NORM’s Deepwater Horizon

From deep down from under the earth’s crust wherein oil men sink “completion” drill pipe along with pumping “mud” so the Mother Lode pimple doesn’t unexpectantly pop - a.k.a. kick - and cause havoc on the derrick deck, when that oil comes topside it is somewhat confined out of reach direct human intervention. Praytell the “mud-slinging” doesn’t get out of control, as then there would be another lame excuse for another Deepwater Horizon movie on the “horizon”. So confinement of the gusher is justified, as besides flammable it is a toxic soup concoction, keep out of reach the children! Normally it is not a problem, any direct contact consequences, as what happens in a pipe stays in a pipe. And that holds true along the way to a refinery and finally you pump your tank - it is a somewhat closed loop system as every drop counts, including the fumes! From a formation “pool” through drill string top-side pipe to a pipeline to a “cracking tower” then through a finished products pipeline, it remains hidden away and most people have no idea when “black gold” turns to “ever-clear” at twice the cost based on the octane/proof dissertation dissection. See, oil has a toxicity embedded in that hydrocarbon chain - from benzene and cyclo-hexanes and along for the ride a whole lot of man-made chemicals that are part of the process when exploiting to extract upon our fascination at a thirst for regurgitated dinosaur body fluids. But for a few of us, well sometimes our job requires interference with that “black monster” on a daily basis. I will take a guess, that if you had a hundred oil field workers present in a room with free donuts, maybe one individual would be able to say he or she actually smelled crude oil before the dipping-for-donuts began. And when there is free “fat pills” for a bunch of roustabouts, silence is golden as mouths are full. Talk about appetites! “Crude Oil”, it actually smells “sweet” and it looks rather interesting as it exists as an adulterated oil out of the ground, just don’t drink the water. And that is wherein the problem exists, “Oh, the water, let it run all over me, and it stoned me to my soul.” See, back in 1987 wherein the North Slope Alaskan oil trade was mature by 10-years, British Petroleum discovered that “radionuclide” residual was starting to become a problem at its Alaskan oil fields - in Prudhoe Bay. Why? Because when this radioactive stuff claims its victim through scale formation that which curtails the $bottom-line$, that is when man nor beast has to interfere and intervene - which means exposure risks for the janitor. And this was at or about the same time frame that many states of the Union were starting to see the same warning signs, a stage appearance of NORM “radionuclides” and authorities voicing a concern - what was the risk? NORM means Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. Yes, it is a “natural” fallout of drilling for “oil” where no man has drilled down before. But a concern on the horizon brewed a sense of kinship to the point that the American Petroleum Institute - which is the NRA of oil men - it sponsored a study to test all the major oil fields in the states and in Alaska, both onshore to offshore - except for Prudhoe Bay which at the time was the top producing oil field! Wonder why? Read on. Since my job on the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline required “daily” espionage on the “crude oil” delivered for transport south through the one-and-only 800-mile pipeline operated by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company - if anyone in harm’s way this “nuking” you’re listening to the guinea pig! It was already well known that oil field “scale” has an affinity to this radionuclide stuff - like a Thorium attraction. Being vigilant, we were always on the lookout for weird associations, but this scale and any “harm” it may pose through human contact, it was that out-of-sight and out-of-mind the precautionary mainstream. But as more and more oil which meant more and more water heading south, this “scale” was a migraine headache and growing. There appeared to be a common denominator, and it had to be in the percentage of water comingled with the oil - as not all that water from the formation could be separated up north as there was not the infrastructure to do so - it wasn’t designed that way. And with “water flooding” starting to charge the “formation” to squeeze out more valuable oil, that added to the carryover water problem. And my crew had become witness to this “scale” build up in 24-hours time, after cleaning the radioactive scale away from a critical device - same thing as if there was no end in sight to this “scale” addiction. But we were never warned about the risks, not that it was hidden away as Alyeska was very proactive with respect to keeping the workers out of harm’s way and when there was “harm” around that corner, taking every precaution with “mandatory” PPE protective clothing and equipment. We were trained to be safe! So then, everyday my crew would take to cleaning away this scale, a small amount at that as we were only concerned with the scale that formed on the “nozzle” of a critical piece of on-line test equipment - a Reid Vapor Pressure Analyzer. This test device was designed to constantly measure the incoming crude oil’s “vapor pressure” for a determination when entrained gas would come out of solution, when the pipeline pressure decreased through natural pressure reduction - from pipe friction and elevation changes. When gas comes out of solution, it can cause “column separation” and with that incipient cavitation which means internal pipe implosions that can cause a localized pipe vibration which is worse off then a pipe’s movement from an earthquake. A pipeline can be designed to move from a Richter shaker, but with a vibration the worst case is a node finding a natural frequency sustained and that means total destruction. There comes a point of exchange wherein the vibrations start to feed more and more energy until something breaks - like a pipe weld and then what? So this analyzer was very susceptible to “scale formation”, because there was a drastic pressure drop in the nozzle assembly that was supposed to act as a vortex to re-create the “vapor pressure” of the fluid stream - wherein it could be measured. It was a constant battle and the scale removal became a routine task day-in day-out 365-days a year. From the company “townies” that lived and worked in Anchorage, there came a directive to clean the nozzles each and everyday, so with several different producers sending oil for transport, that meant upwards 5-different devices and a good part of our work day for this maintenance. Out of curiosity, I started collecting the “scale” and one day something weird occurred. See, a malfunctioning “smoke detector” had been placed on my desk and powered up for testing, in close proximity to the “scale” container and was causing the “detector” to go crazy. Something being emitted from that “scale” was interfering with the “alpha” energy admitted from the detector’s on board “nuclear source”.  This immediately caught my attention, as the “scale bucket” was definitely causing interference with the normal course of events that such a “Fire Alarm” device works under - there were invading constraints! And move the source away, clear path to victory. Now the “nozzle” assembly that required this daily maintenance ritual, it was in a regime that saw a drastic pressure drop which was the foundation for this “scale” buildup - unlikely such “pressure changes” would ever be encountered along the pipeline which meant this “scale” phenomenon was a small problem and the reason it had never been dealt with as it was localized. Getting back to that thing about Alyeska caring about the safety of its work force - this NORM was “unregulated” so of all the things that were on the radar of concern, this was that one culprit - “You Betcha” thank you Sarah Palin and Alaskan style justice. OK, maybe Alaskan style jaundice! But this scale, the mechanism of formation was the “Produced Water”, comingled in with the oil. See, water comes out of solution very easily and since it carries along the Thorium and other radionuclide species, it is easy to see how this “water” can cause “scale” and so what, as most of the “comingled water” ended up in Valdez. That said, it was not a “big problem” for the workers - at least we thought that was the case time will tell - as only a handful of technicians came in direct contact with this radioactive substance on a routine basis. For the most part, this carry over product from oil development rested its journey in Valdez wherein it was allowed to settle out as “produced water” in one of the many humongous “crude oil” storage tanks. Then through a procedure called a “water draw”, thousands of gallons of “radionuclide laced water” went to the Ballast Water Treatment Plant wherein it was allowed to escape into the marine ecosystem. Yes, a “Big Gotcha” as there were no State or Federal jurisdictional regulations that prevented this stuff being thrown “overboard”. For the most part, it was a minor problem, except when such huge volumes of water and crude oil were at play like here in Alaska. So this “smoke detector”, it was proving something of interest and a fascination along with a concern and for a few weeks I tested the theory - that “scale” was bad business! I was the “Lead Technician” at Pump Station 1 responsible for the team that came in daily contact with this “scale” cleaning and when I complained about this “water scale” fiasco, I was fired…OK, all attempts with the carrot, like remain silent forever hold your peace or else you are doomed as this was Alaska wherein 85% of the state budget along with worker salaries came from - that oil patch. Make one wrong move and your career is toast. I was even bribed by a company Vice - being offered a cushion job as a “townie” and a pay increase above and beyond what I was taking home already. Sorry, NOT the man in this guy, to succumb to bending over. Matter of fact, when the “Big Oil” company HR people got together at their monthly luncheons, a “black list” was handed out and around along with the "smoked salmon" hors d'oeuvres. I was on that "hit list", and I still worked for the company the writing was on the bathroom stall wall! It stunk, but it was during a time that the company was going through a morphing, bad blood had infiltrated. I held my ground, but the management made it miserable for me and my family, at the time still collecting a paycheck and attempts at finding another job went without merit. See, everything in Alaska is tied to oil, except the military and that is wherein I finally ended up finding a job. And when I went under oath to tell what I knew about it all - damn that pen the investigator used was invisible ink and the  "invincible" recording sabotaged! And guess what, when Captain Joe crashed his EXXON Valdez into “Bligh Reef” and allowed that toxic crude oil to paint the Prince William Sound scenery “black & goo” - well any effect that years and years of radioactive fallout discharged into the “Sound” was but for now a moot point. And so the reason today we have scientists pulling their hair what effect that “Wreck” had as there are lingering symptoms that just don’t add up, as the entire background scene was destroyed. Blame it on the “oil” will forever be the hand played out, as if indeed there came a side-effect of that “radionuclide” fallout, then the blame finds many accomplices - including the State of Alaska. Today, the only target is EXXON because that "spill" ruined it all. And by now, the oil men up north have found a ways and means to limit the “produced water” that may be subject to an affinity with that Thorium crap - and today it is probably tamed and not a problem, except for 10-years before the “Wreck”. Of witness, it was a secretive wreck developing before our very own eyes. But no one cared because it was an out-of-sight out-of-mind experiment to see just how much glow the marine life could show off after consuming the radionuclides hors d'oeuvres and just attribute those waterborne "flashing beacons" to the Aurora Borealis. Damn, my smoke detector is going off!