June 14, 2019 - The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks (CPANP) – in partnership with The Wilderness Society, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Los Padres ForestWatch – has recently submitted comments regarding the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bakersfield Field Office Resource Management Plan, Hydraulic Fracturing Analysis – Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). In our view, BLM did not consider in the Draft SIES potential impacts to protected public lands, including national parks and monuments.

There are a number of protected public lands, including national parks and national monuments managed by the National Park Service and the BLM in and around the planning area, that were designated to protect special values. The CPANP asserts that these values will be adversely affected by hydraulic fracturing via impacts to air quality and water resources. Additionally, the alternatives released as part of the Draft SEIS do not account for potential proximate or cumulative impacts to national park units within the planning area, or regionally.

We have identified eleven separate federal public lands units within or directly adjacent to the planning region that could be directly, indirectly, or cumulatively impacted by additional hydraulic fracturing under this proposal. They include, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; Sierra, Sequoia, Inyo, and Los Padres National Forests; Giant Sequoia, Carrizo Plain, and Cesar Chavez National Monuments; Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, as well as several private ecological or wildlife preserves.

Lastly, to protect human health in the communities near parks and public lands from the impacts of oil and gas development, the CPANP requests BLM consider a Public Health and Public Lands Alternative (presented in Appendix C).

Download Public Comments (PDF)
Source: Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks

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