special regions

SPECIAL REGIONS

John C. Reed and Walter A. Wood Arctic Institute of North America

Washingtoti, D.C. 20009

The special regions selected for attention are the marshes, the estuaries, the deserts, and the polar regions. These have special characteristics and special importance that makes advisable some specific attention to them within the broad perspective of public policy toward the environment. Each of the four has features that give it a special attraction to the informed and sensitive observer. Each is especially susceptible to environmental disturb- ance that accompanies development. Agriculture, in the usual sense, is relatively unimportant in each.

Of the four regions, the marshes and estuaries have some features in com- mon, and so do the deserts and the polar regions. The estuaries and the marshes constitute a large part of the interface between the sea and the land. They are characterized not only by their natural features, but also by people, cities, and development.

The polar regions and the deserts have few people. The political implications are less complicated, and there still is time for protective measures.

THE POLAR REGIONS

In this paper the polar regions are used to exemplify some of the current status of public policy toward the special regions. Then specific but lesser attention is devoted to the situations of the other special regions mentioned.

Most people are familiar with some of the major characteristics and some of the differences between the two polar regions of the earth-the Arctic and the Antarctic. The United States holds only a small part of the real estate of the Arctic-northern Alaska. The United States claims no part of the Antarc- tic, although it has participated in antarctic affairs for many years.

The Antarctic

The Antarctic is unique among the major land masses. Many nations in the past have been interested in exploiting some of the marine life in its sur- rounding seas, but thus far the continent has been of virtually no economic significance.

Starting with the International Geophysical Year, and since, the Antarctic has become a vast scientific laboratory in the operations of which about a dozen nations have participated, among them the United States. Most of the U.S. research effort has been in the segment facing toward New Zealand from the pole, and including the Ross Sea.

The United States was an active participant in the negotiation of the Antarctic Treaty, to which all nations involved in antarctic research sub- scribe and which, among other things, provides for no change in territorial

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Reed & Wood: Special Regions 129

status, no use for military purposes, and the right of inspection of the research stations and projects of other subscribers to the Treaty. The Treaty does not specifically state any position in regard to such matters as pollution, environmental protection, and the like. It does prohibit the use of the continent for the storage of radioactive wastes, and provides a platform for discussion and agreement on such matters as preservation of living resources and conservation.

In the current effort, from the IGY on, the Antarctic has yielded many scientific secrets. Much more is known about the continent than before, and research continues to make commendable progress. The leader, and prime supporter of the effort for the United States has been the National Science Foundation. The Antarctic Treaty is the basis of public policy toward the Antarctic.

The Arctic

At the other end of the earth's axis lies the Arctic. In broad terms it in- cludes a small, but true ocean, and the bordering lands. In the U.S. part, northern Alaska rubs shoulders on the west with the U.S.S.R. and on the east, at the 141st meridian, with Canada. Distances across the Arctic Ocean between the continents are relatively short. That fact has increased significance in the defense context, in commercial air transportation, and perhaps in the future in commercial marine transportation.

The Arctic Ocean is partially ice-covered throughout the year, but the ice cover is much more extensive in the winter. However, the ice pack is not a static body, it continually moves, breaks, and crushes. Perhaps around 10% of the Arctic Ocean is open water, even in the winter. The equilibrium of the ice cover is thought to be delicate, and perhaps easily disturbed. If the cover should disappear, the effect on the climates of the Arctic and of lower lati- tudes would be very great.

On shore, in northern Alaska, the Arctic, including some of the Subarctic, comprises a part of the northern part of the Yukon drainage; the Seward Peninsula, even though it is largely south of the Arctic Circle; the Brooks Range, the northern equivalent of the Rocky Mountains; the arctic foot- hills; and the arctic coastal plain. The tree line passes roughly east along the southern part of the area. North of approximately the divide of the Brooks Range, and including Seward Peninsula, the area is tundra, without trees, except locally shrublike willows, alders, and a few small cottonwoods.

The environment is relatively simple and, like the ice cover of the sea, in delicate balance. Below a thin surface layer, that melts in the summer, the ground is permanently below O'C, and hence is frozen solid wherever it contains fresh water. That feature, the condition of permafrost, is the root of some of the most difficult problems of development in the North.

The natives of the area are Eskimos, and those in Alaska number in the order of 30,000, but some live south of the Arctic as described. Eskimos are full citizens of Alaska and the United States, and have substantial political impact.

130 Annals New York Academy of Sciences

The Navy carried on a major oil-exploration program in Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 in northern Alaska from 1944 through 1953l and several oil and gas finds were made. Then followed the oil discoveries in the Cook Inlet region.2 Since 1957, oil has become by far the most important mineral prod- uct of the State.

About one and a half years later in 1959 Alaska became the 49th State. The Statehood Act3 must be listed as an important expression of U.S. public policy toward the Arctic. Through it Alaska received the right to select in the name of the state huge areas of the federal public lands. Also, by virtue of statehood, Alaska became the owner of its offshore lands (from mean high water to three miles offshore) through the Submerged Lands Then, in 1967, came Atlantic Richfield’s outstanding discovery at Prudhoe Bay.

Now it seems likely that the principal non-renewable resources of major importance to the future of northern Alaska are oil and gas.

Of the more than 14 million barrels of oil now used in the United States each day a little more than 3.4 million or roughly 25 percent, comes from sources outside the United States. Within a few months after the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay, in 1967, reserves of oil in the order of 10 billions of barrels seemed assured. More recent exploration in that area has increased the estimates of reserves and has greatly increased confidence that continued exploration will discover even larger reserves.

Northern Alaska now is known to be an oil province of very major importance. There is every reason to think similar reserves will be found in Canada, although to date the exploratory wells have resulted, for the most part, in exciting finds of gas.

Assuming that the controversial Alaska pipeline is completed sometime in 1975, it might be expected to carry 105 million barrels of oil in that year. By 1976 it would deliver 175 million barrels per year. By the addition of more pumping stations, the capacity by 1982 would be in the order of 2 million barrels of oil per day, or about 700 million barrels per year. By that time another pipeline, possibly through Canada, might be available, and by 1990 the total annual yield could be about 1.4 billion barrels. The total yield through 1990 would have been abount 13 billion barrels. This should be entirely within the capability of the area, especially if allowance is made for additional reserves that will be found before 1990.

Clearly, the North American Arctic contains billions of barrels of recover- able oil. The reserves seem large enough to go a long way toward relieving the dependence of North America on oil from outside the continent for many years. The counter argument of course is that energy requirements must not be permitted to escalate and that reduced needs, greater use of other fossil fuels, and development of novel fuels will obviate the need for oil from the Arctic. This is a good idea and offers a possible, partial solution, but many believe it to be unrealistic.

It is frequently asserted that the oil and gas resources of Arctic North America are so large and the need for them so great that they must and will be developed and in the relatively near future. Development at the implied


scale cannot go on without affecting the environment, and the problem is to keep the damaging effects within acceptable limits. The need for fossil fuels must be balanced against the effects on the environment, and the best possible compromise reached. Some have little fear that Alaska’s or Canada’s environments under state, provincial, and federal controls will suffer to any unacceptable extent as resource development goes forward, but there are dissenting opinions.

It is assumed by many that decisions in the regulatory field are in the hands of responsible people. Industry is giving every indication that it will proceed with caution and respect for both the environment and for people. Such responsibility results from the increasing knowledge within the industry of the environmental perils afflicting the world, as well as from the force of well-informed public opinion which insists on environmental protection. Large amounts of money have been spent on research to guide the way. Con- tinued and intensified efforts in that direction may in time assure the produc- tion of oil and other minerals without unwarranted degradation of environments. Long-term planning and strict stipulations, laws, and other controls must be devised and enforced. Proper measures of control and actions taken in protection of the arctic environment will cost a great deal of money, and in the long run the consumer will pay the bill. It is to be expected, therefore, that the cost of energy will increase markedly in the next few years, and some authorities feel that the cost may actually double within the next ten years. Many believe that the consuming public will accept readily such costs in the interests of viable environments. In any event, the total cost will have been calculated for the first time.

Petroleum and gas are not the only non-renewable resources of importance in Alaska. Mining increasingly will become of significance in the North, and also holds the prospect of environmental damage.

As fossil fuels open the doors to the Arctic, improvements in transportation will enhance the opportunities for exploitation of other minerals. The roads that open the Arctic for minerals exploitation will open new opportunities to tourists as well. The influx of people bent on recreational pursuits in turn will have an effect on the environment. Ultimately, solution to all of these problems will depend upon an informed public behaving responsibly, both on an individual basis or collectively.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the conflict between arctic-resources development and environmental protection than the problems generated by the plan to construct a hot-oil pipeline, 800 miles long and 48 inches in diameter, from the Prudhoe Bay area of northern Alaska to the ice-free Pacific coast port of Valdez. The fact that the Department of the Interior has not yet issued a permit for that pipeline to cross federal lands reflects perhaps the responsibility of two Secretaries of the Interior, as well as the public concern for environmental effects and the political power of the public to make itself heard.

The Interior Department has now issued its weighty, multi-volume impact statement on the pipeline as required by the Environmental Policy


Presumably the Secretary may soon authorize construction. Subsequent events, as protectionists move toward further delay, are not yet clear.

But it does appear that the United States is coming of age with respect to the environment. Positive actions based on educated, well-informed opinion will no doubt ultimately permit maximal use of resources with minimal damage to environments. The complexity of environments, however, and the negligible state of knowledge on long-term consequences of their perturba- tion indicate a slower rate of development than is normal to the corporation understandably intent on maximum profits and minimum costs.

Another law that is of special importance as reflecting public policy toward the environment of the Arctic is the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 197 1 .6 Specifically, the law establishes a joint State-Federal Land Use Planning Commission.

THE DESERTS No simple definition of a desert has received general acceptance. Clearly,

the most obvious distinctive characteristic of deserts is low precipitation. The dry areas of North America are not as extensive as those of most other continents but they nevertheless hold an important place within the scope of public policy toward the environment.

The arid parts of the United States include California east of the Sierras, large parts of Arizona and New Mexico, Utah and parts of western Colorado, and Nevada stretching northward into southeastern Oregon. Within that great area are two even more arid real deserts-the Sonoran that extends northward from western Mexico and the Mojave in southern California just east of the coastal mountains.

Desert vegetation and animals are capable of living in the austere environment by an ability to live either without much water or to store water and use it sparingly over the long periods until the next precipitation. But each desert also has its own characteristic flora and fauna depending upon many factors such as temperature range and distribution, precipitation, latitude, altitude, soils, and winds.

McGinnies, Goldman, and Paylore7 put the problem well: “Threatening the solitude of the quarter of the world’s land surface classified as semiarid or drier are inexorable population growth and the advanced technology that makes possible comfortable living in that quarter. Research on desaliniza- tion, discovery of little-known underground sources of water, advances in weather modification, and applications of research to food and fuel produc- tion, transportation, and air conditioning-elements such as these are likely, before the century is out, to combine to make obsolete Webster’s use of ‘desert’ to illustrate the word ‘solitude’.

“The world’s travelers do not always wait for technological perfection. Already crowds ride camels to the rosy ruins of Petra, French sand yachts make race runs into Tombouctou, and bronzed sun worshippers threaten to make a Jones Beach of the arid Sonoran coast on the Gulf of California. . .

“Are we ready for a revolution in land use and demography in the arid world?. . .”


The situation at the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet, illustrates some of the problems of public policy and the environment in regard to the arid regions. There, in the Navajo country, coal is being strip-mined from the Black Mesa and being burned in two large power plants nearby. Four more plants are being scheduled. Much of the power is being used in the Los Angeles area. The operating plants are spew- ing large volumes of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide into the air, as well as particulate materials. Some of the coal is sent from Black Mesa to one of the plants as a water slurry through a pipeline. There is concern over the possibility of lowering the water table by pumping ground water for the slurry.

Environmentalists are doing everything possible to halt further development. Incidentally, the plants in the Four Corners area would not be permitted in Los Angeles because of air-pollution regulations.

THE MARSHES AND ESTUARIES Environmental Quality* states that “wetlands are the major food sources

and habitat for an enormous variety of birds, fish, and other wildlife. At least two-thirds of the world’s entire fisheries harvest spends an essential portion of its life cycle in estuarine wetlands or is dependent on species that do.” The same work, quoting rather out-of-date figures of the Fish and Wildlife Service, points out that 85 percent of the nation’s wetlands are inland fresh- water areas used mostly for water-fowl nesting and for flood and drought control.

Herein concern is more for the coastal zone where, according to Hite,g “Of all the natural resource-environmental policy problems facing the Amer- ican people, the most pressing appear to be centered in the Coastal Zone. Coastal resources are not as widely scattered geographically as are other natural resources. They are concentrated in a rather narrow band where the continent meets the tidal sea, and they are used by a population scattered all across the continental land mass. The pressure on these scarce coastal resources has grown with increase in population, wealth, mobility, and leisure time. With this growing pressure has come increased conflicts over who is to use the resources, how they are to be used, and when that use is to take place. The result has been a new interest at both federal and state levels in devising a management systems (or systems) for the resources of the Coastal Zone.”

Within the coastal zone, this discussion will include especially the deep indentations constituting the estuaries, as well as the coastal marshes bordering both the estuaries and the open coast. Excluded are the waters over the continental shelves.

The nature of the coasts is very different in different places. The rock- bound coast of New England bears little resemblance to the huge expanse and low complicated shoreline of Chesapeake Bay, or the great barrier beaches to the south enclosing shallow sounds like Pamlico. Different again are the steep coastal zones of a part of California and Oregon and Washing- ton. The long and varied coasts of Alaska exhibit many differences.

On the estuaries and adjacent to them, and encroaching the coastal


marshes, are many of the great cities. So in this narrow zone, between sea and land, are people, concentrations of shipping, a great deal of industry, floods of sewage, and all the elements that give sight, sound, smell, and urgency to the overall environmental problem. The estuaries and the coastal marshes are the focus of a good deal of the environmental crunch. Here, much of the battle will be fought, and here the people will win or lose.

Two cases that illustrate the present public policy in the coastal zone, or more correctly the confrontation of the two points of view, were described succinctly in Resources.’O These are the Florida barge canal and the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. In the former, President Nixon issued a construction stop order after more than fifty millions of dollars of an estimated one hundred and eighty million dollar project had already been spent. Several precedents were set according to Resources. First, the President took the ad- vice of the new Council on Environmental Quality in one of its first major issues. Second, the President “in effect told the Congress that a $50 million mistake had been made, which he was correcting before the bill ran any higher.”

Calvert Cliffs is the site of a nuclear power plant being built on Chesapeake Bay. In brief, “the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia ruled in July 1971 that the AEC had seriously lagged in carrying out the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act . . . ignoring such environmental impacts as thermal pollution . . .

“Compliance with NEPA will therefore force reconsideration of all pre- March 4, 1971 permit and license applications going back to January 1, 1970. A formidable number of nuclear power plants are involved: 97 reac- tors rated at 87,000 megawatt (mw) electrical capacity, for which 65 construction and operating license applications were pending . . .

“There is obvious concern about the . . . implications of the Calvert Cliff decisions . . . In a letter to AEC Chairman Schlesinger in mid-October (1971), FPC Chairman John Nassikas cited data showing that 16 percent of the nation’s reserve for the summer of 1972 . . . would be from scheduled nuclear plants not yet on line and that the potential loss anticipated would exceed 40 percent in several regional cases.”

New Jersey illustrates well some of the coastal-marsh problems that now are so conspicuous in the environmental scene. Hay“ says-“If you look at a road map, you can see . . . that New Jersey’s coastal plains occupy more than half of it. A large part of the state . . . is invested by the sea. Wide marshes border its low shores; streams, tidal rivers, inlets, and estuaries lace it like the veins in your hand, and it is the kind of a region where you can find a wide variety of natural food for man. Such wetlands are one of the most productive environments on Earth . . .

“The wetlands are being subjected to a squeeze. “The cities press and push, and money sometimes talks louder than land-

scape. The real estate business claims to speak for people and progress, an argument against which underdeveloped wetlands have not had enough defenders. There may be up to 400,000 or 500,000 acres of marshland in the


state, and though only ten percent may have been destroyed so far, the pressure against the remainder continues to build. New Jersey is a dredge and fill state, where the developers have been able to use methods fairly economi- cal to them in order to destroy salt marshes and make a clear profit. For- tunately, now the state has a new Wetlands Act, being seriously and conscientiously implemented, and perhaps times are changing.”

Other states are moving toward protection of their wetlands, a trend that started with Massachusetts in 1963, and the move is spreading to many coastal, and even to interior states. Delaware, for example, now has a Coastal Zoning Act, passed in 1971, that protects both the coast of Delaware Bay and the state’s Atlantic coast. The zone cannot be used for more oil refineries, petro-chemical plants, basic steel manufacturing, pulp mills, or off shore transfer facilities. Many states also are making efforts to plan the use of their coastal zones.

THE CURRENT STATUS

So, in regard to the special areas reviewed in this article, real progress has been made, and more can be anticipated in reaching acceptable positions that will allow development and use to proceed, while at the same time giving reasonable protection to environments and to the people affected both di- rectly and indirectly. The public clearly has indicated its desire for improving environmental quality. There now exists a reasonably adequate and rapidly improving basis for environmental actions. But it will be well to keep in mind the President’s admonition that, “How clean is clean enough can only be answered in terms of how much we are willing to pay and how soon we seek success.”

REFERENCES 1. REED, J. C. 1958. Exploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 and adjacent areas,

Northern Alaska, 1944-1953. Part 1. History of the exploration: Geological Survey Pro- fessional Paper 301.

2. REED, J. C. 1970. Oil Developments in Alaska. The Polar Record 15(94): 10. 3. PUBLIC LAW 85-508. 1958. 72 Stat. 339. 4. PUBLIC LAW 83-31. 1953. 67 Stat. 29.43 USC 1313 . 5. PUBLIC LAW 91-190. 1970. 6. PUBLIC LAW 92-203. 1971. 85 Stat. 688. 7. MCGINNIES, W. G., B. J. GOLDMAN & PATRICIA PAYLORE. 1968. In Deserts of the World.

Preface : ix. The University of Arizona Press. Tucson, Ariz. 8. U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

on Environmental Quality : 236. 9. HITE, J. C. & JAMES M. STEPP, Eds.

v. Frederick A. Praegar, Inc. New York, N. Y.

1971. The Second Annual Report of the Council

Coastal Zone Resource Management. Preface: 1971.

10. RESOURCES FOR THE FUTURE INC. 1972. Resources 39: 5-7. 11. HAY, J. 1972. Making Peace with the Marshes of New Jersey. Vol. 2., No. 12 : 41-42.

Smithsonian Institute. Washington, D.C.

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