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July 15, 2007
VICTORY! FORESTWATCH HALTS PLANS
TO DRILL TWO OIL WELLS ALONG EDGE OF CONDOR SANCTUARY
Agency
Decides to Indefinitely Suspend Project Based on Concerns
Presented by ForestWatch and Condor Experts
Hopper Mountain,
Calif. - Last year, a Texas-based oil company applied for permission to
drill two oil wells along the edge of the Sespe Condor
Sanctuary, less than a quarter mile away from the Hopper
Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. The area around the drilling
site provides key foraging habitat for several condors that
frequent the area. The site is located approximately six miles
north of the town of Fillmore in Ventura County, inside the
boundary of the Los Padres National Forest.
Today, the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management announced that it had "indefinitely"
suspended approval of the drilling. The announcement came in
response to a letter submitted by ForestWatch last month, urging
the agency to protect the condor habitat from drilling. The
agency had initially concluded that the drilling would not harm
condors nesting nearby. Our letter outlined several scientific
and legal flaws in the agency's analysis, and called on the
agency to prepare a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement
before authorizing the drilling.
During the past
few years, several condors have been observed perching on oil
drilling equipment, fatally ingesting microtrash (i.e. bolts,
screws, wires, oily rags, bits of glass, and other items found
at oil drilling sites), and even becoming coated in oil.
Drilling an oil well creates high levels of noise that can
disturb nearby nesting, roosting, and foraging sites used by the
condor, eventually causing condors to abandon these areas,
according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Drilling also
involves a high level of human activity, increasing the risk
that condors in the vicinity will become habituated to human
activity. Condors that become habituated to human activity lose
their fear of humans and are less likely to avoid human actions
that could result in their injury or death.
The BLM initially
disclosed that the closest condor nesting site is
two miles away, but since then, several independent condor experts
confirmed that there are several other nesting sites even closer
to the drilling site, increasing the risks to these nests and up
to four newborn condors in the area.
The proposed well
site was a small sliver of private land nestled between the Sespe
Condor Sanctuary and the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife
Refuge. Both of these areas are closed to public entry,
specifically to protect the California condor. The drilling site
itself provides important foraging habitat for endangered
condors and is within close proximity to several nearby condor
nesting sites.
At least 13 oil
wells have already been drilled at the proposed site. The first
well was drilled in 1978, and the remaining wells were drilled
between 1978 and 1990, according to the BLM. None of these wells
have ever been subject to environmental studies and protective
measures that are mandated by the National Environmental Policy
Act.
Seneca Resources
is the company that applied for authorization to drill. Seneca
is headquartered in Houston, Texas and is a subsidiary of
National Fuel Gas Company in New York.
Only 138
California condors remain in the wild, including 69 in
California. Of these numbers, 26 condors reside in the vicinity
of the proposed oil wells. |
