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Sierra Club testimony -- page 2 



resources. The monitoring studies appear to be well-designed and 

 well -executed. 



One of the greatest concerns of the Sierra Club is the potential 

 long-term effect of drilling discharges. The BTF monitoring program 

 has developed some excellent baseline data which will enable 

 assessment of the effects of drilling in the future, but the results 

 which are available to date are not a full assessment of impacts 

 of oil and gas drilling in themselves. There has been only a small 

 amount of drilling to date over a relatively short period of time, 

 so it is not surprising that there is no demonstrated impact. If 

 impacts on the fishery were noticeable already, then certainly 

 future drilling activity would be very dangerous. 



We recommend that special attention be paid to the potential impli- 

 cations of the elevated barium levels found on Block 4l0, particularly 

 if future monitoring in this area indicates a consistent pattern. 



We would like to offer some recommendations for future activities 

 of the Biological Task Force: 



1. Studies for Sale 52 and Future Sales . The present monitoring 

 studies were designed for the area covered in Lease Sale h2. Further 

 studies must be designed appropriate to Sale 52 and future sales. In 

 particular, studies are needed in deepwater tracts, which were to be 

 included in Sale 52 and will probably be included in future lease 

 sales . The Department of the Interior apparently intended that 

 leasing would go forward in these areas under Lease Sale 52, although 

 the current body of information about benthic populations, currents 

 and transport patterns, and other factors in these areas is scanty. 

 The BTF should begin now to design these studies. 



