**REPORT TITLE**: Proceedings: Conference on Recommendations for Studies
in Washington and Oregon Relative to Offshore Oil and Gas Development,
May 1988.

**STUDY TITLE**: Conference/Workshop on Recommendations for Studies in
Washington and Oregon Relative to Offshore Oil and Gas Development.

CONTRACT NUMBER(S): MMS: 14-12-0001-30368.

SPONSORING OCS REGION: Pacific.

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREA(S): Washington/Oregon.

FISCAL YEAR(S) OF PROJECT FUNDING: 1988.

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: December 1988.

COST(S): FY 1988: \$78,375; CUMULATIVE PROJECT COST: \$78,375.

PROJECT MANAGER(S): Janet H. Mandaville; Paul Fishman, Technical Program
Manager, Fishman Environmental Services.

AFFILIATION: Bio/Tech Communications, a division of BioSystems Analysis,
Inc.

ADDRESS: 600 S.W. Tenth Avenue, Suite 418, Portland, Oregon 97205.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S)\*: Not applicable.

KEY WORDS: Pacific OCS Region; Oregon; Washington; air quality; marine
ecology; benthos; fish; fisheries; geohazards; marine mammals; seabirds;
oceanography; socioeconomics; Environmental Studies Program.

ACCESS NUMBER: 30368

**BACKGROUND**: In December 1976, a conference/workshop
\"Recommendations for Baseline Research in Washington and Oregon
Relative to Offshore Development\" was held to recommend studies needs
for the October 1978 Proposed Sale. The Minerals Management Service has
not funded any studies for the Washington-Oregon area except for some
studies to gather information for the Strategic Minerals Lease Sale on
the Gorda Ridge. A new conference/workshop will serve as a prerequisite
to address studies that will be needed for Proposed Lease Sale 132
scheduled for April 1992.

**OBJECTIVES**: The May 1988 conference/workshop was organized to
develop a clear understanding of research needs and priorities with
respect to the Minerals Management Service offshore oil and gas program
in the Washington and Oregon Planning Area. Specific objectives of the
meeting included:

1\. Summarize available information on environmental processes of the
Outer Continental Shelf off Washington and Oregon.

2\. Identify subject areas in which additional information is needed for
reasonable understanding and prediction of the environmental effects of
oil and gas development activities in the planning area.

3\. Develop recommendations for ways the Environmental Studies Program
can most effectively deal with information gaps related to the
environmental impacts of oil and gas activities in the planning area.

4\. Ensure use of current scientific knowledge as input to the
regulatory process.

5\. Improve awareness of the scientific work being conducted in the
Washington and Oregon OCS Planning Area.

**DESCRIPTION**: The Minerals Management Service (MMS) sponsored a 3-day
conference/workshop in Portland Oregon, May 23-25, 1988. Participants
(209) included representatives of federal, state, and local government
agencies; research centers and academic institutions; public interest
groups; Native American groups; commercial and industrial interests;
private consultancies; and local and state legislative interests.

Topics included air quality, fates/effects - chemistry, fish/fisheries,
geohazards, marine ecology, marine mammals, physical oceanography,
seabirds, and socioeconomics. The agenda comprised general sessions for
discipline presentations, workshops to develop research recommendations
and priorities, and presentations of corollary information on: (1) OCS
oil and gas planning in British Columbia; (2) Planning in Oregon for
management of living resources; (3) Research coordination between
jurisdictions; (4) the MMS procurement process; and (5) videos showing
the MMS survey and monitoring program and dive footage from Gorda Ridge
research. The agenda included welcoming and introductory remarks by
representatives of national and regional MMS, Washington and Oregon
state governments, and tribal interests. Also provided were extensive
handouts, displays, a database demonstration, and circulating papers
prepared and distributed by state governments, federal agencies, and
other interested parties.

Invited discipline speakers for Day 1 were 12 scientists representing
academic institutions, research centers, and state agencies. These and
other discipline specialists served as workshop conveners. Workshop
co-conveners were MMS subject specialists. Speakers and conveners were
given guidelines for presentation coverage, including a summary of
identified data gaps based on the results of the 1976 conference.
Planning meetings with speakers, conveners, and co-conveners reiterated
coverage guidelines, conference objectives, workshop format and
facilitation strategies. In the discipline workshops on Day 2, groups of
8 to 40 participants discussed information gaps, major issues,
conceptual frameworks, and specific research needs, both pre- and
post-lease. Volunteer reporters presented workshop results on Day 3 to a
general session.

General sessions were taped (video and audio) and scribes maintained
notes and prepared summaries\--in cooperation with reporters\--for the
workshop sessions. A proceedings document was compiled from introductory
and discipline speaker presentations, workshop summaries from scribes
and reporters, session tapes, and comments by over 40 draft reviewers
(speakers, conveners and MMS co-conveners, reporters, technical panel).
Chapters in the proceedings correspond to discipline topics with
subsections for the lead presentation(s), a workshop summary, and the
conclusions and recommendations for study priorities for that
discipline. Other sections in the proceedings summarize introductory
remarks, special presentations, and the research coordination forum.
Appendices provide the conference agenda, leadership and participant
listings, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission prospectus, and a basic
research agenda prepared by the Joint Oregon/Washington OCS Technical
Advisory Group.

**SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS**: Workshop participants identified issues and
recommend an array of pre- lease data collection studies and post- lease
monitoring studies. Among the primary gaps in information noted by
participants were: (1) abundance, distribution, critical habitats and
sensitivity to oil/gas activities for offshore fish, mammal, and seabird
populations; (2) ideologies, needs, jurisdictional roles, and service
capacities of coastal communities and other special constituencies such
as tribal interests; (3) movement and deposition of water-transported
sediments (with their possible inclusion of toxic and non-toxic elements
and compounds), air-borne pollutants, and discharge from oil and gas
production processes and/or spills; (4) relationship of oceanographic
phenomena to living natural resources and habitats; and (5) delineation
of fishery resources in relationship to local, state, Indian, and
federal economics.

Concerns also included the time frame available for pre- lease studies,
the adequacy of data collection methods, the need to identify and
develop mitigation techniques and technologies, and the need for
sophisticated modelling tools. Of particular concern are research
studies to clarify the various interrelationships within the marine
environments that offshore oil and gas development activities might
affect. Considered essential was the need for the inter-agency
coordination of the review, compilation, and archiving of existing and
newly collected data. Participants recommended extensive literature
reviews and comparative studies in all disciplines, and recognized that
extrapolation of data from other planning areas is sometimes
appropriate. Participants also recommended extending the network of
meteorological and seismological data collection stations to serve
research needs in both baseline and monitoring studies.

Other recommendations included:

1\. Substantiate and isolate sensitive areas from development.

2\. Recognize tribal rights and fishery allocations.

3\. Develop linkages between disciplines in both research and monitoring
studies.

4\. Define suitable policy and analytical frameworks for both pre- and
postlease phases to make effective decisions about study priorities as
well as program management.

Details of recommendations for each discipline are covered in the
proceedings publication.

**STUDY RESULTS**: Participants generally agreed that the conference
provided a valuable and unusual opportunity for interaction among
specialists from different scientific disciplines, various tiers of
government, and the commercial, scientific, and Indian communities. The
conference provided an important first stage in formulating and ranking
study needs. The resulting recommendations will be reviewed by state
level task forces and technical advisory groups working with MMS.

**STUDY PRODUCT(S)**: Bio/Tech Communications. 1988. Conference/Workshop
on Recommendations for Studies in Washington and Oregon Relative to
Offshore Oil and Gas Development, May 1988. Prepared for the U.S.
Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Pacific OCS
Region, Los Angeles, CA. Contract No. 14-12-0001-30368, OCS Study MMS
88-0090. 215 pp.

\*P.I.\'s affiliation may be different than that listed for Project
Manager(s).