The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has called for the rejection of Alaska Gas Development’s (AGDC) application to construct an 800-mile liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline and terminal in Cook Inlet, Alaska, US.
A draft version of AGDC’s application indicated a potential threat to 151 endangered beluga whales in the region due to high levels of noise. This number was later reduced to 32 whales in a revised application, which represents 10% of the current beluga population.
It is claimed that the company may have made such a large reduction to increase the likelihood of approval by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which previously only approved applications where the takes for Cook Inlet belugas did not exceed 10% of the population.
The EIA has also accused AGDC of deleting the draft application and introducing a new version halfway through the project’s public comment period.
EIA policy analyst Daniel Hubbell said: “We have serious concerns about the discrepancies between AGDC’s draft application and the final application and how they were able to arrive at such different conclusions regarding the impact of their activities on belugas given that the project has not changed much if at all.”
During the construction stage, the AGDC project plans to carry out 101 days of pile driving in the Cook Inlet, as well as other noise-causing activities.
Under the provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, take of beluga whales is prohibited unless it can be demonstrated that the harm will be limited to small numbers and that the project will have a negligible impact on the species or stocks.
Citing the endangered status of the whales, the EIA stated that taking even 10% of the population is too high.
Hubbell added: “No matter how you look at it, this project is a danger to the beluga whale’s recovery and until this population’s decline is better understood NOAA Fisheries should reject AGDC’s application.”
