infrastructure throughout Gulf of Mexico waters under the misnomer of Rigs-to-Reefs projects,” the 7-page letter later continued. “The permanent seabed placement of obsolete oil and gas extraction infrastructure invites more ecosystem damage rather than restoring it as originally envisioned.”

The letter in part stated that the rigs’ deteriorating metal can harm “sensitive Gulf habitats.” It also states that, by attracting fish, the artificial reefs can cause overfishing of certain species and can expand habitat for invasive species.

Richard Charter, a senior fellow at The Ocean Foundation who co-authored the book Bring Back the Gulf that was released last week, said during a teleconference on Wednesday that oil and gas companies have an “obligation to return a reef bed to its natural state.”

Charter said “thousands of rigs due for decommissioning in the coming years” as some of the oldest deep-water wells reach the end of their lives. His his co-author, DeeVon Quirolo, added that the Gulf has reached “critical threshold of such artificial structures.”

In May, Jewell’s Chief of Staff Tommy Beaudreau said the agency this summer would be reviewing the regulations governing the decommissioning and related liability issues of old offshore oil infrastructure, according to Charter and Quirolo.

The Interior Department did not immediately return NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune questions on Wednesday about the status of that review, although Charter and Quirolo said that Interior is expected to hold public hearings on the matters as it move forward.

To see Charter and Quirolo free e-book, click here. There are iPad and Kindle versions available on their website, http://bringbackthegulf.org.

Below, view and download the letter sent last week to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell:

Click here to download this file (PDF)

© 2014 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.