He who forgets his past must re-drill it

It is said that those who forget their history must relive it. It appears that geologists working together with the State of Alaska have found a unique way to make that adage come true.

Imagine spending hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars building an active database and then stashing it in an unsecured facility where access, at best, is difficult and retrieval of the data for review places those very data at risk. That, however, is exactly the way the State is dealing with about 12 million feet of drill core it has been collected over the past several decades from the mining and oil and gas industries.

The Alaska Geologic Materials Center maintains this collection of materials, which also includes other geochemical data from thousands of oil and gas wells, exploratory hard rock drill holes, and surface samples.

"Maintains" is a euphemism, however, for warehousing.

Cores are poorly housed

The current facility lacks, among other things, adequate environmental controls to protect the collection. The trove, instead, is arrayed among a central building, three converted houses and about 50 Connex containers.

Waste, of course, is a part of the American way of life. Huge volumes of data are collected all the time by all kinds of industries as well as government agencies for incorporation into useless reports such as environmental impact statements. These documents are barely read by anyone but their preparation entails expensive studies, comprehensive reviews and critical commentary before they are relegated to collecting dust on a bookshelf somewhere.

People in the resource recovery industries have become somewhat inured to that kind of waste at the hands and demands of the bureaucracy. But the drill core and petrographic data at the Materials Center is somehow different. Those data were collected not to support some environmentalist lawsuit somewhere, but to give us a tiny peek into the ground upon which we stand.

It has long been my view that most of the geologists cannot see an inch further into the ground than I can; however, when they pop a drill hole into the ground, all bets are off. Then they have a palpable basis for inferring what's there.

Promising geological terrain is scattered across Alaska. New companies and old ones are constantly coming into Alaska to look for places to explore, drill and start new projects. When they can review the core from previous exploration efforts, they can focus their attention and use their exploration bucks more efficiently.

Where the core is poorly catalogued or inadequately maintained or irretrievable due to difficulties in access, however, it is as if it did not exist at all. That means it will have to be replicated, and the hard earned money spent to retrieve the samples in the first place is money wasted. It also means that the operators of new projects are reluctant to incur the costs and aggravation of sending their core and data to the Center for future reference.

Rescue may be in sight

Those who recognize the value of this strategic collection have longed for some remedial action to be undertaken, and there is some light at the end of the tunnel. A new facility has been proposed for construction in Eagle River, which will provide "a permanent, publicly accessible repository for geologic samples and related data to encourage and support energy and mineral resource exploration, research, development, and education in Alaska."

Spearheaded by John Norman, immediate past chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, this effort will constitute a giant step forward. At a point in our history when the state has the flexibility to undertake some deferred maintenance, this is one project that should not be overlooked.

The vision of those supporting this project is inspired. While it remains to be seen whether it will gain the traction needed to become a reality, there is reason to hope that Alaska may one day have a facility that reasonably protects and preserves this priceless collection. Notably, the proposed research facility is projected to include a museum. Hopefully, this will be one of its crowning jewels, because the educational component of resource development is critical to its successful future.

You are urged to take a look at the Mineral Center's Web site (http://www.dggs.dnr.state.ak.us) to get more information. The project deserves support from the public as well as the affected industries.