Terrebonne special athletes go for gold
September 21, 2010
Geraldine Spencer
September 23, 2010
BP might know how to clean oil off water.
But they don’t necessarily know the intricate waters along Louisiana’s coast.
And that became a problem in the early stages of oil spill cleanup, as currents and high winds tossed waves, and ultimately oil, over the traditional layers of boom placed on the water.
“It became obvious to us that the traditional technologies were not going to work in the passes,” Kenny Smith, the CEO of T. Baker Smith said in a video posted on BP’s website. “They are phenomenal in calm areas and low current areas, but when you get in those passes where it’s rough and where there’s current velocities, we were having very limited success with traditional technology.”
Locals Chet Morrison and Smith saw that and stepped in to help remedy the problem.
The two men partnered their businesses (Morrison Energy Group and T. Baker Smith) to jointly create a new system for containing oil called rigid pipe boom, which placed more sturdy pipes in the water instead of the traditional, more thin and flexible boom.
And throughout the cleanup, the project has yielded success in keeping the oil out of the worst place possible – the marshes.
“This is not a solution for every situation, but for passes that have rough seas and high winds and high current velocities, this is the answer,” Smith said. “This is the technology in my opinion.”
What makes up the project is “12-inch wall piles that are driven 40 to 60 feet below the seabed,” according to Morrison.
“The pipe is allowed to work freely within the tidal movements,” Morrison said on the BP video. “So it actually may vary anywhere from one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half feet in vertical movement. And underneath the boom, what we have is a curtain, much like a trampoline material that’s installed with a cable, and it’s seamed up to the pipe and works as a system, and the boom is actually a hosting mechanism.”
The idea for rigid pipe boom came into fruition when Morrison and Smith had a meeting of the minds following the oil spill.
The two were partnered together on previous projects and put their individual skill sets together to come up with a way to help in the oil spill cleanup.
“We got our heads together and went through a lot of different ideas,” Smith said. “And then Chet’s little light bulb went off in his head and said, ‘Hey, I’m good at laying pipe, I’ve got people that can lay pipe, and I can get my hands on pipe. What do you think about the idea of welding pipe together and floating it? Using it as a rigid boom system?’ … I heard that and said, ‘Man, what a wonderful idea. What great Cajun ingenuity.'”
So far through the oil spill cleanup, the boom technique has been used in several places to contain the spill, including in Perdido Pass in Alabama and in Pass Coup Able, seven miles east of Grand Isle.
And the method has had success, according to officials in Terrebonne Parish, who wanted it to be laid down throughout the parish as soon as the project begun.
“I saw it first hand and took a bunch of photos on it, and when it was first brought to the council I was a little, ‘Well I don’t know if this is going to work or not,’ but now that I get to see it in action in the pass on an incoming tide, it was pretty impressive,” Terrebonne Councilman Joey Cehan said. “This is to contain it and remove [the oil] all at the same time, which is a pretty impressive set up. [This system] can start protecting our coastline fairly quick.”
BP officials agreed and said they thank Morrison and Smith for their initiative in restoring normalcy on the Gulf Coast.
“It has been a work in progress, but we’ve adjusted that as we’ve went along,” This is something that we tried and we felt it would work, and so far, we’ve been real confident in it.”
Where the future of cleanup will go with less oil on the surface, no one knows, but rest assured Morrison, Smith and their fellow Louisianans will do their part when they can to keep our state oil-free and our way of life in tact.
“It was a great deal of satisfaction for our employees to be a part of a solution, instead of having to watch a problem,” Morrison said. “They felt that this is something that’s a part of protecting their home areas. These are the areas that we live and work in, and were born and raised in. Commercial fishing and recreational fishing and swimming and beaches and this ecosystem is our livelihood.”
A section of rigid pipe boom is deployed in the waters near Grand Isle to help contain oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The brainstorm of Chet Morrison and Kenny Smith, the rigid pipe boom is sturdier than traditional boom. BRYAN NEALY
