Coastal Services Center

With the world's increasing demand for better and faster Internet and telephone capacity, telecommunications companies are rushing to crisscross the oceans with thousands of miles of fiber optic cables. This technological boom is creating headaches for many coastal resource managers who are struggling to understand and address the environmental and economic impacts of laying cable along our nation's coastline.

The number of requests to lay cable has jumped significantly for many coastal states since the late 90s. In California alone, six projects have been permitted since 1987, and five of those have been in the past year. California and Oregon are both working to address the issue, with Oregon creating specific regulations for cables, and California developing standard permit conditions and mitigation requirements. The National Marine Sanctuary System also is evaluating the possibility of proposing new rules or policies regarding cables being laid in sanctuaries.

"We are the first state, that we know of, to have developed a close working relationship between the fishermen, cable companies, and state government in the placement of cables," says Jeff Kroft, policy development specialist for the Oregon Division of State Lands. "To the best of our knowledge, we are also the first state to have clear administrative rules that outline a process that you must go through to place a fiber optic cable."

Communicating at the Speed of Light

Fiber optics is a technology for transmitting voice, video, and computer data through transparent fibers, usually made of glass.

To connect states with countries half way across the globe, telecommunications companies lay thousands of miles of cable on the ocean floor. When they reach water depths where trawl fishing or anchoring occurs, a trenching system is used to bury the cable. When the cable reaches shallow water, directional drilling is typically employed to bring the cable under sensitive habitats to a small building, where it is connected with cables that may continue on land for thousands more miles.

Cable projects raise a number of red flags for coastal managers. These include the potential for environmental impacts during and after burial, and user conflicts, primarily with fishermen. Because fiber optic cable is a relatively new issue, the answers are not always clear, or easy, says Marina Cazorla, environmental specialist in the Energy and Ocean Resources Unit of the California Coastal Commission.

"We've had to learn as we go," Cazorla says. "We're basically applying adaptive management principles because we're constantly learning new or unexpected types of impacts due to cable projects, and then have had to work to develop appropriate measures."

Industry Questions

While coastal managers are struggling to understand the impacts of cables, cable companies often feel the same way about state permitting processes, says Floyd E. Holcom, senior staff engineer and project manager for fiber optic cable with Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage, Inc. "There is a lot of confusion in the industry about permitting these cables. They want to know why they have to jump through all of these hurdles, sometimes the same hurdles in a number of states, when the risks are so low. There are a lot of questions on both sides of the table."

Holcom says obscure permitting processes are such a problem for the industry because of the sheer cost of the projects, which average about $8 million for one cable, and the pressure to get your cable in first. "The competition is fierce right now. The first cable in, wins. If you take the mystery out of the process, everyone feels more comfortable."

Because of the competition, keeping landing information confidential also is important to companies. Holcom asks, "How do you get a permit for a cable and tell everything about your project, and not tell your competitor all about it?"

Project Impacts

Many of the questions managers have about cable projects involve the environmental impacts. The industry says the process of laying cables is relatively safe, but Cazorla says there have been some impacts in California, and other issues are cause for concern. These include unburied cable "strumming" across hard substrate damaging reefs and habitat, and the release of drilling fluids that can suffocate marine organisms and impact water quality. There is also the potential for injury to marine mammals during cable installation, and for bottom feeding whales to become entangled in cables that are not buried deeply enough or are left exposed.

Many of these issues can be mitigated if cable has been buried completely, but managers say that with current cable burial technology and difficulty burying cable on hard substrate, it is impossible for cable companies to guarantee a cable will be 100 percent buried.

In Washington State's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, one of only two sanctuaries where cable has been laid, monitoring has revealed exposed cable, says Rick Fletcher, Olympic Coast's Pacific Crossing project manager.

"When the cable company came in, they billed the project to us that in the sanctuary it was expected the cable would be buried completely," Fletcher explains. "The resulting data they provided indicated it was buried. When we went down in a submersible to monitor the recovery rate, exposed cable was found."

While the disturbance to the seafloor during burial is thought to be minimal, research documenting this has not been done. "One of our key issues is redisturbance," Fletcher says. "If continued reburial is required, the cable may have a considerably higher level of disturbance than we originally believed would occur."

Another problem with exposed cable is the risk to trawl fishermen, who may be held liable if their gear snags and damages a cable. As a result, they may be forced to pass up miles of prime fishing ground to avoid the cables, or face being sued.

"It was common in the early days," says Scott McMullen, chairman of the Oregon Fishermen's Cable Committee, "to get a letter in the mail saying here is where the cable is, please don't fish here, and keep a one-mile buffer. That might be 80 square miles of fishing grounds we could lose. If you did fish there and something happened, the consequences could easily run into several million dollars."

Clear Regulations

It was this escalating tension between the cable and fishing industries that spurred officials in Oregon to draft new administrative rules addressing cable projects. The rules have been successful, says Robert Bailey, Ocean Program administrator for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, because both the cable companies and fishermen played important roles in developing the policies.

"We did a pretty good job of working with the companies and fishermen to get the rules of the game written clearly and effectively, yet without glossing over the issues."

Jeff Kroft says Oregon requires companies to apply for an easement 180 days prior to placement. Before the application is filed, companies should develop strong working relations with fishermen and other users, and work with them to plan cable placement. Cables must be buried to the greatest extent possible, and a $5,000 application fee is required.

California is addressing environmental issues by requiring a marine mammal monitor to be on the cable-burying vessel and present during drilling, and post-lay monitoring is required, Cazorla says. A mitigation fee for hard-bottom damage will be assessed, and the State Lands Commission imposes a right-of-way fee.

Helen Golde, chief of the Conservation Policy and Planning Branch of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, says the program is determining whether to develop programmatic guidelines for implementing existing permitting requirements, and is establishing a fee structure for fair market value of the use of a sanctuary, in instances when cable laying would be permitted.

Kroft notes, "We're very concerned about natural resources, and want to protect them, yet allow the reasonable use of these resources. The critical thing is making it very clear what you anticipate in terms of prior notification in rules and to ensure that, as a resource manager, you have sufficient time to determine whether the cable placement is in the best place for the protection of resources and to guarantee the public's rights of use. So far, we feel it's worked well."

For more information about Oregon's experience with fiber optic cables, point your browser to www.neptune.washington.edu/pub/documents/documents.html, www.oregon.gov/, or www.ofcc.com. You may also contact Jeff Kroft at (503) 378-3805, ext. 280, or jeff.kroft@dsl.state.or.us. For information on California's response, contact Marina Cazorla at (415) 904-5249 or mcazorla@coastal.ca.gov. For information on the National Marine Sanctuary System's efforts to address cables, go to www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov:80/news/newsbboard/finalreport.pdf or www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov:80/news/newsbboard/FMVFedReg.pdf (requires a plug-in such as Adobe® Reader® to view).