Drain Baby, Drain! Chevron Tanks Will Be Drained.
2 04 2009
This is very good news, indeed.
The 6.3 million gallons of crude oil that sits, as I type, between the pristine waters of Cook Inlet and Mt. Redoubt, an actively erupting volcano, will now be drained, if it can be done safely. The project is set to begin on Saturday according to Capt. Mark Hamilton of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Crews will have to be on hand at the terminal and platform to perform the operations. The facility was evacuated after Redoubt began erupting 10 days ago, but they’ve returned during the day when it’s been safe to do so. Pumps and the terminal’s power plant appear to operating normally, and the pipelines connecting it with the other facilities and the offshore shipping dock will be tested before loading operations begin, said Hamilton and Rod Ficken, vice president of Cook Inlet Pipeline Co., which owns the facility.
Deep thanks to all in Alaska, and out of state who contacted the powers that be with emails and phone calls. We never know exactly what effect we have, and sometimes we may feel like a drop in the bucket. But enough drops in a bucket can be a powerful thing. Just ask the 6.3 million gallons of oil sitting at the Drift River terminal.
And a huge thank you, and cheers to Cook Inletkeeper and its Executive Director Bob Shavelson who has been beating this drum for months. As an Alaskan, I feel better knowing that the eyes of that organization are on the Inlet, and out there doing their part to preserve the things that make it so amazing to live in this great land.
If you want to join Cook Inletkeeper, or drop them a little donation to say thank you, and enable them to continue their good work, you can find them HERE. I doubt this would have happened without them.
And best of luck and safety to those who will be engaged in the potentially dangerous process of draining these tanks. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 PM
O/T
I just saw this article on Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/media-gives-palins-strang_b_182295.html
Media Gives Palin’s Strange New Global Christianity a Pass (by: Bruce Wilson)
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Another O T
Gov Sanford from S. Carolina just caved in and accepted the Stimulus money before the Friday midnight deadline. (Huffpo)
What will GINO do…. what will GINO do…? Hmmm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/02/sanford-gives-in-on-stimu_n_182631.html
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 PM
Better late than never – but what a pathetic display of negligence that they left it until there was a great hue and cry from the public. Alaskaguy is absolutely right when he said:
17AlaskaGuy Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:43 PM
This has probably already been mentioned, but how about actual legislation that states if the volcano is at yellow alert equipment must be on hand to drain the tanks, and if it goes to red the tanks must be drained. It seems a no brainer of course, but it would have saved all of this back and forth, and inaction on behalf of our numbnuts Gov.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 PM
Look for MORE asinine political grandstanding…another dumb @$$ press release – full of excuses
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:41 PM
The House and the Senate have passed Obama’s budget.
All Rethugs voted no.
20 Dems no in House.
2 Dems no in Senate. (Senate vote 55-43)
Begich voted “Yes!”
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:44 PM
…press release on how she ‘had’ to take the money because thats the way the evil DC People are against her….
One thing about GINO, she ‘don’t’ mind using the State of Alaska web site to itch & moan about things/stuff that she’s gotten all emotional about…
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:49 PM
I’m just wondering how long it would take GINO to take credit for all of this and then post it on her website located next to her “All Me Photo Album”. Would be just like a GINO to do that.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 PM
I’ll be praying for you.
I’ll be praying nothing happens to prevent this in the next 24 hours.
I’ll be praying whoever doesn’t find an excuse to delay the draining.
I’ll be praying there is no spill or other incidence during the draining.
I’ll be praying that after the oil is on tankers, that those captains are sober and those ships are seaworthy.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 PM
I just went to Shannyn Moore’s page. There was no update. Wasn’t there supposed to be audio or video of her chasing Doogan in Juneau..? At least a little story…?
If it was video it could be put on YouTube… that would spread his shame.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:06 PM
honestyinGovNo Gravatar Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 PM
I just went to Shannyn Moore’s page. There was no update. Wasn’t there supposed to be audio or video of her chasing Doogan in Juneau..? At least a little story…?
If it was video it could be put on YouTube… that would spread his shame.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe she’s saving it for tomorrow?
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Please don’t shoot me, or yell at me. I’ve been emailing and calling people for days now about the Inlet and the environmental damage if that crude doesn’t get removed.
In answer to the questions asked by waxman… I pulled the specs (I do environmental and safety inspections so we have, or can get, specifications on most facilities) and the tanks hold a combined total of 130 Million Gallons when filled to “maximum” capacity, however it is rare for any storage facility to be allowed to become filled to “maximum” capacity.
While the tanks are “bottom drained” there is typically roughly 4 inches of crude left in the bottom of the tanks even when they are “empty” because of the way that they are piped. It would make more sense to make them so that they drained from the center of the bottom but the trade off is that they would cost more to build and we ALL know that for the petroleum industry it’s ALL about costs with very little common sense involved. (I have also long said that storage tanks should have 4 inches of gravel in the bottom of them… but hey I’m just the engineer… what do I know?)
As any first grader can tell you water weighs more than oil so if the “issue” for Chevron really IS wanting to have something in the tanks “in case” the worst happens, even though it would be an expensive proposition to scrub the tanks so that they could be used for crude again it makes FAR more sense from both an environmental and an economic standpoint to fill them with water than it does oil. In the first place IF that volcano starts spewing lava the LAST thing that you want in those tanks down the “hill” from it is combustible material. The environmental damage that leaving oil in the tanks would CAUSE far outstrips the cost of scrubbing the tanks so that they can be used again. In the second place, as I pointed out already, water weighs more than oil does and IF the issue is concerns over possible flooding then the reality is that the BEST choice for “ballast” to hopefully prevent the tanks from moving really IS water… unless of course they prefer filling them with cement or rocks.
A final note… I am far more tickled than you can imagine that the oil is, for the most part, being removed to a safer location. I may be a petroleum engineer but my JOB hinges on my ability to tell oil companies “NO” and stick to that “NO” until they mitigate the possible damage to the environment. I’m uniquely qualified for the job… I’m a MOM and I graduated top of my class at “mean mom school” so I KNOW how to say “NO” and mean it.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:16 PM
OT:Sevants 4 pee want all the minion to vote for Beigh be recalled~
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/category.asp?C=81466#poll82200
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:36 PM
Can’t wait for that to be national news cw aka caligrl
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 PM
caligrl…. thanks for the KTUU link. I browsed some of the stories there.
One points out the 6 blunders GINO has has this week.
Her response was she thought she had a ‘good ‘ week. Does she make and drink her own moonshine in the basement…? How many disasters or News reports does GINO need to make it a bad week.
If somebody (unmarried )in the family got pregnant… it would still be a good week.
BTW… is caligrl still in CA…?… ..I’m here in SacTown… with the Terminator
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:57 PM
I wish I could be as optimistic as AKM – I am not. There are too many inconsistencies in the reports that are being issued (something is not right). Here are a few points to consider:
How much will be left after the tanks are “drawn down?” What’s in the tanks has not been reported and there is little information about their contents available to the public. It has been reported that keeping oil in the tanks, about 1.6 million gallons (the ballast argument used by the Coast Guard), presumably in 2 tanks (nobody has really said0 would keep them from floating away (Katrina was the example the “joint task force used.) Some reports have claimed that because of the location of the “valves” the tanks can’t be drained below the 6 foot mark and it might be too dangerous to remove the rest. But there is, according to Alaska DEC at least one empty and dirty tank at Drift River that nobody is talking about and APRN after the March 31 press conference failed to mention what’s up with two of the tanks – APRN’s report ignored, missed, lost, whatever, 30% of the capacity at Drift River . Other news sources have reported that all of the tanks are clean and scrubbed – but of course that is at odds with reports from DEC. The reports issued by the Joint Task Force fail to mention the status of the tanks at Drift River thought they do go on in great detail about lots of other stuff . Early reports about Drift River suggested that by keeping oil in the tanks (the ballast argument) Chevron could start up the facility much quicker – I assume this is because the won’t have to bleed the pipeline. Oh, and speaking of the pipeline – I think it’s 42 miles long and filled with oil, it has gotten little public attention. AKM – I hope like hell your optimism outweighs my pessimism; but then history is on my side, not yours. I’ll try to update the links at http://www.ptarmigannest.net later tonight.
When this is all over, it is imperative to investigate how it was allowed to happen, and to point fingers at those who saddled up with Chevron. Chevron, the oil pipeline folks and their supporters have tried to use the issue of protecting workers in their propaganda. The realty is that Chevron, by not shutting down Drift River when Redoubt became active is endangering the lives of all the folks who must now work on getting the oil out of the tanks. It’s classic propaganda from the oil companies. Had Chevron shut down the facility early on, before Redoubt blew on the 22 the risk to workers would have been much, much lower – don’t let a big corporation pull the wool over your eyes.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 PM
I’ll try to update my links at http://www.ptarmigannest.net/?p=1324 later tonight.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 PM
OOps, sorry for 2 postings – the spam filter said I had been denied. Guess the spam filter lied.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 PM
honestyinGov…maybe she found a new coffee buddy?
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 PM
CitykId said –
OOps, sorry for 2 postings – the spam filter said I had been denied. Guess the spam filter lied.
No, it didn’t lie. You were in there. I pulled you out.
If you end up in there, please don’t post it a second time – we will pull you out when we spot you in there.
http://www.themudflats.net/faq/
I was about to delete the second one but the phone rang, I reloaded the page once I got off the phone and I saw your new comment. Normally the second post won’t be on the page very long, sorry!
The reason we have to pull the comment out and delete it is, if we delete you while you’re in the spam bin, you’ll keep ending up back in there – I will delete it now to keep the comments area neat.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 PM
Thanks Snoskred – what about all the links I had in the original post; they all vanished?
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:49 PM
I only saw one link in there? If you have more links, try posting them one at a time in separate comments, more than one link will usually put you in the spam bin..
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 PM
OK, I’ll start with the link to the “Joint Task Force.” This is the group that is tasked with drawing down the tanks. It’s worth noting that all of the agencies and corporations that are members of the “Joint Task Force” represent entities that could have called for the Drift River OIL Terminal (they like to call it the Drift River Facility) to be drained when Redoubt “woke up.” The task force issues new reports at about 1600 daily. Their reports sometime contain new information, but you’ve got to look for it. The task force reports have yet to report any detail on what the status of individual tanks is – so I suspect that this website is primarily for public consumption. So is the fox in the chicken coup?
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/response/sum_fy09/090324201/090324201_index.htm
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 PM
What a dangerous job! Hope everything will go well and the tanks are emptied properly, as the Engineer suggests. I´ll try not to think about why this did not happen weeks ago FOR NOW.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:29 PM
More links:
Here’s the link to the letter from several AK State Reps (you’ll recognize all of the names) sent to DEC and Fish and Game on Friday, March 27:
http://www.ptarmigannest.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/3-27-09-to-dec-and-fg-re-drift-river.pdf
and here is the response, later in the day from DEC. DECs response BTW contains the only mention I’ve seen regarding the status of individual tanks (aside from a newspaper/blog story that claimed 2 tanks contained oil and the rest were clean and empty):
http://www.ptarmigannest.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/090328_dec.txt
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 PM
and more….
Here’s a link to the APRN story (commentator Lori Townsend and reporter Annie Feidt) that I mentioned in my original comment. The story was, I assume, gathered in part at the first press conference held by the “Joint Task Force,” earlier the same day at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) in the day just up the hill from the APRN studios on the Alaska Pacific University campus (APU). The story mentions only 5 of the 7 tanks at the Drift River Oil Terminal and thus ignores 30% of Drift Rivers’ capacity – APRN is aware of the omission, but has not issued any clarifications or corrections to the story.
http://aprn.org/2009/03/31/plan-to-remove-oil-from-tanks-near-mount-redoubt/
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 PM
CityKid: thanks for the link(s), I’m looking forward to your updates. I learn so much here in Mudflats. It would take me weeks to research what pops up on the blog daily. And find myself checking in here often to get the latest info on so many things that I would never find else where, or that would take me months to figure out.
AKM thanks for hanging in here and thanks to all the loyal commenters, the behind the curtain (web) crew and Snoskred for pulling it all together for us.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 PM
OK – that’s it for now. Off to my nest. I apologize for all the “raw source” stuff, but I think it’s important AND where the power of The Internet lies. I remember watching a documentary film about I.F. Stone many years ago. Stone gleaned most of the material for his now famous news letters and reports from the main stream press (salted I suspect with bits and pieces from inside sources that contradicted the main stream press.) good luck to us all.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 AM
I hate to say “I told you so” but Palin isn’t taking Grussendorf lying down
http://www.adn.com/news/politics/aksenate/story/746578.html
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 AM
Good grief!! Aussie Blue Sky.
She is quite the little tin pot dictator isn’t she. Surely she cannot get away with this atrocious behaviour?
Have the dems no power in Alaska?
GINO and WAR think they have it all sewn up!
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:09 AM
I see on CNN they are only going to drain 75% of the oil.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/03/alaska.volcano.oil.tanks/index.html .
?
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:11 AM
I was about to relax until I saw Citykld’s post… now I’m still in worry mode.
Then I realized Palin will be there with Samaritan Purse, a batch of cookies, and a doting press team soon to make all the nastybad stuff go away!
But seriously, better to be informed than not. Thanks for the good work, Citykld!
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:22 AM
The image at the top of AKM’s post tells a lot about the physical setting. Zooming in on Google tells even more – any fool who’s played with meandering rivulets enough to understand, on a small scale, the evolving nature of braided rivers, could see the stupidity of the tank farm location! It sits between the current channel and several old ones, which makes it higher ground, relatively speaking – It must be…5 or 10 feet above the river, or at least it was before the last load of debris. On http://www.mapper.acme.com’s USGS maps you can see how close the tanks are to the river (just like in the photos).
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:28 AM
honestyinGovNo Gravatar Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 PM
caligrl…. thanks for the KTUU link. I browsed some of the stories there.
One points out the 6 blunders GINO has has this week.
Her response was she thought she had a ‘good ‘ week. Does she make and drink her own moonshine in the basement…? How many disasters or News reports does GINO need to make it a bad week.
If somebody (unmarried )in the family got pregnant… it would still be a good week.
BTW… is caligrl still in CA…?… ..I’m here in SacTown… with the Terminator
~~~~~~~~~~
((waves Hi!}} Yes in Cali by SFO…
I think she’s on worse than moonshine! JMO of course
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 AM
I feel strange giving a “good on ya mate” for doing what should have been done
in the first place but what the heck! We are living in strange times indeed.
Hello Chevron? You might want to rethink the location of your tank farm.
Erupting volcanoes are usually a bad thing. Just sayin’.
DD
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Seems crazy to store oil that close to an active volcano!
April 4th, 2009 at 6:25 AM
When I’d first heard of these crude oil storage tanks, I thought to myself: “They got what? Where? Are they stupid or something?”
(admittedly I have not researched this)
I am curious just who is the brilliant soul that thought putting millions of gallons of crude at the base of an active volcano was a really good idea in the first place? My second question is this: Once Redoubt settles down, as most volcanoes usually do, are they going to put the crude back at the base of an active, living volcano?
April 4th, 2009 at 9:04 AM
daMamma…
back in the early 70s when the facilities were built there was an oil embargo and as a result of that embargo and the resulting gas shortages (mostly manufactured) there was a rush to “decrease our dependence on foreign oil” (sound familiar? ) by drilling in Alaska and placing storage facilities in places where they were “accessible” to tankers coming to collect said oil. There were NO environmental impact studies done mainly because they weren’t required back then and the facilities were placed “willy-nilly” wherever there was access with little cost to the oil companies.
THAT is how the storage facility got built at the base of Mount Redoubt.
I am far less certain why the facility wasn’t moved in the 1990s when Redoubt blew the last time… most likely because the danger was thought to be “minimal” and that people really wouldn’t complain too much about the possible extremely negative effects of leaving it there. Whether or not Chevron will move it is anyone’s guess but there are those of us in the business who are working to get them to move it to a more safe location and to use a different design of storage facility which doesn’t leave so much crude in the tanks. Whether we will be successful in the endeavor or not remains to be seen. HOPEFULLY this time around Chevron pulls their collective craniums out of their collective rectums and MOVES the facility to a safer location with a safer design.
April 4th, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Curious to find what other SP sites are saying, I did the following search results for palin websites:
Results 1 – 10 of about 7,380,000 for palin websites. (0.18 seconds)
WOW! But my favorite line was this one right under the results:
“Did you mean: plain websites”
April 5th, 2009 at 3:45 AM
[...] have sought to shine light on Chevron’s lack of due diligence now think the problem has been solved. Would we be better off with an oil spill into The Inlet of six-million gallons or three-million [...]