ALASKAN TESTS WOULD PROVIDE USEFUL DATA

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has become a litmus test of environmental sensitivity. If you favor exploration for oil under a portion of the refuge, you are no friend of the environment. If you oppose tests to determine how much oil there is, you are green through and through.

For both sides, it seems, there is little wiggle room.

There has been keen interest in tapping the oil along the coastal plain of the refuge in the northeastern corner of our biggest state. The refuge itself covers some 19 million acres. The coastal plain along the northern edge is about 100 miles wide and 15 to 20 miles deep and includes about 1.5 million acres.

Oil exploration experts estimate only 12,700 acres of the refuge would be affected in some way by drilling for oil.

Some 7,000 Gwich'in Athabascan Indians live in the refuge. They are concerned about the 150,000 porcupine caribou that call the refuge home.

The only other human inhabitants of the refuge are the 210 Inupiat Eskimos who live in a village on Barter Island. The Inupiats stand to benefit financially if drilling for oil occurs, so they favor exploration.

Alaska's state officials also would like to see the underground oil reserves tapped. But they don't know how much oil there is. There are arguments, for example, that a vast amount of oil perhaps as much as 10 percent of U.S. consumption could be pumped annually, making the refuge's coastal plain the largest untapped oil reserve in the world.

Oil companies also point to new technology that allows test wells to be drilled at an angle from a central site, leaving the surrounding terrain undisturbed.

So why hasn't drilling started? Gasoline prices are high. And oil-producing nations elsewhere in the world are limiting production.

Strict environmentalists oppose even test drilling in the Alaskan refuge for fear of the damage, even if it were inadvertent, that could occur. But until test wells are allowed, no one will really know if the reserves are truly large enough to warrant the risks of ecological disaster that would accompany any production-scale effort to pump oil from that area.

With minimum risk, test wells could establish an accurate gauge of how much oil is under the refuge. Alaskan officials think that information is central to the debate. Most opposition to test wells comes from individuals outside Alaska who know few of the particulars about the scope of the refuge or the impact of modern drilling techniques.

As long as the United States is dependent on fossil fuels, it makes sense to find out what's below the surface of a portion of the refuge without endangering the caribou herd or the indigenous population.