(The following is a sample of the safeguards included in permits where explosives are to be used:) The STIPULATION has applied for a geophysical permit covering a part of the Outer Continental Shelf seaward of the submerged lands of one or more states bordering on the Atlantic Coast (except Florida and Georgia) and agrees to conduct operations thereon in accordance with the following: I Before commencing operations, the Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor of the United States Geological Survey shall be notified by letter or telegram of the date and place such operations are to be commenced. Such notice shall be given so that it will be received at least one week in advance of the beginning of operations. Also, before commencing the initial operation and prior to each subsequent period at sea (usually each 10 days to two weeks) notice shall be sent to the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier, United States Navy, with copies to the Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor and appropriate offices of the United States Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers stating the time and location at which shots will be fired and the type of shooting to be conducted during such period. After the completion of operations a shot point location map and a report shall be filed with the Regional Supervisor. Such report shall summarize the type and volume of work that was completed on each day in the area covered by the permit. II No shots shall be discharged within three hundred (300) feet of any marked fishing area. No shots shall be discharged except during daylight hours. No shots shall be used in excess of fifty (50) pounds of nitro-carbo-nitrate. The Regional Supervisor may, upon application, either written or verbal, permit shooting in other than daylight hours and may also permit the use of larger shots in specified areas when justified. The application for use of shots in excess of fifty (50) pounds shall specify the maximum size shots to be used, describe the area for which such application is made, and state the need therefor. III Except as hereinafter provided, all shots discharged in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean shall either be suspended in the water at a depth not greater than one-half the distance from the surface to the bottom and in no event nearer to the bottom than five (5) feet. All shot charges suspended in the water by floats shall be of such type and packaged in such manner or perforated so that same will disintegrate and neutralize in the water within a short time, and any suspended charge which fails to discharge shall be immediately removed from the water if same can, in the opinion of the party chief or manager, be done without endangering the life of any member of the party, but, in no event, shall any such undischarged suspended charge be abandoned without destroying the floats attached thereto. When shots are buried in the Atlantic Ocean, they shall be buried at least ten (10) feet below the bottom through pipes. Where charges are buried beneath the bottom through pipes and the pipes are allowed to remain in place until the charge is fired, a substantial float or suitable device shall be attached securely to the pipe to prevent it from being lost when the charge is fired. Buried charges, if properly anchored at the required depth where all pipes are removed or properly anchored two (2) feet below the bottom of the pipes where pipes are left standing, may be left overnight and discharged the following day provided all wires are properly shunted so as to prevent accidental discharge. Where shots are discharged within the pipe, all the pipe remaining above the shallowest seismic shot will be removed immediately. Unless constituted of easily destructible materials which will cause no substantial damage to any boat which may collide therewith, all pipes, buoys and other markers shall be distinctly marked with the name or initials of the permittee and properly flagged in the daytime and lighted at night so that they are visible for one nautical mile on a clear, dark night. All buoys and other markers shall be anchored by sash weights or similar weights which cannot cause injury to the nets of commercial fishermen, and all such buoys and markers not constituted of easily destructible materials and all weights and markers placed in the offshore waters shall be removed after they have served their purpose except those buoys placed in the water in accordance with Rules and Regulations of the Department of the Army or the United States Coast Guard. IV If there is a school or schools of fish in the area to be shot, operations must be suspended in that particular area so long as said school or schools of fish remain in that area. The applicant shall employ a fish scanner to detect the presence of schools of fish if required to do so by the Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor. V As a safety precaution, caps and primers will not be stored in the same container with other explosives. All extra caps and lead wires will remain short circuited until ready to fire. All caps will be stored in a properly insulated magazine and kept at a safe distance from other explosives. VI The work shall be conducted in a safe and considerate manner. Close attention shall be given to work scheduling so as to avoid shooting off populated beaches on weekends and holidays and to avoid shooting closer than one mile to the outer perimeter of concentrations of small craft. The objective of the scheduling shall be to plan minimum interference or contact with others on the sea or on the beaches. VII The permit may be revoked at any time by the Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor for failure to comply with any of the conditions of this stipulation. Date [Memorandum] Company Title FEBRUARY 2, 1968. To: Regional Director, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Gloucester, Mass. Enclosed is a copy of a permit (E 1-68) I issued yesterday (but withheld mailing until today at your request) authorizing Continental Oil Company, representing a 14-company combine, to conduct the subject operations. Also enclosed is a copy of the application together with the proposed program map. In accordance with our discussion in Boston on December 18 and 19 and with my telephone conversations with Mr. Aska of your office on January 31 and with Mr. Kip Robinson of your Washington office on February 1, your office will be the one primarily responsible for maintaining contact with the fishing industry regarding these operations and for providing it with advance information on a periodic basis as to the proposed locations of the geophysical operations within your region as the work progresses. It is my understanding that you have informed Mr. Hugh O'Rourke of our receipt of this application. It should be gratifying to the fishing industry that interference with its operations will be minimized by the fact that 14 companies (and possibly additional companies will decide to participate) have arranged to conduct this preliminary survey as a joint operation rather than each conducting a similar survey on an individual company basis. I have specified in the permit a reporting procedure which should provide you with timely location information; however, should the procedure prove to be inadequate for your purposes, please let me know. H. A. DUPONT. Mr. LENNON. I would remind you, gentlemen, that the Federal Government is simply the 50 so-called sovereign States and all powers not delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution are reserved to the several States and the people thereof. I got the impression that here was a lack of understanding, a lack of willingness on the part of the Department of the Interior to bring in the contiguous States affected where permits were applied for, either for exploration or subsequent leases, and say, "Now look them over. Give us your judgment. We make the decision in the Department of the Interior." But apparently that wasn't done until after something happened. This is what I would like for you to do, and I don't want to be critical but am simply trying to find out whether there is truth or accuracy in the gentleman's statement. You were not here to contradict it, so that I think you ought to have the opportunity to explain it. I would appreciate it, sir, if you would take each of these written statements that counsel will furnish you and categorically respond to them as a supplement to your statement here today, which I think would relieve some of us who are a little bit concerned about it. (The information follows:) As shown in previous materials submitted for the record, there has been a high degree of communication between interested groups in New England and Departmental officials responsible for management of Outer Continental Shelf resources. This has included primarily the New England Fisheries and Conservation Committee and the Commissioner for Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While communications have not always been on specific exploratory applications, the general methods of operating, expected level of activity and other pertinent matters have been discussed. However, our aim is to look to the future for continued communications and cooperation in balanced resource management. To this end the Department will be pleased to work with committees or study groups New England interests may wish to establish. This would further information exchange and would allow the design of operations which will be compatible with fishing and protection of the environment. As an immediate step, copies of all applications for oil and gas explorations in New England Outer Continental Shelf waters will be made available to the Commissioner for Natural Resources, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other State officials who might request them. This will be done when the applications are received and will be in addition to the review and communications with fishing industry representatives which has been carried out by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. For the purposes of clarification of the present situation the Department wishes to explain that exploratory activities in New England waters over the past two years have been at a relatively low level. Only one exploratory survey has been conducted there following the fish kill in 1966. Six permits for geophysical explorations have been issued since September 1966 for the Outer Continental Shelf off the Atlantic Coast (Florida to New England). Of the six permits issued three included the Georges Bank area. On March 30, 1967, a permit was issued to Humble Oil Company for a non-explosive sparker survey. Humble did not get to Georges Bank as they decided not to run that part of their proposed survey. On June 29, 1967, a permit was issued to Chevron Oil Company for a non-explosive type survey using the Vibroseis instrument. They completed this survey, including Georges Bank. (This is the permit that Mr. Yasi referred to in his testimony). On February 1, 1968, a permit was issued to Continental Oil Company for a nonexplosive survey from Florida to Maine. This operation has just been started and they will not get to Georges Bank until sometime in late summer of 1968. All of the above three permits were issued with the concurrence of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries following procedures previously stated. The fishing industry was notified before issuance of the permits and no objections were raised when it was explained that in these cases non-explosive methods were to be used. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was also notified about the Chevron permit. Mr. LENNON. I think you gentlemen must know that I personally hope, speaking as an individual, and I don't believe my views are shared by other members of the subcommittee, that we can avoid the enactment into law of this legislation or taking it to the floor. From what I have heard, I am coming a little more to the other members' point of view than I was at the beginning. I do not believe that we should, gentlemen, consider reporting this bill to the full committee until we have had a statement before the committee by both Dr. Wenk, representing the National Council and also by Dr. Sam Lawrence, representing the National Commission. We extended the life of the Commission so that they could go into this subject of marine science, and I hate for them to get the impression that we did not trust their judgment since we agreed to extending of the life of that Commission so that they could explore in detail this and other related matters. But unless we can get assurance and in writing, gentlemen, from the Department of the Interior that the affected States are going to be brought into a dialog with respect to these applications for exploratory permits, I am going to say this to you: That I don't like the suggestion or a moratorium because management ought to, on a day-by-day basis, make the decision, but I am going gung-ho for this legislation unless we can get some assurances in writing that there will be a little more meaningful dialog between the affected States. Apparently we have this testimony of the gentleman from the New England area that we believe. Who are the other witnesses here? Would you gentlemen be kind enough to take these statements and furnish this to counsel before we leave here today so that when you submit them we can get them within the next few days. We want you to answer these charges that there was no dialog or cooperation until after the trouble started. Mr. PAUTZKE. Mr. Chairman, I would also like to enter here the memorandum that we have between the divisions of the Department of the Interior, our own memorandum that was developed last year. (The memorandum follows:) MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTanding BetwEEN THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, AND THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Whereas, the Geological Survey, hereinafter referred to as the Survey, is responsible for the issuance of mineral exploration permits and for the supervision of development and production of mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States; and Whereas, the Bureau of Land Management, hereinafter referred to as the Bureau, is responsible for the administration and the issuance of leases thereon; and Whereas, the Fish and Wildlife Service, herein referred to as the Service, is responsible for the conservation and management of the commercial and sport fishery resources, and has the capability to provide advice and assistance on aquatic resources to the foregoing agencies; and Whereas, the Survey and the Bureau, in meeting their responsibilities for mineral exploration, leasing, development, and production, desire to utilize the aquatic resource capability of the Service; Now, therefore, it is mutually agreed that: A. The Survey and the Bureau will cooperate with the Service in minimizing harm to aquatic life by providing the Service with: 1. Information regarding the conduct of marine geophysical explorations supervised by the Survey. 2. Opportunity to make recommendations on conditions to be included in permits for such geophysical explorations and in leases for mineral development. 3. Opportunity to observe geophysical explorations in areas of aquatic life concentration and, when in the course of such observation, it appears that undue damage to living resources may result, to recommend such action as may be necessary to reduce such possibility. 4. Information regarding areas of the Outer Continental Shelf that are expected to be or are being considered for a possible call for nominations. 5. For the Survey, the Conservation Division, and for the Bureau, the Division of Lands and Minerals Program Management are designated respectively as the coordinating offices in Washington for purposes of this memorandum, and further, the office of the Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor and the office of the Outer Continental Shelf Manager respectively as field level coordinating offices. B. The Service, in addition to meeting its own responsibilities, will assist the Survey and the Bureau by providing: 1. Results of periodic studies on problems relating to the impact of mineral exploration and exploitation on the commercial and sport fishery resources. 2. Aquatic life information which relates directly or indirectly to the administration of the Outer Continental Shelf lands by the Bureau or the Sur vey. 3. For the Service, the Division of Resource Development of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is designated as the coordinating office in Washington, and the office of the Regional Directors of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as field level coordinating offices. The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries will be responsible for the furnishing of information to and coordination with the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife at the Washington and field levels. C. General Provisions: All assistance rendered under this Agreement will be carried out in full compliance with the objectives, policies, and responsibilities of the Department. Any matters of dispute of Outer Continental Shelf management where there is a mutual interest, shall be referred for resolution to the next supervisory level involved. Arrangements will be made by the three agencies at headquarters and field offices as may be necessary to implement the intent and purposes of this Agreement. September 14, 1967. September 15, 1967. September 20, 1967. September 20, 1967. October 3, 1967. CLARENCE F. PAUTZKE, Commissioner, Fish and Wildlife Service. A. V. TUNISON, Acting Director, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. H. E. CROWTHER, Director, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. BOYD RASMUSSEN, Director, Bureau of Land Management. W. T. PECORA, Director, Geological Survey. Mr. LENNON. I believe you agree with me that people become a little panic-stricken and action usually takes place after trouble happens. You see it right here. You see it over the Nation today. Let's don't let the departments and agencies of the Federal Government be charged with inaction. Counsel has a question. Mr. DREWRY. Mr. Pautzke, one of your oppositions to this bill is the fact that it is not possible to conduct a study within a 2-year period at the maximum funding level of $1 million, and then you referred back to the fact that the time begins to run from the date of enactment and it takes time to get appropriations, which is true. |