Despite Florida’s claims that oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would foul its beaches, the Interior Department, in its final environmental review of leasing in the region, has concluded that the impact to the state’s beaches and tourist trade would be minimal.

While eastern Gulf drilling could result in “small pollution events that could temporarily affect the enjoyment or use of some beach segments in Alabama or Florida,” it will have “little effect…on the number of beach users or tourism,” said Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) in its final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the original, much-larger Lease Sale 181. The sale, which is tentatively planned for December, originally called for 1,033 blocks on 5.9 million acres in the eastern Gulf to be offered to producers, but Interior last week, in a major concession to Florida, reduced the size of the lease site to 1.5 million acres and 256 blocks (see Daily GPI, July 3).

The MMS EIS, which was issued last Friday, said that the probability of an oil spill of any kind occurring as a result of drilling in the eastern Gulf was “very low,” ranging from 5-37% depending on the volume of resources developed. It estimated the chance of a large spill occurring at 1-23%, while small spills would be more prevalent. “Although up to 870 small (50 barrels or less) offshore spills are projected to occur throughout the life of the proposed [lease sale], they are assumed to be mostly very small events (average size less than one barrel), with spills greater than 50 barrels occurring very infrequently (0-2 spill events).”

Even in the event of a spill, there is a “low probability” that it would come in contact with the barrier beaches, the Interior agency said. “Mechanical cleanup at sea is assumed to collect up to 10% of the oil and approximately 30% is assumed to be chemically dispersed, thereby reducing the probability and severity of beach contact. Mechanical cleanup onshore would occur with minimal sand removal. Should offshore spill cleanup proceed as prescribed, impacts would be minimal to insignificant.”

If beach contact should be made, the areas most susceptible would be the Chandeleur Islands of Louisiana, Baldwin County, AL, and Escambia and Santa Rose Counties, FL, the EIS said.

Moreover, the impact of spills and “effluent discharges and runoff from the use of onshore [support] infrastructure” on coastal water quality are likely to be small, according to MMS. Given that so few spills are likely to happen and those that do would be very small (78% are estimated to be one barrel or less), “oil-spill events are not likely to become major contributors to regional petroleum contamination of Gulf coastal waters,” the EIS noted. Spills occurring in or reaching coastal waters “are expected to cause acute, localized, short-term impacts,” and “are not expected to disrupt current activity uses designated for these waters.”

Nor are spills or well blowouts in the eastern Gulf likely to have “significant impacts” on onshore air quality, according to the agency’s EIS. “Pollutant concentrations reaching onshore will generally be low due to dispersion of the emissions with distance over water and due to the fact that emissions decrease with time and become more diffuse as the spill spreads over a large area with time. Any potential air quality impacts from a large spill could be rare, very localized and of short duration.”

As part of its EIS, the MMS also evaluated three alternatives to Lease Sale 181: one option sought the cancellation of the lease sale altogether; another proposed the removal of 126 blocks in the easternmost part of the Gulf from the sale because of potential conflicts with the military; and the last one called for 144 blocks in the northernmost part of the Gulf — the Florida Panhandle — to be eliminated from the sale in deference to the state of Florida. Interior granted the latter two proposals last week when it scaled back the amount of offshore acreage that will be made available to producers in the upcoming Lease Sale 181.

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