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Cook Inletkeeper Energy
Campaign
Oil & Gas
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 12, 2008
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Bob
Shavelson 907.299.3277
Bobby Kennedy 913.422.4343
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Calls
on
Chevron to Stop Toxic Dumping
in
Cook Inlet Fisheries
Larry King Live Appearance Sparks Offshore Oil & Gas Debate
ANCHORAGE, AK: Cook Inletkeeper and the Waterkeeper
Alliance today released a letter from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to
Chevron CEO David O’Reilly, calling on the Chevron Corporation
to stop dumping toxic oil and gas wastes into the fisheries of
Cook Inlet, Alaska. Mr. Kennedy’s August 5, 2008, letter came
in response to correspondence from Chevron after Mr. Kennedy and
Mr. O’Reilly debated energy issues on Larry King Live
recently. The Cook Inlet toxic dumping debate provides an
important perspective on offshore oil and gas development as
Congress and the presidential candidates debate ways to address
rising fuel prices.
In his letter, Mr. Kennedy notes that Chevron dumps
billions of gallons of toxic oil and gas wastes into Cook
Inlet’s rich coastal fisheries each year. Chevron could
properly treat these wastes by reinjecting them back into the
formation, but the corporation – which reported net profits over
$5 billion in the first three months of 2008 – has balked due to
high costs. An EPA study around Cook Inlet Native villages in
2001 found a broad array of toxics in subsistence fish and
shellfish, including the same types of contaminants found in
industry waste streams.
Mr. Kennedy is the Chairman of the Board of the
Waterkeeper Alliance (www.waterkeeper.org);
Cook Inletkeeper is a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance. To
read Chevron’s July 14, 2008, letter to Mr. Kennedy, as well as
Mr. Kennedy’s August 5, 2008, response, go to
www.inletkeeper.org.
# # #
Read Mr. Kennedy's Letter to Chevron
here
Read Chevron's Letter to Mr. Kennedy
here
Get a PDF copy of this Press Release
here
See BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS & INFORMATION
ON COOK INLET DUMPING ISSUES
Cook Inletkeeper
●
Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund
Native Village of Port Graham
●
Native Village of Nanwalek
●
United Cook Inlet Drift AssoC.
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2007
For More Information:
Bob Shavelson 907.299.3277
Justin Massey, Esq.
907.276.4244 x114
Chief Patrick Norman
907.284.2227
Dave Martin 907.252.2752
UCIDA 907.260.9436
Tribes, Fishermen & INLETKEEPER
challenge toxic oil & gas dumping in Cook Inlet Fisheries
New EPA Permit Would
Increase Toxic Pollution
ANCHORAGE, AK – Alaska Native Tribes and commercial fishing
groups joined Cook Inletkeeper in a lawsuit challenging the
Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act permit for oil
and gas discharges in Cook Inlet, Alaska. The groups contend
EPA ignored hundreds of public comments and violated the Clean
Water Act by issuing a permit that will almost triple the amount
of toxic wastes dumped annually by industry into Cook Inlet’s
rich and productive fisheries.
“EPA is happy to slap a small fish processor with a
big fine, but they bend over backwards to let the oil and gas
industry dump millions of gallons of toxics into our fisheries,”
said Dave Martin of the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund, a
commercial fishing organization. “It’s discouraging EPA would
issue a permit that will increase toxic pollution in our
fisheries. The technology exists for the oil and gas industry
to protect our fisheries, and it’s EPA’s job to make sure our
waters are clean. How can we market our Cook Inlet fish as
clean and healthy if EPA allows industry to pollute our water?”
Cook Inlet is the only coastal waterbody in the
United States where EPA allows the oil and gas industry to dump
toxic drilling and production wastes into important subsistence,
commercial and recreational fisheries. When Congress passed the
Clean Water Act in 1972, it established five year terms for
discharge permits, with the intent that technology would improve
over time and pollution eventually would be eliminated.
However, EPA’s new permit will
nearly triple the amount of toxic dumping in Cook Inlet compared
to the previous permit, with industry authorized to discharge
approximately 100,000 gallons of oil and over 835,000 pounds of
toxic metals each year.
In 2006, Inletkeeper released a report, entitled “Dishonorable
Discharges: How To Shift Cook Inlet’s Offshore Oil & Gas
Operations to Zero Discharge,” that provides practical
alternatives for safe industry waste disposal.
“Litigation is a last resort,
but this dumping is damaging our
culture and our subsistence lifestyle and resources,”
said Chief Patrick Norman of the Native Village of Port Graham.
“We commend EPA for the new monitoring requirements in the
permit. But EPA’s own tests on our subsistence foods found the
same types of pollutants discharged by the industry, and
EPA continues to disregard
Tribal calls for a halt to the toxic dumping.”
Despite lenient permit conditions for oil and gas
operations in Cook Inlet, industry has routinely violated its
permit. In 1995, industry paid over $2 million dollars to
settle a lawsuit that alleged over 4,200 Clean Water Act
violations in Cook Inlet, and between 2000-2003, industry
reported over 1000 similar violations. Between 1996 and 2006,
EPA conducted only four inspections of Cook Inlet oil and gas
facilities, and no independent monitoring on waste discharges.
As a result, water quality penalties have simply become the cost
of doing business for oil and gas corporations in Cook Inlet,
and lax oversight by governmental agencies virtually ensures
future violations.
“The toxic dumping loophole in Cook Inlet is a
massive subsidy for the oil and gas industry, and at a time of
record industry profits, industry can afford to do it right,”
said Bob Shavelson, Executive Director of Cook Inletkeeper.
“Anyone else intentionally dumping that much oil into Cook Inlet
would be arrested.”
“If the oil and gas industry can’t keep Cook Inlet
clean, it can’t operate here,” said Justin Massey, an attorney
with Trustees for Alaska. “And if EPA doesn’t play by the rules,
we have no choice but to sue them.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Cook Inletkeeper,
United Cook Inlet Drift Association, Cook Inlet Fishermen’s
Fund, the Native Village of Port Graham, and the Native Village
of Nanwalek. The nonprofit law firm Trustees for Alaska is
representing the plaintiffs. For more information, including
Inletkeeper’s permit comments and the report showing why
zero-discharge is feasible in Cook Inlet, see:
www.inletkeeper.org.
-- ### --
To download the press release (above),
click here.
DISHONORABLE
DISCHARGES:
How To Shift Cook
Inlet’s
Offshore Oil & Gas
Operations to
Zero Discharge
... an important new report by Inletkeeper's Senior
Engineer, Lois Epstein,P.E., showing why
the ongoing discharge
of toxic oil and gas wastes into Cook Inlet fisheries no longer makes sense
on economic, technical, or
scientific grounds.
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