healtheocean
By Heal the Ocean
With the encouragement of Senator Monique Limón (D-19), guidance from the California State Lands Commission (CSLC),and funding from a long-time supporter of Heal the Ocean (HTO), HTO has contracted Bubbleology Research International (BRI), whose principal investigator, Ira Leifer, will lead the Summerland Oil Mitigation Study (SOMS) to produce a comprehensive geologic analysis of the ocean floor beneath the leaking oil wells off Summerland.
Dr. Leifer, working with HTO Program Director Harry Rabin, will begin the geologic survey just as 2H Offshore (formerly Interact) will commence the CSLC capping of Treadwell 1 & 5 wells, with assistance for permits from Beacon-West, on Monday, August 14. The funding for this project comes from the SB 44 (Hannah-Beth Jackson) Legacy Well Re-Abandonment program. The Curtin Maritime barge is scheduled to mobilize from Long Beach on August 13 and will arrive at the offshore Summerland location on the morning of Monday, August 14, 2023.
Rabin will operate Heal the Ocean’s new high-tech Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV), an underwater scientific tethered vehicle capable of reaching ocean depths of 200 meters (650 ft). The ROV includes accessories such as Water Column and Sediment samplers, USBL (GPS navigation), and multi-Beam Sonar for precise measurement, allowing the establishment of target objects such as submerged wellheads.
Dr. Leifer aims to uncover what lies beneath the sand and investigate the locations where oil seeps and leaks occur repeatedly. The objective is todetermine a logical and efficient approach to the re-abandonment of legacy wells. It is suspected that when one well is capped, oil is redirected to the next path of least resistance.
CSLC has desired such a study, however budget constraints have prevented its realization. Leifer’s reputation is well established with the CSLC which has indicated that Leifer’s firm, BRI, would be at the “top of the list” if CSLC were to initiate a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a geologic study encompassing both the Summerland nearshore and ocean floor.
According to Heal the Ocean’s Executive Director Hillary Hauser, the immediate initiation of the SOMS study offers several advantages:
- The SOMS study will give the CSLC an accessible interactive map for immediate use;
- The SOMS study will become an integral part of the legislative budget discussion regarding the extension of SB 44 funding, which is soon to require renewal. Alternatively, it could facilitate the introduction of a new Senate Bill as a funding mechanism to sustain Summerland oil cleanup efforts;
- Where SB 44 funding was allocated at the rate of $2 Million per year, the SOMS study will support a lobbying effort aimed at increasing the distribution of the SB 44 funds to $3 Million per year. Thus far, CSLC has been straddling two budget years to accumulate $4 Million for well capping. Combining two budget years (of $3 million a year) to amass $6 Million could potentially secure enough funding for the deployment of a jackup drilling rig. This would address a greater lineup of wells identified in Leifer’s SOMS map, allowing a more efficient strategy to this re-abandonment project;
- The really good news: CSLC has agreed to review the SOMS study upon its completion.
Furthermore, Dr. Leifer and Harry Rabin have co-authored a paper/abstract that has been accepted for accreditation and peer review by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a 501c3 nonprofit organization consisting of earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists.
The re-abandonment process for legacy wells Treadwell 1 & 5 is expected to take place over a 10-12 day period.
There’s definitely been a fair amount of surface slick (oil) around the Padaro-Carp area the last few years. It comes and goes, but sometimes it’s pretty bad. I don’t remember seeing much oil ever in that particular area in decades past. Seems like it’s worth a look.
Oil companies need to seal their wells….all of them…Pronto. I will assume that there is some sort of decommissioning trust with the money to do this. If not, as a goodwill gesture, our local oil companies and mational companies must step up to the plate and fork out the dollars to fix the leaks. Interesting that the local enviro groups are more interested in the fund$ to administer and “study,” but not in the fixin’.
6:13, have you ever read ANY of the posts on edhat by Heal the Ocean?!
You can get a list of them by searching in a browser for “edhat heal the ocean summerland”
Or take a look at their site re: Summerland beach: https://www.healtheocean.org/ourwork/summerlandoil
Huh? Sure. So are you saying they shouldn’t undertake this study? Bottom line is there’s a lot of seepage happening out there. The areas off Goleta Beach, More Mesa and the Mesa have had – observationally – way more oil on the surface the past couple years than in decades past. Who knows why…hence the study.
You shoul try using the reply button instead of making a disconnected thread.
There already was a study of the channel seeps undertaken by UCSB Marine Science. Perhaps you should look into that. It showed no net change in seepage. The Summerland leaks are another matter entirely, and should be studied to find out how to squelch them.
7:44 was implying that the cessation of oil production increased seepage. That’s false, but shows the same confirmation bias as other posts by him and by you. Armchair expertise doesn’t cut it.
No, in fact I WAS replying to you – and my comment is directly below yours. I think it’s straightforward. Re: UCSB study, thanks that’s good to know. Yea, I agree that was his/her implication. Reread my post, it’s on observation not an assertion. You took my comment and made something different out of it on your own, that’s all. No one’s trying to be an armchair expert here from what I can tell.
Nope, You didn’t successfully reply with that comment, nor with this one. Try harder. There’s a little button that says “Reply”. Straightforward, for most.
B.S…..fo… No I won’t use “Reply”! nor will I address WHOM I’m responding too?
Alright, you win…whatever dude.
It’s all right. Alright isn’t a word. That was neither English nor a reply. Just polluting the threads with dreck, as usual, much as the oil seeps do to the beaches.
Kendrick Lamar – Alright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY
On a serious note, though, Basic, it’s obviously extremely important to you that you express an opinion on just about everything on Edhat, and your inability or bizarre opposition to using the reply button makes it even harder than it already is to make sense of what you’re trying to say.
Why not use the reply button?
In other words: Poor English usage.
all right or alright?: Usage Guide
Although the spelling alright is more than a century and a half old, some critics have insisted alright is all wrong. Nevertheless, it has its defenders and its users, who perhaps have been influenced by analogy with altogether and already. Alright is less common than all right but is frequently found in informal writing and fictional dialogue.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alright
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/all-right-or-alright-which-is-correct
I used to go to Summerland Beach all the time, it was my little getaway from SB when it got too crowded. Last time I went, there was so much oil toxicity in the water that my eyes burned! There were noxious fumes! It felt like poisoned water. Profoundly sad and disturbing.
I just noticed the less drilling that is done the worse the oil seepage is. Hendrys beach has a daily oil on the beach blog.
Yes, when you discover your confirmation bias has led you to an erroneous conclusion, and look into why.
What you noticed is called confirmation bias. It’s sometimes curable.
Maybe so, but observations are also where scientific study originates.
I do use it. And for whatever reason – maybe it’s my iPad, I don’t get it – that’s how it comes out. What can I say?
Operator error is the technical term.