Trump also severely limited the number of pages allowed on the Environmental Impact Statement.

PLEASE write to the BLM with your concerns. On the BLM website, I could not use the public comment link because it required section numbers in the EIS document related to your comment.

A big concern is 50,000-ton trucks doing underground seismic testing will crush and scare polar bears from their dens, killing their cubs. This area is also an important calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou herd.

Here is my letter to the BLM. Feel free to use it.

February 6, 2019

Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program EIS
222 West 7th Avenue, Stop #13
Anchorage, Alaska 99513 -7504

RE: Issues with the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain Draft EIS

Good Morning:

Fresh water is scarce on the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plan, and a key purpose of the Arctic Refuge is to protect water quality. The draft EIS acknowledges that drilling an oil well could use nearly 2 million gallons of water, but it fails to add up these impacts in a meaningful way to understand their impact. It also fails to fully evaluate the impacts to fish, habitat, vegetation, and hydrology from using these water resources for oil and gas development.

It’s a Refuge, not an oil field. While the Tax Act authorized drilling on the Coastal Plain, it didn’t change the fact that Arctic Refuge remains a National Wildlife Refuge, and it should still be managed like one. BLM failed to consider how oil and gas development will interfere with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s administration of the Coastal Plain. It fails to guarantee that the wilderness, conservation, and subsistence purposes for which the Arctic Refuge was first set aside in 1960 will continue to be protected.

Please include my letter in the public comments period ending March 13, 2019.

Thank you.

Kathleen A. Miller, MPA