“Without asking us, for it was our land, our Federal government took from us 23,400,000 acres of land, an area roughly the size of the State of Indiana, without any compensation, and designated it to be Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4. ”
Master Willow Project
SILA strongly opposes the Master Willow Project. Although any new fossil fuel extraction project would not follow the needs to reduce our green house gases and slow down our climate crisis, this issue is goes much deeper.
Master Willow Project hearings for public engagement were held the first month when the pandemic hit the U.S.. First ever virtual hearings were held and Iñupiaq people were the test subjects. Without any accountability or transparency in the process of how successful these virtual hearings where, BLM chose the minimum in each step of the process for public engagement.
This Record of Decision came one week before the presidential election, during a pandemic, while continuing to do the bare minimum to provide services for engagement with the public and stakeholders. This has been a clear case of environmental racism and a rushed process before administrations can change.
Iñupiaq Peoples will not continue to trade our health and ability to breath for basic essentials like running water and affordable heat. These are human rights and the oil companies economic hostage over our communities must stop.
#ProtectTheArctic #StopArcticOilExtraction #sila #Inupiaq #Inuit #StopArcticOilExtraction
Repsol blowout in 2012 brought sickness to Nuiqsut community and light to the pollution and toxics from the oil fields
“Back when she was a health aid, Ahtuangaruak recalls the sense of foreboding when she’d drive to the Nuiqsut clinic and see two dozen stacks flaring gas. “Those were the nights I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep,” she said. “One person would have trouble breathing, and another would be in before I had finished treating the first. Next thing you know it’s 7 a.m. and I haven’t gone home for the night.””
Western Arctic Reserve in Alaska
Western Arctic Reserve - Alaska also known as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) is the traditional land of the Iñupiaq People. This large area includes the Iñupiaq communties of
Kali : Point Lay
Ulġuniq : Wainwright
Utqiaġvik : Barrow
Atqasuk : Mead River
Anaqtuuvak : Anaktuvuk Pass
Nuiqsut
Teshekpuk Lake and Kuukpik river, where all life began are also in this sensitive area. Our Peoples have been the care takers since time immemorial. Recently the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has rolled back protections put in place to sustain the biodiversity of this land that feeds the communities and all living beings. Below are the current threats to this land, land that is more than extractive resources.
Western Arctic is more then an oil reserve.
Teshekpuk Lake special area is the birthing place of the Teshekpuk Herd, wetlands for molting endangered birds, and food security for our People, especially community members in Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, and Utqiagvik. This is a place where the water was so fresh you could drink it out of your hands, fish you could squeeze the fat out of, and a place our amaukka (great-grandparents) would go to hunt before winter.
Kuukpik River (Colville River) is the place where all life began. This is where we go on hot days in Nuiqsut when the mosquitoes create a black fog, and to hunt tuttu (caribou), tuttuvik (moose), Iqaluk (fish), Aklaq (brown bear), and more. The Kuukpik river drains approximately one fourth of Alaska’s North Slope to the Beaufort Sea that connects to our Agvik (bowhead Whale), Aiviq (walrus), and other relatives.
Utukok River Uplands spans across 7 million acres from the foothills of the Brooks Range Mountains through tundra toward coastal wetlands. As the main calving grounds for one of the largest caribou herds in the world, this area is critical to the continued way of life for over 40 communities who continue traditional food sovereignty practices. Utukok River Uplands also contain the highest concentration of grizzly bears in the Arctic. This land also sustains wolverines, moose, raptors, and wolves which sustain the people of the land as well.
Peard Bay On the northern coast of Alaska this area provides wetland habitat that is necessary for a diverse range of wildlife in the arctic region. Peard Bay is a resting place for migrating birds, and is a nesting site for waterfowl and shorebirds such as loons and eiders.
There are several species of fish that depend on these waters. The National Marine Fisheries Services has declared the area “essential fish habitat” for Uugaq (saffron cod). The shores and ice floes in the Bay are often dotted with natchiq (ringed seals), ugruk (bearded seals), and aiviq (walrus), resting out of the currents of the Arctic Ocean. Along the Peard Bay coast, nanuq (polar bears) are known to hunt and make their dens, one of the last refuges of this threatened species.Kasegaluk Lagoon is home to nanuq, natchiq, migratory birds, and molting beluga whales. This is not just a place that is calm enough for beluga to molt but the largest population of beluga in the Chukchi Sea.
Willow Master Development Plan
The MDP includes up to five drill sites, a central processing facility, an operations center pad, up to 38.2 miles of gravel roads, up to 924.2 miles of ice roads during construction and up to 215.6 total miles of resupply ice roads during operations, 1 to 2 airstrips, up to 337 miles of pipelines, and a gravel mine site. In addition, the Proponent would submit applications to the State of Alaska for a module transfer island (MTI) on State submerged lands to support module delivery via sealift barges.
Find more information from Bureau of Land Management here