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Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale- Environmental Impact


Quiz Questions

1. OCSLA stands for _______________________________.
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act
Outer Country Shelf Lands Act
2. NEPA stands for____________________________________.
National Environmental Pollution Act
National Environmental Policy Act
3. The Coastal Zone Management Act was enacted by Congress in 1972 to develop a national coastal management program that comprehensively manages and balances competing uses of and impacts to any coastal use or resource.
True
False
4. The _________________ is a 1977 amendment to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972.
Clean Water Act (CWA)
Clean Air Act (CAA)
5. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is comprehensive legislation that includes, in part, provisions to (1) improve oil-spill prevention; preparedness and response capability (2) establish limitations on liability for damages resulting from oil pollution and (3) implement a fund for the payment of compensation for such damages.
True
False
6. A mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) is classified as a________________________.
Driller
Vessel
7. The _____________________________________________ provides a framework for the safe disposal and management of hazardous and solid wastes.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act (MPPRCA)
8. The National Fishing Enhancement Act of 1984 also known as the Artificial Reef Act, establishes broad artificial reef development standards and a national policy to encourage the development of artificial reefs that will enhance fishery resources and commercial and recreational fishing.
True
False
9. The Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972 authorizes the USCG to designate safety fairways, fairway anchorages, and traffic separation schemes (TSS’s) to provide unobstructed approaches through oil fields for vessels using GOM ports.
True
False
10. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 encourages increased domestic production of oil and natural gas, grants MMS new authority for Federal offshore alternate energy uses, and requires a comprehensive inventory of oil and gas resources on the OCS.
True
False
11. The primary impacting sources to water quality in coastal waters are point-source and storm water discharges from support facilities, vessel discharges, and nonpoint-source runoff.
True
False
12. Chemosynthetic communities are _____________________to physical impacts from structure placement anchoring, and pipeline installation.
Susceptible
Non susceptible
13. Contaminants in waste discharges and drilling muds might _________________sea turtles through food chain biomagnifications but there is uncertainty concerning the possible effects.
Indirectly affect
Do not affect
14. Sediments can serve as a sink for contaminants that were originally transported via water in either dissolved or particulate form or via atmospheric deposition. Sediments may contain pesticides, metals and organics. The sediments of Gulf Coast estuaries were ranked as __________.
Fair
Good
15. The buffering capacity of the marine system is controlled by carbonate and bicarbonate, which maintain the pH at _______.
7.2
8.2
16. The ____________________ are the primary sources of freshwater, sediment and pollutants to the continental shelf west of the Mississippi.
Mississippi river
Atchafalaya river
Both the rivers
None of the rivers
17. Water at depths greater than 1,400 m is relatively _____________________ with respect to temperature, salinity and oxygen.
Homogeneous
Non- homogeneous
18. The dune zone of a barrier landform can consist of a single low dune ridge, several parallel dune ridges, or a number of curving dune lines that may be stabilized by vegetation.
True
False
19. The South Texas banks are geographically/geologically distinct from the shelf-edge banks. Several of the South Texas banks are also low-relief banks. These banks exhibit a reduced biota and have relatively low relief, few hard-substrate outcrops, and a thicker sediment cover than the other banks.
True
False
20. The _________________________ covers the largest area among the reef-building zones.
Algal-Sponge Zone
Millepora-Sponge Zone