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Facebook Abandons Broken Drilling Equipment Under Oregon Coast Seafloor (oregonlive.com) 140

Kale Williams, reporting for The Oregonian: Lynnae Ruttledge was worried when she heard Facebook planned to build a landing spot for an undersea fiber-optic cable near her Oregon Coast home. Tierra Del Mar, where the 70-year-old retired government worker lives part-time, is a tiny community north of Pacific City with no stoplights and no cell-phone service. The enclave, all zoned residential, consists of about a dozen mostly gravel streets running perpendicular to an idyllic stretch of beach, each lined with single-family homes. Ruttledge and many of her neighbors worried about heavy equipment on fragile roads built over sand dunes. They worried about noise and vibrations from the drill needed to punch a hole under the seafloor thousands of feet out into the ocean. They worried about threatened bird species, like the snowy plover and marbled murrelet, that could be affected.

Despite their concerns, and a vocal campaign to stop the project, construction began earlier this year. Then, on April 28, the drilling crew hit an unexpected area of hard rock. The drill bit became lodged and the drill pipe snapped 50 feet below the seafloor. The crew was able to recover some of the equipment, but they left the rest where it lay. Today, about 1,100 feet of pipe, a drill tip, various other tools and 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid sit under the seafloor just off the central Oregon coast. Facebook has no plans to retrieve the equipment. Edge Cable Holdings, a Facebook subsidiary responsible for the project, notified the county of the accident on May 5, but it did not explicitly mention the abandoned equipment. That information didn't emerge until a meeting with state officials June 17, nearly two months after the malfunction, said Ali Hansen, a Department of State Lands spokeswoman. "The delay in notification eliminated any potential options for recovery of the equipment," Hansen said in an email. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the company's new plan is to return in early 2021 to drill a new hole, leaving the lost equipment under the seafloor indefinitely.

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Facebook Abandons Broken Drilling Equipment Under Oregon Coast Seafloor

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  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:05PM (#60398859)

    That's not fuckin littering!
    Speaking for all of life: You think you can just dump your trash on our lawn, and leave?

    FB should be made to take it away, or go to prison.
    Yes, every single decider in the entire chain. Yes, *especially* board members, shareholders and whatnot.

    • by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:35PM (#60398997)

      Here is the thing, every single business major is trained to AVOID COSTS

      They are never going to "man up" and "do the right thing" IF it costs them one red cent and there are not impending fines and lawsuits that will cost them more than removing the equipment (fyi, legal costs are not considered since already have attys on retainer)

      I was surprised about how deeply this is rooted when studying for MBA, but now I am only surprised when people actually think a corporation would behave any other way

      • by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:06PM (#60399145)

        At the end of the day its never the decision makers being forced to do the manual labor. If it were, when disasters happen, you would see a lot more justifcation for extra spending. If it meant my ass was wearing tyvex in a bilge cleanin sludge, you bet your ass I would spend another 5% to make sure that didnt happen. Ive done that in my past. I would rather not do that again. The consequences are never personal and humiliating enough. Fuck fines. I would waive every fine there ever was if Mark Zuckerberg was being live streamed on his hands and knees bilge diving to clean up a toxic waste mess his company created. It would have to be at least 180 hours in 12 hr shifts. That would drive the point home. NOBODY is cleaning up your mess. The buck stops at the top floors.

      • by Carrier Lifetime ( 6166666 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:37PM (#60399299)

        Here is where regulation steps in. Abandoning material on the seafloor has a negative externality, and that externality should be a cost to the company causing it.

        • I see your regulation and counter with a "Citizen's United" protected purchase of enough elected positions to negate your puny regulations

          Which is what has actually happened in the good ol' USA

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by R80_JR ( 1094843 )
          The material is not abandoned "on" the seafloor, it's under the seafloor. Bentonite is pretty innocuous (and is actually used in some nutritional "supplements" as a source of minerals). During drilling operations, any bentonite that makes it up onto the seafloor will have to be cleaned up. (I have worked on projects where the drilling mud was dyed and boats monitored the cable route with fluorimeters to detect any bentonite leakage) And iron is naturally present at 1-3 ppb in seawater as a micronutrient
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by cellocgw ( 617879 )

            The material is not abandoned "on" the seafloor, it's under the seafloor. Bentonite is pretty innocuous

            Irrelevant. Any operation which disturbs the local physical or biological structure should IMHO be required by law to remove **all** unused or broken or abandoned materials. Force companies to post bond covering possible costs of such operations in advance of initiating work.

            [yeah I'm a supporter of government regs which favor people over corporations]

        • C'mon, it's not like Facebook can afford something like this. It's just a shoestring operation, barely getting by!

      • Blowing up a huge hole in the bedrock would be costly indeed.

        I don't know if the other commenters on the page didn't notice the "broke off in rock 50 feet under the seabed", or of they've never so much as picked up a hammer, so they don't understand what "broken" or "stuck" mean. It's stuck hard enough ot snapped a steel drill pipe in two. The only way you're going to get that out is with a whole lot of explosives.

    • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:36PM (#60398999) Journal
      This sort of thing happens all the time. Drill strings break, and the remaining pipe, drilling fluid and bit are not recovered. And in almost all cases it is not a big deal.

      As for ms. Ruttledge, I have some sympathy for her concerns, but in reality, what actual harm did their community suffer? It's good to be a concerned citizen, but don't be a NIMBY. This also happens all the time: a bunch of people in a small community saying: "we carved out our own little corner of paradise, and we do not want anything interfering with it, ever". An understandable sentiment, but rather anti-social. Is it worth preserving such idyllic communities? Sure, but not just for the inhabitants' sakes, and not at any cost. And in this case, the community doesn't appear to have been at any substantial risk.
      • This sort of thing happens all the time. Drill strings break, and the remaining pipe, drilling fluid and bit are not recovered. And in almost all cases it is not a big deal.

        Facebook's unnamed horizontal drilling contractor certainly knows that. The agencies that issued their drilling permits know that (or ought to, it's their job). But it appears they're all quite happy to let this play out as a "Facebook vs. entitled NIMBYs with beach houses" story.

      • by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:49PM (#60399061)

        Interestingly the Petroleum Industry has higher standards than I would expect, but it doesn't change my expectation of FB in the least:

        Health, safety and environment policies [petrowiki.org]
        The health, safety, and environmental (HSE) policies of many companies are more stringent than those required by national governments and the various agencies charged with overseeing drilling operations. All personnel who take part in the well-construction process must comply with these standards to ensure their own safety and that of others. On most locations, a “zero-tolerance” policy is in effect concerning behaviors that might endanger workers, the environment, or the safe progress of the operation. Additionally, all personnel are encouraged to report potentially hazardous activities or circumstances through a variety of observational safety programs.

        The packaging, transport, and storage of drilling-fluid additives and/or premixed fluid systems are closely scrutinized regarding HSE issues. Personnel who handle drilling fluid and its components are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent inhalation or other direct contact with potentially hazardous materials. Risk-assessed ergonomic programs have been established to reduce the potential for injuries related to lifting sacks and other materials, and operating mud-mixing equipment.

      • Saltwater is highly corrosive. I think seawater contamination from that drilling fluid breaching and leaking out is relatively notable.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        "we carved out our own little corner of paradise, and we do not want anything interfering with it, ever"

        But now it's ruined. The mere fact that there is a piece of pipe buried 50 feet below their beach can never be forgotten. And the anguish will be ongoing.

        I guess there is nothing to do but move out of their now sullied little ex-paradise and sell the whole thing to a resort developer.

      • by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

        Seriously, if being somewhere 'First' entitled you to more land and resources than you need, all the Europeans should fuck back off to Europe, and the 2nd and after waves of 'native' Americans can fuck back off to northern Asia. Earliest known settlers of the Americas are Japanese; guess it 'rightfully' belongs to them, if First = Has All The Rights.

    • Can't wait for Facebook to finally pivot to being a bank, so they can confine their evil to the financial sphere.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The pipe isn't the problem. It's everything else they've listed as left.

        It's also the fact that they did this against local objections, never bothered to do research and never finished the job.

    • Speaking for all of life

      Not me you're not.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Japan has jail for companies. They can be ordered to cease commercial activity for a period of time, typically a month or two. They have to pay staff but can't make anything, conduct any business etc. beyond essential maintenance for equipment and janitorial stuff.

  • Who do they think they are? Not that I needed any more reasons to despise FB and loathe Zuckerberg, but this whole story is just too much. Zuckerberg is a psychopath, and needs to be stopped.

  • Breaks his toys and leaves them lying around for someone else to clean up after him. Smack that brat left and right.

  • Why care? It doesnâ(TM)t harm anything. For all we know some undersea creatures would appreciate the new home. Think of it as HUD for deep sea creatures.

    • whatever it is, there's 6,500 gallons of it in the ocean right now. I'm guessing it's not just water.
      • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:08PM (#60399153)

        The purpose of drilling fluid is to return the drilling debris to the surface, so they adjust the viscosity and density of the fluid to make it more efficient a this job. A secondary purpose is to lubricate and cool the drill head, so they make it slippery too.

        What sort of things do they put in Drilling Fluid? It starts as mostly water. Then they add thickeners like Xanthium gum, gelation, emulsifiers, and other related things. Throw in some silicon to make it slippery and you are about done. To keep the organic materials from spoiling or going rancid they may put in some stuff to preserve the organics and inhibit microbes from growing.

        All in all, drilling fluid is basically harmless when manufactured. I wouldn't want to drink the stuff, but it's not toxic or dangerous. Now after it gets used, that story changes a bit as it will have bits of rock, machinery and lubricants used in the machinery. Then it gets classified as hazardous waste, but it's not exceedingly hazardous, but mostly biodegradable. However, in the abundance of caution, drillers usually dispose of this fluid by injecting it into spent wells deep below the water table, recycle it, or treat it to remove the suspended solids and mineral content much like domestic sewage...

        IMHO, leaving a well full of fluid 50' underground isn't some huge problem.

    • by kwerle ( 39371 )

      Kind of depends on the nature of the equipment and the drilling fluid.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      Looks like it can be anything from something as harmless as water to something far worse - like oil. So that could be a cause for concern.

      As for the rest of the equipment, it depends on its nature as well. I'm sure that simple rusting isn't horrible for the local environment, but if there is any part of it that is sealed and has oil based lubricants, then that's not so great. There are any number of thi

      • In HDD drilling everything used is compatible with the environment. A lot of the drilling fluid is going to stay in the hole even on a successful operation, so it has to be safe for ground water and soil, otherwise you will not get the permits for working.

        There is a battery and a little electronics in the drilling head, but otherwise some iron got returned to mother earth. That's all.

    • by rossdee ( 243626 )

            "Think of it as HUD for deep sea creatures."

      Why would a deep sea creature need a Heads Up Display ?

      • Because truly deep ocean fish are currently mating with anything nearby in case it's the right species and gender.

        Giving them access to match.com and night vision will improve their chances no end.

  • by decep ( 137319 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:29PM (#60398971)

    This story never should have made a successful submission. Its only purpose is to generate an outrage response and cause division.

    It is most certainly not news for nerds and it does not matter.

    • This story never should have made a successful submission. Its only purpose is to generate an outrage response and cause division.

      It is most certainly not news for nerds and it does not matter.

      It still doesn't beat my all time favorite submission, Zuckerberg Sues Hundreds of Hawaiians To Force Property Sales To Him [slashdot.org].

    • Its news for nerds because of FB. Yes, going into a relatively clean natural environment and making a mess is outrageous.

      Is it real problem? Depends on what is in the drilling fluid, probably not.

      Should FB have some liability and make some kind of restitution to the local community? Probably.

      • by NagrothAgain ( 4130865 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @06:49PM (#60399497)
        Wrong. It's click bait locked behind a paywall, and is intentionally misleading and onesided in the story it presents. The "drilling fluid" is essentially clay and water, and the State is planning on conducting a more thorough assessment even though they believe it's environmentally neutral. Oh, and it's 50 feet under the sea floor. The actual story here is about how a bunch of spoiled, entitled rich assholes are pissed off because they can't buy up the entire coastline and wall it off from the public.
        • It may be clickbait garbage does that mean it didn't happen? As I mentioned, its probably not really much of an issue, but we don't know.

          If you look at Zillow for Cloverdale, Oregon (aka Terra Del Mar), you'll find that the beach front houses average around $600,000 and the ones behind those maybe $300,000 - there are some even low value properties there too. Not sure where you are getting 'rich assholes' from, you obviously don't know the Orgeon coast. And where are you getting the wall off the coast bi

        • by nyet ( 19118 )

          > It's click bait locked behind a paywall,

          Exactly this. Alarmist trash from a complete moron editor.

      • by decep ( 137319 )

        I guess every time a FB employee shits in the woods, it is "tech news" then?

    • The real trolls have modded you troll for trying to defuse their bomb. Oh meta mods where are you!?!

    • I for one learned stuff, and enjoyed the discussion. There was a lot of outrage, but since it was all just text, I just scrolled past it.

  • Moral panic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sverdlichenko ( 105710 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:33PM (#60398987)

    So now a length of metal pipe and some water mixed with clay and other minerals (also known as a drilling fluid) are buried 50 feet under the seafloor.

    People put the pipe into the ground and filled it with water. I noticed the public works department doing the same thing in the middle of the city a week ago. I'm sorry, why is it even worth mentioning?

    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      Because "OMG Facebook is bad, kill lizard man!"
    • So now a length of metal pipe and some water mixed with clay and other minerals (also known as a drilling fluid) are buried 50 feet under the seafloor.

      Don't make light of drilling mud. That stuff is quite hazardous to the environment and there's a reason it is regulated and recaptured during drilling operations.

      Salt is a mineral, great on steak. Yet try eating a kg of it and tell us how you go.

  • How the hell one of the richest companies gets away with this kind of shit just pisses me the fuck off. FIX IT FACEBOOK.

    • Re:Hey FB, WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:55PM (#60399091)
      Because leaving a broken drill string in the ground is standard operating procedure in the industry. The broken end is 50' under the seafloor. Do you realize how much environmental damage it would do to go dig it out? It's a steel pipe with a water/clay mix in the middle of it, it's not going to hurt anything.
    • How the hell one of the richest companies gets away with this kind of shit just pisses me the fuck off. FIX IT FACEBOOK.

      The faux outrage is real...

    • Other people are all raging because most of what we're talking about here is roughly inert.

      The real problem is the people giving out the permits either can't or won't ask for money in escrow for any possible cleanup. If they'd asked for that, they could be down there picking up the pieces that they don't like - all on Facebook's money. They didn't, and so now there's no one to do it.

      In this particular case it may not be so terrible, but in future cases it might be a lot worse.

      As all stories lead to Trump, I

  • by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:38PM (#60399013)

    After several years, a couple of broken 5/32-inch drill bits still lie abandoned in the face frames of my kitchen cabinets, also unlikely to ever be retrieved.

  • by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @04:53PM (#60399077)
    Looks like a bunch of NIMBYs worried about their luxury vacation homes. Also: don't get outraged until you actually read about an environmental assessment. You think this never happens with other deep sea operations?
  • by clovis ( 4684 ) on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:08PM (#60399157)

    Today, about 1,100 feet of pipe, a drill tip, various other tools and 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid sit under the seafloor just off the central Oregon coast.

    So this is on the order of a fishing boat sinking. That's not rare, but how often does it get written up?

    But it reminded me of this.
    Here's a nice writeup on the little Ditch Witch directional drilling you see everywhere.
    http://cityinfrastructure.com/... [cityinfrastructure.com]

    My neighborhood had the lucky treat of having a lengthy directional drilling project for a 24" high-pressure natural gas line go through. Mostly, they dug a trench, but we have a busy railroad switching yard that goes by our neighborhood that's about 30 feet below grade where the pipeline wanted to go through, so they did about 2000 feet directional drilling. Unlike the Oregon people, I enjoyed watching it although it went on for some weeks. The equipment they used for the 24" pipeline was similar in size to what you see in the Facebook project picture. Most of the noise was from diesel engines, but it still wasn't as annoying as the planes from the big airport 12 miles away climbing out under full throttle over our neighborhood during the day.

    • Not even that, since the undersea "drilling fluid" is clay and mineral oil. If you ate it would you get constipation from the clay or ripping shits from the oil? Anyway, it's what bacteria crave, not a big deal.

  • With tunnel boring, the plan is often to abandon boring machines (huge machines) in a side tunnel.

    https://www.nysun.com/new-york... [nysun.com]
    'The six tunnel boring machines used to dig the Channel tunnel, or "Chunnel," a rail link between England and France, were left under the English Channel when the project was completed.'

  • The State and/or the Feds clean it up and fine Facebook for the cost plus a penalty.

    The equipment may not be much of a problem, but if the drilling fluid is oil-based then it could eventually make quite a mess.

  • Then it is more than likely your company does a lot of evil things.

  • What if this wasn't Facebook, but some academic research project instead and it had the same misfortune?

    My general sense is that much of this outrage is manufactured to hate on Facebook. Which will it deserves the hate generally, the environmental impact of this particular situation is blown way out of proportion.

    What I find curious is why the drilling crew didn't do a better job of geology, it's got to be expensive to fuck up like this, and it's not like Oregon's rocky coast is necessarily an unknown phen

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