Padre Drilling Operations Expected to Last 15 Years

AUSTIN¾ Highly disruptive gas drilling and production operations are expected to go on in Padre Island National Seashore for the next fifteen years, according to park managers. Curiously, the Park Service argues that the impact of fifteen years of continuous heavy truck traffic up and down the beach will not be severe or cause lasting impairment to park resources or the enjoyment of visitors.

"If you can't go to Padre National Seashore for the next fifteen years without running a good chance that an eighteen-wheeler will rumble past you on the beach, it seems to us that the seashore has become more of an oil field than a national park," said Fred Richardson of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "We don't think most people have visions of tractor trailers in mind when they want to get away from it all."

In February the park granted a permit to BNP Petroleum, Inc. of Corpus Christi to drill for natural gas in the dunes of the seashore. The company has applied for another permit for two more wells, and park managers estimate that BNP will drill 18 wells in total over the course of what a BNP spokesman has described as "an aggressive drilling campaign."

When asked by the Sierra Club how long they expect BNP's drilling operations to last--including the heavy truck traffic--park managers said fifteen years is a reasonable expectation.

The Sierra Club has filed a suit in federal district court to block the truck traffic until the Park Service does a more thorough analysis of the impacts on the highly endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, which has been the focus of a 25-year recovery project at the park.

Sierra is also calling on the state of Texas, the Department of the Interior and the White House to examine the cost and feasibility of buying the rights to oil and gas deposits under and close to Padre Island National Seashore. In late May the Bush Administration announced a $235 million buyout of privately held oil and gas rights below Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve and federally owned mineral rights off the coast of the Florida panhandle.

With the current operation, and for the pending one that will last 140 days or more, park managers are allowing up to 40 one-way truck trips each day. The trucks regularly drive within a few yards of the camp and picnic sites of beach-goers. At times, truck and car congestion can clog the majority of the beach area between the dune line and the surf.

Despite finding in the environmental assessment for the pending permit that "drilling could elevate noise levels," and that "spilled hydrocarbons and contaminating or hazardous substances could pose a health and safety hazard to park visitors," park managers nonetheless concluded that "no impairment to visitor use and experience would result from the implementation of this alternative." Furthermore, NPS concluded that although 18 wells are expected to be drilled, and 998 acres to be disturbed by gas operations, the 15-year drilling campaign will have only "minor to moderate adverse impacts on visitor use and experience, localized around existing and future developments throughout the park."

"For lots of American families a trip to a national seashore is a great vacation that the whole family looks forward to," said Richardson. "And the park managers are telling us that sitting in a beach chair and watching an 18 wheeler plow past your family really won't have a big impact on your vacaction. If the trucks are no big deal and the island is still a great place to visit, I wonder if we'll see Paul Black and Barbara Canales-Black bring their family here on vacation for the next fifteen summers."   

Paul Black and Barbara Canales-Black are co-owners of BNP Petroleum, Inc.