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.
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.
Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: Pick up your trash! Or pay the penalty (Score:2)
One beelion dollars
Re:Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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]
Re: (Score:2)
C'mon, it's not like Facebook can afford something like this. It's just a shoestring operation, barely getting by!
Blowing a huge hole in the bedrock would be costly (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
What about the other 1,050 feet of pipe? Why can't that be reclaimed?
Re:Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Re:Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Saltwater is highly corrosive. I think seawater contamination from that drilling fluid breaching and leaking out is relatively notable.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Informative)
Drilling fluid is usually just bentonite. It is dirt mixed with water. Sometimes they also include other stuff in the mix, but in all cases the fluid is going to stay in the hole, so has to be safe for the environment.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
Interesting. So basically the same stuff Mary Annings used when "sawing" fossil specimens.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
"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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because the first attempt wasn't "destructive"?
Re: (Score:2)
Pipe plus other abandoned equipment
I suspect that all the equipment above ground was removed when the project was abandoned. Pretty much the same as it would have been had the project succeeded.
You might not care, but it's not your stretch of coast.
The coast itself is public property. Landing stations are sited on property purchased by the cable operator. The cable is installed under public property by permit. So it's not the property of the people doing the whining.
It's interesting how Libertarians and Republicans love to spend other people's resources.
The resource is owned as much by the Libertarians and Republicans as anyone else. And it's these two groups who are pushing to get
Re: (Score:2)
Some big machines operating for a few weeks that left behind some mud and a piece of pipe 1100' underwater, and you claim the "ecosystem" is ruined.
Do you understand now why no one takes environmentalist seriously?
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
There's no evidence the Japanese were first. If you're going to make a claim like that, offer proof.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
Depends on where they started to build and where they ended.
Also depends on the state of the foundations - these things tend to get washed away or damaged from excessive heavy vehicle use.
Also depends on the weight of vehicles involved - a truck carrying gravel to be crushed (a common road building technique) is not going to weigh the same as a vehicle carrying undersea drilling equipment.
And so on.
It's not as simple as saying "well, they used heavy vehicles years before, so any heavy vehicle is ok now".
Re: (Score:2)
Can't wait for Facebook to finally pivot to being a bank, so they can confine their evil to the financial sphere.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You're an idiot. (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Speaking for all of life
Not me you're not.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
Geeks don't live. Well known fact.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:4, Insightful)
If the lion (or circumstances) destroys all of their prey, they die and we call it evolution
Humans should be beyond that and your simplistic assumptions just sound like weak justification for bad behavior
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Insightful)
"The environment" is not that big. Sure, it's big as far as any individual lion is concerned, but there simply aren't any animals as large as we are that have a population of 7 billion.
And as far as shit goes, that's just nutrients. Plenty of life has evolved to digest shit.
Eat a big bowl of drilling fluid, tell me how you feel in the morning.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:4, Informative)
Eat a big bowl of drilling fluid, tell me how you feel in the morning.
it's called "mud" and it usually just contains bentonite clay.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:4, Insightful)
That really depends on the application: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
it's called "mud" and it usually just contains bentonite clay.
Oh yeah, well eat a big bowl of bentonite clay and tell us how you feel in the morning!
Seriously, though, using the context “eat a big bowl of (substance) and tell us how you feel in the morning” ... isn’t the most intellectually honest argument. There just aren’t a lot of things you can put there and have it turn out okay.
I mean, dog shit is as natural as you can get, as is seawater, as is sand, and hemlock, as are monk
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh yeah, well eat a big bowl of bentonite clay and tell us how you feel in the morning!
My wife bought a small tub of expensive facial scrub from a boutique cosmetics company. When she showed it to me, I looked the ingredients:
"Bentonite clay."
And nothing more.
I was like, "Honey, I can buy a 60 pound sack of that stuff at Home Depot for five bucks".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
about the same as eating real mud..
also this is a hole that was rock that is now filled with a metal pipe and some mud.. the effort to recover said drill bit and pipe would honestly require cutting up the sea floor which would be far far far more disruptive (which is why they where drilling to start with). they don't make "ez-outs" for stuff like this, hell ez-outs barely work on house hold screws..
Re: (Score:2)
about the same as eating real mud..
also this is a hole that was rock that is now filled with a metal pipe and some mud.. the effort to recover said drill bit and pipe would honestly require cutting up the sea floor which would be far far far more disruptive (which is why they where drilling to start with). they don't make "ez-outs" for stuff like this, hell ez-outs barely work on house hold screws..
Here's an article [wikipedia.org] about ez-outs for drilling operations.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't consider anything down-hole ez, especially pipe & bit recover, I'm sure who ever was the drilling contractor got as much pipe back as they reasonably could.
And if they got stuck because they hit something harder than expected, the bit is toast and if likely significantly mangled the stuck section if they tried to push through.
But there is also a cost benefit to the effort, there really is zero environmental impact of leaving a stuck pipe down hole, and as this is for cable not oil/gas, very
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
A lion typically doesnt take a shit the size of 100,000 lions. If it did, it would be an invasive species and would already be put down or gone extinct.
I would rather not have a disaster like the gulf oil leak in 2009. Which, by the way, started by yet another broken drill tap. Im not overly environmental crazy to greenpeace levels, but at the same time, getting the task done with the least impact is also important. You know some 70yrs ago people would dive and touch the coral in the reefs, with no clue jus
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:4, Insightful)
Why should it NOT be illegal? Just because it's not the front lawn of someone with a deed of sale doesn't mean it's fair game for any asshole to drop their crap there. That part of the ocean belongs to the state, it's not even in international waters. Time to get the tranq gun out, shoot the lion, and declaw it.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
Ah, clearly you need to read up on the rivers that spontaneously burst into fire (see Ohio in the 1950â(TM)s), and perhaps take note of the still fairly unsafe East River in NY.
Re: (Score:2)
Why should dumping a small amount of trash in the ocean be illegal? Have you seen how big the ocean is? And who even has jurisdiction, you suddenly own the ocean? Humans are the only creatures that with low enough IQ to restrict themselves from taking advantage of the environment. Does a lion give a shit where it shits? No it shits and at best sprays it with sand, no septic treatment .. nothing. Where does a rhinoceros even shit? Straight into the water, into a fishâ(TM)s face for all it cares. Cholera.
In this case the US owns the ocean. This is well inside the coastal boundaries of the US so they effectively own that part of the ocean.
As for the dumping of trash, would you mind publishing your address? I only have one small bag of garbage I would like to drop off. Have you seen the size of your lawn? My one small bag shouldn't be a problem.
Re: (Score:3)
Put them on the drilling platform
There is no "drilling platform", they were drilling from an empty lot next to the beach.
They sleep in cots and work in shifts till its all cleaned up
Till what is cleaned up? The steel pipe that's 50' under the sea bed? And the inert water/clay mix that's around it? So your proposal is to backhoe out a 50' hole in the middle of the beach so they can pull a pipe out? Seems reasonable.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
There's a lot more than just a pipe. I love it when people select which parts of the fly tipping that matter to them. Either consider the lot or bog off.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Are you Psychotic, or just Sociopathic?
Re: (Score:2)
apparently you dont even know the fundamental difference between the two. It is as huge as black vs white.
Re: (Score:2)
If the difference weren't known there would be no need to ask. One option was missing though: you being the standard entitled asshole polluting my internet.
Re: Hey Facebook! Pick up your trash! (Score:2)
Awww did you have to sit up all night in mommys basement to think that one up all by your wittle bitty self?
FB needs to get smacked (Score:2)
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.
Typically spoiled brat (Score:2)
Breaks his toys and leaves them lying around for someone else to clean up after him. Smack that brat left and right.
So what? (Score:2)
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.
What is "Drilling Fluid"? (Score:3)
Re:What is "Drilling Fluid"? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: So what? (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
"Think of it as HUD for deep sea creatures."
Why would a deep sea creature need a Heads Up Display ?
Re: So what? (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
> drilling fluid
Tell me, what, exactly, do you know about its composition and toxicity?
Re: So what? (Score:2)
Currently, we know it's likely clay and water. But water ranges from ultra-pure mountain snowmelt to the chemical soup they pump up from aquifers around Silicon Valley.
There is, as you might guess, rather a big difference in toxicity.
I'm guessing relatively clean water, but that's expensive compared to toxic sludge water and companies cut costs. Unless someone says, it's anywhere in that range.
What they probably won't use is a saline solution, which means if it's a fragile and endangered ecosystem, a few th
This submission needs to be removed (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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].
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: This submission needs to be removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
> It's click bait locked behind a paywall,
Exactly this. Alarmist trash from a complete moron editor.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess every time a FB employee shits in the woods, it is "tech news" then?
Re: (Score:2)
The real trolls have modded you troll for trying to defuse their bomb. Oh meta mods where are you!?!
Re: (Score:2)
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)
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?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Hey FB, WTF? (Score:2)
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)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you realize how much environmental damage it would do to go dig it out?
Dig? That is what explosives are for!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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...
Re: (Score:2)
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
I feel their pain (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thou shalt have no bits before the Binary Digit.
Re:I feel their pain (Score:4, Funny)
Whats 5/32?
Where are the other 27?
Re: (Score:2)
They weren't needed and are still part of the original one.
-When playing stupid looks, well, stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a fraction. We don't use metric and we often use fractions here. But it's 0.185185185... if you're wondering.
Re: (Score:2)
5/32, perfect score!
Re: (Score:3)
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.
You need to sue the Face Frame manufacture for your loss...The mental anguish of knowing they got left behind OBVIOUSLY entities you to compensation.
Eh, doesn't look like it's about the environment (Score:3)
Re:Eh, doesn't look like it's about the environmen (Score:5, Insightful)
You think this never happens with other deep sea operations?
Oh I think it does. Including the waiting to tell regulators until it was too late to do anything expensive about it.
Facebook has issued a statement (Score:2)
writeup on directional drilling (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Nothing new (Score:2)
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.'
Simple! (Score:2)
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.
When your CEO is evil... (Score:2)
Then it is more than likely your company does a lot of evil things.
What if it wasn't Facebook but academic? (Score:2)
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
Re:Shocking! Well, not that shocking. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was curious, so I looked this up [wikipedia.org]. "Drilling fluid" of the type most likely used for this operation is clay suspended in water, along with a few other additives, and is relatively low toxicity stuff. It's environmentally regulated precisely for this reason.
So I wouldn't describe this as "god awful chemicals", and we're also talking about a small swimming pool's worth of fluid, compared to the volume of the local ocean environment. So essentially, what's left down there is a relatively small about of mostly steel, water, and clay, and it's sitting fifty feet below the surface of the ocean floor, rusting away for the next century or so to nothing.
Goodness knows I have no love for Facebook, but I can't ignore that this seems like fairly benign stuff. Everyone's gut reaction is outrage, because the narrative presented is that Facebook is 'littering' in the ocean, but I have a hard time seeing it that way.
Re: (Score:2)
> god awful chemicals
LOL.
Re: (Score:2)
And the irony of complaining about it on The Internet.