Study assesses oil impacts on North Slope

Since 1968, oil exploration and development have changed the North Slope region of Alaska, and the impacts are likely to endure and grow, a scientific panel concluded in a report released last week.

The 18-member National Research Council panel called its report the first comprehensive assessment of the cumulative effects of oil work on the Alaska’s North Slope. The National Research Council is a private, non-profit institution that provides science and technology advice under a U.S. congressional charter.

Its report outlines a growing network of roads, pipelines and gravel work pads on the tundra, major impacts on native residents and wildlife, and future concerns such as whether the industrial zone will ever be cleaned up once the oil and gas play out.

Some predatory species like bears, gulls and foxes have managed to thrive on oil field garbage, and they have driven down some populations of birds.

“The discovery of oil and its development on the North Slope has resulted in major, important, and probably irreversible changes to the way of life in communities,” the report said.