On the North Slope, the oil field grows a few thousand cubic yards at a time

Neither of ConocoPhillips' two new gravel proposals in the Kuparuk oil fields is dramatic on its own. One would lay about 10,300 cubic yards of gravel near a processing facility south of Oliktok Point, disturbing less than an acre of tundra to widen a road and prep for future seawater equipment.

The other would add gravel to expand an existing pad by roughly an acre. Public comment on the two runs through July 26 and July 31.

The North Slope's sprawling oil infrastructure didn't arrive all at once; it grows the way these permits do — an acre here, a road-widening there, each one small enough to seem routine. Conservation and tribal groups have argued for years, including in court, that it's exactly this incremental gravel mining and road building that adds up to lasting damage to tundra and the subsistence resources that depend on it. The company says the pad work stays entirely on existing gravel.

Comments go to the Division of Oil and Gas before the deadlines.