AUSTIN¾ The Sierra Club has brought a new legal challenge against a controversial gas drilling operation on Padre Island National Seashore. Last month the National Park Service approved two new wells on the Seashore, which provides nesting habitat for the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

"The seashore is too important for the turtles to allow the beach to become a highway, " said Pat Suter of the Sierra Club's Coastal Bend group. "They see no problem in letting tractor-trailers drive right through the very areas where turtles nest and people congregate. They're allowing this public treasure to be spoiled for some very narrow interests."

The new gas operations, known as the "Lemon" and "Lemon Seed" wells, were approved by NPS on November 8^th. The wells are the latest in what BNP Petroleum, the drilling company, has described as an aggressive drilling campaign on Padre Island.

Sierra’s complaint, which will be filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Corpus Christi, challenges NPS’ failure to assess the consequences of the drilling campaign for the Kemp’s ridley.

BNP's preferred method of drilling involves sending convoys of heavy-duty trucks up and down the beach¾ sometimes as many as 40 trips per day¾ where sea turtles come ashore to nest. NPS has chosen to ignore the cumulative risks posed by this operation, even as BNP plans a thirty-year drilling program. This abdication of responsibility violates the Endangered Species Act, according to the Sierra Club's challenge.

Secretary of Interior Gale Norton is named as the defendant, along with NPS and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which is charged with protecting endangered species. The Sierra Club is seeking a repeal of the BNP's permit to drill and run trucks through sea turtle habitat.

"In their own documents the Park Service has admitted that turtles might be killed by the trucks," said

said Johnny French, a former biologist with the Fish & Wildlife Service in Corpus Christi. "At that point the law tells them to get a full opinion from Fish & Wildlife on the threat to the turtles. But they've blown it off. It's like you felt you were about to have a heart attack but refused to see a doctor. They're putting the turtles at serious risk even though they know better. It's a political decision."

Since 1978 NPS and other agencies have worked to establish Padre Seashore as a protected nesting site for the Kemp's ridley. It is the most endangered sea turtle in the world, with an adult population numbering only three to five thousand worldwide. Deep ruts created by heavy trucks and bulldozers could prevent the turtles from crossing the beach and nesting. The trucks also pose a threat to turtle eggs buried in the sand.

While BNP and the Department of the Interior like to suggest that major drilling operations like this have gone on continuously since the 1950s, the reality is that by 2001 oil and gas operations were mostly a thing of the past on the Seashore.

Only two operations took place in the 1990s¾ in 1994 and 1995. Both were dry holes and neither caused a lasting surface disturbance.   When BNP began its 30-year campaign there were only three active gas production sites within the boundary of the Seashore, and those required minimal servicing.

Padre Island National Seashore, the crown jewel of Texas beaches, encompasses 130,000 acres of barrier island habitat southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas. The park is one of the most visited public recreation area in Texas, drawing an average of 800,000 visitors a year. Padre Island is the longest unbroken barrier beach in the United States, and the longest undeveloped barrier beach in the world. The seashore is home to 13 endangered or threatened species, including the Kemp's ridley, loggerhead, green, and hawksbill sea turtles.

To receive a copy of the complaint by fax or more information on the history of drilling within the seashore, please contact Fred Richardson of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter at the number above. The complaint will be delivered to the Federal Courthouse in Corpus Christi by overnight mail on Thursday, December 5.