airgun noise. 3D increases the odds to 40-50%. You will
not “know what’s out there” until you drill. As Steve Gilbert
reminds us, “The Gulf Coast Horizon mega-disaster spill
was such a test well.”
• • It is still possible that South Carolina could be excluded
from the new National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and
Gas Proposed Program or that the State of South Carolina
will permanently prohibit the onshore infrastructure for
offshore drilling. 14
In response to a query from US District Judge Gergel as
to whether the Secretary of the Interior’s appraisal of the
Alaska District Court’s decision in League of Conservation
Voters v. Trump would impact the case before him, including
the pending permit requests before BOEM and the already
issued Incidental Harassment Authorizations, the Federal
Defendants and BOEM stated that, “BOEM may authorize
seismic survey activity in the OCS even in areas of the OCS
that are not open to oil and gas exploration. Entities seeking
to conduct geological and geophysical surveys can therefore
obtain a permit in any area of the OCS, including those areas
that have been withdrawn from leasing.” 15 In essence, the
government’s position is that seismic testing permits are not
directly connected to offshore drilling and can be issued even
if drilling plans are not moving forward.
This response makes it absolutely imperative that coastal
its review of new scientific research led it to conclude the
risks associated with the proposed seismic surveying “are
significant due to the known and unknown physiological
and behavioral impacts to individual fish and sea turtles,
populations and the ecosystems that support them.” The
sixteen coastal municipalities and the Small Business
Chamber of Commerce have asked DHEC to revisit its
2015 decisions.
Arguments against expediting seismic airgun blasting
permits:
• • Neither the public nor SC state and local government
entities will get to see the results. Only the seismic
companies that collect the data, the oil companies that buy
the data, and BOEM get to see the proprietary results.
• • The amount of noise that will be introduced into the
ocean is unprecedented—and not harmless. The seismic
companies will be running over 90,000 miles of seismic
lines across all the Mid- and South Atlantic Planning Areas.
Together, they will run 849 days and nights of seismic
airgun blasting within a one-year permit period.
• • Seismic surveys alone do not definitively tell what is out
there. The five applications under review are to run 2D
seismic. Historically, 2D seismic alone is only successful
in finding oil and gas approximately 20-25% of the time.
After the requested 2D surveys, seismic companies will ask
for permits to run 3D seismic, a second blast of non-stop
20
Naturally Kiawah