07/01/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
New Orleans, LA – The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a press release on Wednesday, June 30, 2010, announcing a lawsuit the organization filed against the recently renamed Minerals Management Service. The suit concerns seismic testing in the Gulf of Mexico.
The lawsuit contends that MMS, now named the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, failed to “adequately analyze the substantial impacts of seismic surveys on the Gulf’s marine environment before permitting activities there, [which is] in clear violation of the National Environmental Protection Act.”
The NRDC was joined by the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and the Gulf Restoration Network in filing the suit. According to Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network, “The suit seeks to ensure that continuing seismic surveys are not allowed to jeopardize the health of already struggling dolphins and whales.”
Seismic surveys use sound waves to gain insight to the Earth’s subsurface. While the surveys may be used to find sources of groundwater or investigate locations for landfills, they are primarily used by the oil and gas industry for oil exploration.
The press release explains, “These seismic surveys use some of the loudest underwater sounds generated by humans to explore oil and gas reserves below the ocean floor. Day and night, for days and months at a time, large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico are inundated with high-intensity sound pulses 250 decibels or more at their source, billions of times more intense than the noise levels known to compromise feeding, breeding and basic communication in endangered species of whales.”
The noises impede abilities to feed, breed, nurse and communicate among marine life such as dolphins and whales. Sound from seismic surveys can travel thousands of miles at times, and can result in severe impacts.
The groups explain if seismic surveys persist, the small population of sperm whales whose nursery is in the oil-slicked Mississippi Canyon will be forced to live amid the booming surveys along with the oil-devastated environment.
Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for CBD, explains, “Right now, pods of sperm whales are swimming through a toxic oil spill, but this is just one of many threats facing the whales from the black gold rush in the Gulf.”
The groups are demanding the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (formerly Minerals Management Service) conduct an Environmental Impact Statement for seismic activities in the Gulf. The lawsuit also seeks an order that rescinds the organization’s “inadequate and illegal analysis and compels compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act for all future surveys.”
The MMS changed its name on June 21, after it was barraged with bad press surrounding its lack in oversight for the oil industry.
Media Information:
Address: New Orleans, LA
Phone: (866) 598-1315
Url: http://TaraMonks.visionsmartnews.com/environmental-groups-sue-former-mms-over-seismic-surveys_1163.html
