Causeway compromise; bridging a counterproductive impasse, oil producers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reached an agreement over breaching of North Slope causeways.

• Author: Tyson, Ray

When it became evident the long-standing debate over the effect of two North Slope gravel causeways on the marine environment would never be resolved short of a lengthy and costly legal fight, Alaska's major oil producers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to set aside their differences and meet at the bargaining table.

What resulted was an unprecedented compromise and a new spirit of cooperation between natural foes. Believed to be the largest monetary settlement of its kind in Corps of Engineers history, Areo Alaska Inc., BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Exxon USA this winter agreed to install an additional 650 feet of breaching, or bridging, in both the West Dock and Endicott causeways, at an estimated total cost of $50 million to the companies.

In exchange, the Corps of Engineers agreed to process permits necessary for the oil companies to develop the Point McIntyre field, the largest U.S. oil discovery in more than a decade, and it agreed to end a mandatory environmental monitoring program that has cost industry about $23 million since its inception. Robert Oja, chief regulatory officer for the Corps of Engineers' Alaska district, calls the agreement 'a one-of-a-kind sort of thing.'

He explains, 'It's the sheer magnitude of it and the high degree of public interest in terms of national security and national interest issues. In recent years, we've had a lot of large settlements that have resulted in several millions of dollars in corrective action. This is just a much larger settlement."

For years, the Corps of Engineers has contended that North Slope gravel causeways, stretching up to three miles seaward, have altered the temperature, salinity and circulation of seawater and, therefore, could cause harm to sealife, in addition to posing an artificial barrier to migrating fish, particularly the Arctic cisco.

While oil companies say that it's obvious any man-made structure will change the physical environment, they continuously point to their own scientific research showing gravel fill causeways have neither damaged fish populations nor blocked their movements.

In the end, however, it was strictly business interests that turned the tide on one of the most controversial development issues in Alaska North Slope history.

BP's Terry Obeney, project manager for Point McIntyre, says, "We recognized that we had an ongoing problem that wasn't going to go away, even though we believed we had the science to back it up. It was just an...