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Appendix K
Biosketches of the Committee's Members
COMMITTEE ON CUMULATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL
EFFECTS OF OIL AND GAS ACTIVITIES ON
ALASKA'S NORTH SLOPE
GORDON ORIANS (Chair) is Professor Emeritus of Zool-
ogy at the University of Washington, Seattle. He received
his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California at
Berkeley. He has been a member of the faculty of the Uni-
versity of Washington since 1960 and served as Director of
its Institute of Environmental Studies from 1976 to 1986. He
was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989.
His research interests include the evolution of vertebrate so-
cial systems, territoriality, habitat selection, and environmen-
tal quality. He is a past president of the Ecological Society of
America, a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands
Academy of Sciences. He has served as chair of the Board
on Environmental Studies and Toxicology since 1997, as a
member of the NRC's Report Review Committee, and
as chair or member of many other NRC committees and
. .
commlsslons.
THOMAS F. ALBERT has recently retired from duties as
Senior Scientist in the Department of Wildlife Manage-
ment, North Slope Borough, Barrow, AK. He now serves
as Senior Scientist with Wag-Hill Arctic Science, LLC. He
received a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University,
V.M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in
biology from Georgetown University. He is a Fellow of the
Explorers Club (New York) and the Arctic Institute of
North America and is an honorary member of the Barrow
Whaling Captains Association. His major areas of interest
are arctic wildlife, environmental biology, and veterinary
medicine. He has experience regarding the importance of
bowhead whales to the Eskimo people of northern Alaska
and the impacts of oil and gas industry activities on whale
behavior and habitat.
246
GARDNER BROWN is a Professor of Economics, special-
izing in natural resource economics, non-market valuation,
and applied microeconomic theory, at the University of
Washington, Seattle. He received his Ph.D. from the Univer-
sity of California, Berkeley (1964~. Dr. Brown serves on
the editorial board of Environment and Development Eco-
nomics and the Journal of Environmental Economics and
Management.
RAYMOND CAMERON earned a Ph.D. in Zoophysiology
from the University of Alaska (1972~. He served as Wildlife
Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for
twenty years (1974-94) and is currently Affiliate Professor
of Wildlife Biology at the Institute of Arctic Biology, Uni-
versity of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Cameron has published ex-
tensively on the behavioral, nutritional, and reproductive
consequences of petroleum development on caribou.
PATRICIA A. L. COCHRAN is the Executive Director of
the Alaskan Native Science Commission. She is an Inupiat
Eskimo born and raised in Nome, Alaska. Previously she
served as administrator of the Institute for Circumpolar
Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage; Ex-
ecutive Director of the Alaska Community Development
Corporation; Local Government Program Director with the
University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Director of Employ-
ment and Training for the North Pacific Rim Native Corpo-
ration. Ms. Cochran served on the NRC Committee on Man-
agement of Wolf and Bear Populations in Alaska.
S. CRAIG GERLACH is an Associate Professor of Anthro-
pology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He earned his
Ph.D. in anthropology from Brown University (1989~. His
areas of expertise include archaeology of pastoralists, arctic
hunter-gatherers, zooarchaeology, and quaternary paleoecol-
ogy; arctic oil and gas activities; Native American archaeol-
ogy and subsistence studies; historic archaeology and an-
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APPENDIX K
thropology of reindeer herding in Northwest Alaska; analy-
sis of both archaeological and historical resources, as well as
subsistence studies on the North Slope and along the TAPS
route. He has twenty years of experience involving academic
researchers, Alaska Native communities, the oil and gas
industry, and mining companies in the fields of archaeology
and cultural anthropology.
ROBERT B. GRAMLING is a Professor of Sociology and
Director of the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the
University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. He earned
a B.S. in Social Welfare (1965), M.S. in Social Science (1967),
and Ph.D. in Sociology (1975) from the Florida State Univer-
sity. His areas of interest include environmental sociology-
natural resource development, social impact assessment, and
risk assessment. Dr. Gramling is the Principal Investigator for
the Louisiana Applied Oil Spill Research and Development
Program's study on the "Production and Analysis of an Oil
Spill Database for Louisiana" (1999-2001~. He is currently
the Associate Editor for Society and Natural Resources and
serves on the Standing Scientific Committee, Gulf of Mexico
Fisheries Management Council (1994-present) and National
Marine Fisheries Service/Northwest Power Planning Council,
Independent Scientific Advisory Board (1999-present). For-
merly he served on the Study of the Economic, Social, and
Psychological Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1990-
1991~; NRC Committee to Evaluate Information Adequacy
for the Presidential Task Force on Outer Continental Shelf
leasing in Florida and California (1989-1990~; and NRC Com-
mittee to Review the Department of the Interior, Outer Conti-
nental Shelf Environmental Studies Program: Socioeconomic
Panel (1988-1991~. Dr. Gramling has published several books
on off-shore oil development including: Oil on the Edge: Off-
shore Development, Conflict, Gridlock (1996) and Oil in
Troubled Waters: Perceptions, Politics, and the Battle Over
Onshore Drilling (1994~.
GEORGE GRYC is a geologist, recently retired from the
U.S. Geological Survey. He received his M.S. from the Uni-
versity of Minnesota (1941~. He has conducted field studies
in northern Alaska in support of the U.S. Navy's war-time
program to explore Naval Petroleum Reserve. From 1950 to
1960, he was Chief of the USGS, Navy Oil Unit. From 1960
to 1963, he was Staff Geologist to the Chief Geologist,
USGS, in the Office of Regional Geology that included geo-
logic studies in Alaska. From 1963 to 1976, Dr. Gryc was
Chief of the Alaskan Branch, Geologic Division, in the
USGS Regional Center in Menlo Park, California, which was
the main operational unit for all USGS mineral, energy and
geologic studies in Alaska. In 1976 he was appointed Re-
gional Geologist for the Western Region. From 1976 to 1985,
he was head of the new USGS unit, "Office of National Pe-
troleum Reserve, Alaska," ONPRA, in the USGS Director's
Office. As Chief ONPRA, he was in charge of all geological,
geophysical, and drilling activities in NPRA. From 1982 to
247
1995, he was the Director's Representative for the Western
Region. Mr. Gryc retired from full-time service in January
1995, but continues USGS activities as a volunteer, first as a
Pecora Fellow and now as a Scientist Emeritus. He has
served on several NRC committees on permafrost.
DAVID M. HITE is a consulting petroleum geologist. He
earned his B.S. degree from Oregon State University and his
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geology from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Hite had 24 years experience with
Atlantic Richfield Company as a research geologist, explo-
ration geologist, and as manager of exploration and techni-
cal units of the companies Alaska subsidiary. He has worked
most recently as geological consultant for a variety of com-
panies and Alaska Native corporations. He has experience in
prospect, play and basin analysis in frontier areas (Alaska,
Arctic Canada, and the OCS) and has been involved in nu-
merous research, exploration, and development activities
including basin evaluation, development of depositional
models for sandstone reservoirs, homogeneity/heterogene-
ity studies of reservoir horizons, surface geological field pro-
grams, and evaluation of prospective areas for leasing. Much
of his recent work has been focused on the geological field
investigations of the North Slope. He is a former member of
the Polar Research Board of the NRC and of the Science
Advisory Committee of the Prince William Sound Regional
Citizen's Advisory Council.
MAHLON C. KENNICUTT, II is Director of the Geochemi-
cal and Environmental Research Group in the College of
Geosciences at Texas A&M University and a member of the
graduate college faculty at the College of Geosciences &
Maritime Studies. He received his Ph.D. in oceanography
from Texas A&M University (1980~. His research interests
are in marine chemistry, organic geochemistry, the chemis-
try of contaminants in the environment, the design and imple-
mentation of environmental monitoring programs, the fate
and effect of xenobiotic chemicals in the environment, and
the development of integrated indicators of ecosystem
health. Dr. Kennicutt has significant Antarctic experience,
and has participated in 35 ocean research cruises over the
past 20 years. He assisted in organizing and writing the work-
shop report, "Monitoring of Environmental Impacts from
Science and Operations in Antarctica," July 1996. Dr.
Kennicutt is one of the two U.S. delegates to the Scientific
Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He serves on the
SCAR Group of Specialists on Environmental Affairs and
Conservation and SCAR Group of Specialists on Subglacial
Lakes, where he has been key in developing the international
science plan for exploration of subglacial lakes. He is a
member of the NRC's Polar Research Board.
ARTHUR H. LACHENBRUCH is a Geophysicist Emeritus
at the U.S. Geological Survey. He received his B.A. from the
Johns Hopkins University (1950), and M.A. (1954) and
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248
Ph.D. (1958) in geophysics from Harvard University. He is
interested in problems of temperature and stress in the solid
earth on a variety of scales ranging from ice-wedge poly-
gons in permafrost to continental tectonics. In 1963, he re-
ceived the Geological Society of America's Kirk Bryan
Award for Geomorphology, and in 1989 the American Geo-
physical Union Walter H. Bucher Medal for contributions to
knowledge of the Earth's crust. Dr. Lachenbruch is also in-
terested in applications to environmental issues such as de-
sign of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, implications of borehole
temperatures for climate change, and issues of sustainability.
He has conducted many years of field studies on the North
Slope and elsewhere in Alaska, and has served on the Polar
Research Board and NRC committees and on science advi-
sory panels for many groups including the Arctic Institute of
NA, Los Alamo s National Laboratories, U.S. Geological
Survey, AEC, University of Alaska, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, and American Association of
Petroleum Geologists. He was elected to the National
Academy of Sciences in 1975.
LLOYD F. LOWRY is an Affiliate Associate Professor at the
University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
Previously he was the Statewide Program Coordinator of the
Marine Mammal Division of Alaska's Department of Fish and
Game. Mr. Lowry received a B.S. in biology from Southeast-
ern Massachusetts University (1971) and M.S. in marine sci-
ences from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1975~.
He has extensive experience analyzing human impacts on
marine mammals and their habitats in the Beaufort Sea. Mr.
Lowry is Chairman of the Marine Mammal Commission's
Committee of Scientific Advisors. He has published exten-
sively on seals and other marine mammals and has served on
the NRC Committee on the Bering Sea Ecosystem.
LAWRENCE L. MOULTON is the owner of and Senior
Fisheries Biologist at MJM Research. He earned his B.S.
(1969), M.S. (1970), and Ph.D. (1977) in Fisheries Biology
at the University of Washington. His areas of expertise in-
clude fishery biology, aquatic biology, and ichthyology. Dr.
Moulton has over 25 years experience in North Pacific and
Alaskan fisheries investigations. He has managed many stud-
ies on freshwater, anadromous, and marine fisheries and the
effects of harvest or habitat alteration on aquatic popula-
tions. These studies have ranged from large, multidis-
ciplinary field and analytical studies to specialized mitiga-
tion and risk analyses. He has also served as an expert
witness in arbitration and litigation cases and has been an
invited speaker at a variety of symposia and workshops on
anadromous, marine, and estuarine fishes.
EVELYN (CHRIS) PIELOU is a retired professor of ecology.
She earned a B.S. (1951), Ph.D. (1962) and D.Sc. (1975) from
the University of London. Dr. Chris Pielou was a Research
Scientist for the Canadian Dept. of Forestry (1963-64~; Re-
APPENDIX K
search Scientist at the Dept. of Agriculture (1964-67~; Profes-
sor of Biology at the Queen's University, Kingston (1968-
71); Killam Research Professor at Dalhousie University,
Halifax (1971-74~; Professor of Biology, Dalhousie Univer-
sity (1974-81~; and Oil Sands Environmental Research Pro-
fessor at the University of Lethbridge (1981-86~. Dr. Pielou is
the author of numerous books including: Introduction to Math-
ematical Ecology (1969~; Population and Community Ecology
(1974~; Ecological Diversity (1975~; Mathematical Ecology
(1977~; Biogeography (1979~; Interpretation of Ecological
Data (1984~; The World of Northern Evergreens (1988~; After
the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America
(1991~; A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic (1994~; Fresh Wa-
ter (2000~; and The Energy of Nature (2001~. Other writings
include over 60 papers, articles and scientific publications.
Dr. Pielou's work has been recognized by several awards in-
cluding: Fellow, Royal Society of Arts; recipient, George
Lawson medal of Canadian Botanical Association (1984~;
Eminent Ecologist Award of Ecological Society of America
(1986~; Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award of the In-
ternational Congress of Ecology (1990~; Honorary LL.D. from
Dalhousie University (1993~; Foreign Honorary Member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Honorary Life
Member of the British Ecological Society; and Honorary Sc.D.
from the University of British Columbia (2001~.
JAMES S. SEDINGER is a Professor in the Department of
Environmental and Resource Sciences at the University of
Nevada Reno. He is the former Interim Director of the Insti-
tute of Arctic Biology and Professor of Wildlife Ecology at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Sedinger received
his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis (1983~.
He is an ornithologist who has worked and published for
years on black brant throughout Alaska. His professional
interests are in the study of life-histories, population biol-
ogy, and nutritional ecology of avian species, particularly
waterfowl. Before becoming a professor at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks, he worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service as a research wildlife biologist. He is a member of
numerous professional organizations, including the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of Science and the
Ecological Society of America.
K. JUNE LINDSTEDT-SIVA is a Senior Consultant at
ENSR Consulting and Engineering (1996-present). She
earnedherA.B. (1963),M.S.Biology(1967),Ph.D. (1971),
in Biology at the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles. Her areas of expertise include oil spills fate and
effects; response technology; response planning; cleanup
methods; dispersant fate and effects; dispersant use plan-
ning; dispersant application technology; spill management/
decision making, endangered species/biodiversity, sustain-
able development, biomonitoring, and arctic, temperate,
and tropical marine and terrestrial environmental planning.
Formerly, she was the Manager of Environmental Protec-
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APPENDIX K
lion, ARCO, Los Angeles (1986-96) and worked for At-
lantic Richfield, Los Angeles as Manager of Environmen-
tal Sciences (1981-86), Senior Science Advisor (1977-81)
and Science Advisor (1973-771. She was a member of the
NRC Polar Research Board (1993-1996) and served on the
NRC Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Panel (1992-19941.
She is a member of the Advisory Council, National Insti-
tutes for the environment (1992-1995) and EPA's Panel
on Evaluation of Bioremediation as an Oil Spill Response
Method (1991-19921. She also served on the National Sci-
ence Board (1984-1990) and several NSB committees, in-
cluding the Committee on NSF Role in Polar Regions. She
participated in API sponsored research on the fate and ef-
fects of oil spills, effects and effectiveness of spill response
technologies, and spill response planning, chairing several
task forces. Additionally, she was chairman of the ASTM
Task force on Dispersant Use Guidelines for the Treatment
of Oil Spills (1980-19861.
LISA S PEER is a Senior Policy Analyst and co-director of
the Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense
249
Council. She earned her M.S. in Forest Science at Yale
University. Her work has focused on marine fisheries and
on oil and gas development on the U.S. continental shelf
and the Alaskan North Slope. She served on the NRC Com-
mittee on Marine Environmental Monitoring and is a mem-
ber of the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and
Toxicology.
DONALD (SKIP) WALKER is a Professor at the Univer-
sity of Alaska Fairbanks. He earned his Ph.D. in Environ-
mental Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder
(19811. Dr. Walker is a scientific expert on the cumulative
impacts of oil-field disturbance on Alaska North Slope land-
scapes and long-term recovery of vegetative communities in
these communities. His research interests include tundra
ecology, vegetation mapping methods, landscape ecology,
quantitative ecology methods, vegetation of northern Alaska,
snow-ecosystem interactions, hierarchical geographic in-
formation systems, and disturbance and recovery of arctic
ecosystems.
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250
Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope
_
.,
Many laws and regulations affect oil and gas exploration, development, production, and
transportation, and many federal, state, and local government offices are involved (see Appendix
I). Regulatory oversight can be critical in reducing the accumulation of undesirable effects. The
committee's predictions of future effects and their accumulation assume that regulatory oversight
will continue at least to the extent of the recent past.
All of the effects identified by the committee accumulated as the result of the actual
spread of industrial activity on the North Slope or as responses to the news that such activity was
likely to occur.
Since the 1960s, industrial activity on the North Slope has grown from a single
operational oil field at Prudhoe Bay to an industrial complex that stretches from the Alpine field
near the mouth of the Colville River on the west to the Badami oil field, about 39 km (23 mi)
from the borders of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the east. In 200 l, oil development on
the North Slope consisted! of 19 proclucing fields connected to the rest of Alaska by a highway
and a pipeline that cross the state. The network consists of 1 1 5 gravel drill sites, 20 pads with
processing facilities, ~ ~ 5 pads with other support facilities, 91 exploration sites, ~ 3 off-shore
exploration islands, 4 off-shore production islands, 16 airstrips, 4 exploration airstrips, 1,395
culverts, 960 km (596 mi) of roads and permanent trails, 450 mi (725 km) of pipeline corndors,
and 219 mi (353 km) of transmission lines. Gravel roads and pads cover more than 3,500 ha
(8,800 acres), not including the Trans Alaska Pipeline and the Dalton Highway, ant! gravel mines
have affecter! nearly 2,600 ha (6,400 acres). Ubiquitous permafrost requires that this
infrastructure not thaw its own foundations, imposing an architecture with environmental
consequences of it own. Massive gravel fills under roads and other work surfaces are required to
raise them I.S m (6 ft) above the tundra. Heated buildings and pipeline networks must be
elevated on pilings, and the closely spaced oil wells are extensively refiigerated. This network
has grown incrementally as new fields have been explored and brought into production (Chapter
4~. For a variety of reasons, nearly all roads, pads, pipelines, and other infrastructure whether
in current use or not are still in place and are likely to remain into the future. Their effects are
manifest not only at the physical footprint itself but also at distances that vary according to the
environmental component affected. Effects on hydrology, vegetation, and animal populations
occur at distances up to several kilometers, and cumulative effects on wildland values-
especially visual ones—extend much farther, as can the effects on marine mammals of sound
caused by some offshore activities. All effects attributable to the structures and the activities
associated with them accumulate, and many will persist as long as the structures remain, even if
industrial activity ceases.
SOCIAL CHANGES IN NORTH SLOPE COMMUNITIES
Without the discovery and development of North Slope petroleum, the North Slope
Borough, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and hence the Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation, either would not exist or would} bear little resemblance to their current form.
Petroleum development has resulted in major, significant, and probably irrervisible changes to
the way of life on the North Slope (Chapter 9~. The primary vehicle of change is revenue that
has flowed into communities Tom property taxes levied by the North Slope Borough on the
petroleum inclustry's infrastructure. Many North Slope residents view many of these changes
positively. However, social and cultural changes of this magnitude inevitably have been
~1
Representative terms from entire chapter:
ecological society
