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The Church of the Assumption in Franklin will hold its St. Joseph Altar and meatless spaghetti dinner Friday, March 15. There will be an 8:10 a.m. mass, 9 a.m. Tupa Tupa Rite, 10:30 a.m. Rosary in English and Blessing of the Tables, with lunch served 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All are invited. (Photo: Miguez Photography)

Like generals planning for the last war, oil company managers and government inspectors tend to believe that because they survived the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, they are ready for all contingencies. Today they are expanding drilling into deeper and deeper waters, and the Trump administration is opening more offshore areas to production.
In fact, however, the worst-case scenario for an oil spill catastrophe is not losing control of a single well, as occurred in the BP disaster. Much more damage would be done if one or more of the thousand or so production platforms that now blanket the Gulf of Mexico were destroyed without warning by a deep-sea mudslide.
Instead of one damaged wellhead, a mudslide would leave a tangled mess of pipes buried under a giant mass of sediments. It would be impossible to stop the discharge with caps or plugs, and there would be little hope of completing dozens of relief wells to stop discharge from damaged wells. Oil might flow for decades.
This scenario has already occurred, and we are seeing the results at a well off Louisiana, owned by Taylor Energy, that has been leaking oil since 2004. Based on this disaster and my 30 years of experience studying deep-sea oil and gas seeps, I believe that regulators and energy companies should be doing much more to prevent such catastrophes at other sites.
Underwater
avalanches
The mudslide that caused the Taylor Energy leak was not an isolated event. Many major features of the Gulf of Mexico’s continental slope – where the sea bottom descends from the continent’s outer edge down to the deep ocean floor – were formed when that slope failed. Their bathymetric contours show unmistakable signs of massive mudslides in the past.
Despite generations of oil production, the sedimentary strata of the northern Gulf of Mexico still harbor billions of barrels of oil. The modern, loose material that lies atop these rock layers is also susceptible to failure, which generates a phenomenon known as turbidity currents. These are massive avalanches of sliding material partly suspended in water, which can travel for miles with astonishing speed.
One of the most famous turbidity currents occurred in 1929 following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake centered near Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. The resulting slide displaced over 40 cubic miles of material, traveling at 50 miles per hour for up to 300 miles.
Drilling on
shaky ground
In 2004, storm surge and monster waves from Hurricane Ivan initiated the huge mudslide that destroyed the Taylor Energy platform, an aging facility called MC20A, located about 12 miles off the Mississippi River’s Birdfoot Delta.
Company engineers claim it had only three flowing wells before it was toppled. Its wells were equipped with subsurface safety valves that were reportedly closed off when the platform was evacuated ahead of the storm.
These valves apparently failed, because miles-long oil slicks have been seen on the waters above ever since the 2004 mudslide. Despite years of effort and expenditure of more than $230 million, oil is still flowing from beneath the legs of the downed platform at a magnitude I estimate to be at least 100 barrels per day. This event is the longest oil spill in U.S. history.
In deeper waters, modern platforms are specifically designed to resist hurricanes. However, earthquakes also occur in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The National Earthquake Information Center had recorded eight earthquakes in the region prior to 2009, with magnitudes ranging from 3.2 to 5.9. On May 6, 2018 a magnitude 4.6 event occurred at a depth of 6,500 feet.
Newer versions of subsurface safety valves on these platforms are intended to protect automatically against storms or ship collisions. Mudslides generated by earthquakes represent forces on an entirely different scale. Once a flow starts, it could travel for tens of miles, producing an unstoppable wave that would destroy whatever platforms and pipelines that lay in its path.
Modern deepwater oil and gas platforms dwarf Taylor Energy’s MC20A platform in every respect. They are located 100 miles or more from land in water 10 or 20 times deeper. Typically, platforms service a hub of pipelines and robotically controlled structures connecting scores of wells from other oilfields that can be 25 miles or more distant. They are designed for peak production rates of 100,000 to 200,000 barrels of oil per day.

Using platforms to monitor risk
How should planners prepare for this hazard? A 2007 Interior Department study analyzed the danger and proposed guidelines for assessing risks to platforms and pipelines, starting with studies to identify areas of steep or unstable bottom. The agency recently released a digital map of the northern Gulf of Mexico’s deeper waters that shows evidence of past mudslides with graphic realism. Slope failure and turbidity currents are truly part of the gulf’s nature.
Ironically, however, the map doesn’t cover areas closer to shore. Our most comprehensive survey of mud deposits offshore from the Mississippi Delta dates to the 1980s, but over the last 40 years development and dredging have accelerated sediment loss from the Mississippi Delta. This near-shore sediment load represents a looming risk, much like snowpack in avalanche country.
The Mississippi Delta region of the Gulf of Mexico is crisscrossed by hundreds of miles of oil pipelines and dozens of still-producing oil platforms. As the 2007 Interior Department study showed, these structures are at risk for hurricane-generated mudslides. Obtaining updated survey information using modern methods should be a top priority.
There are ways to assess risks in deeper areas as well, including zones such as the Atlantic coast.
Oil companies spend billions of dollars to install and operate offshore platforms, but typically resist requests to use their infrastructure for monitoring the marine environment. If they could be induced to cooperate, one option would be to install networks of ocean bottom seismometers to listen for earth movements that might signal risky instability. These systems could transmit data back to land over the platforms’ high-speed communication systems. Platforms could also be used to monitor the heat content of Gulf of Mexico waters.
In my view, U.S. regulators and energy companies have not paid enough attention to hidden vulnerabilities and long-term risks across our fossil fuel economy. But addressing this issue could produce real benefits. Conducting studies to identify unstable slopes will improve our understanding of the seabed. Monitoring for critical warning signs of storms will help coastal communities prepare. Better technology can make offshore infrastructure more durable, and informed regulation can make the offshore industry more vigilant. This would be the best-case scenario.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/underwater-mudslides-are-the-biggest-threat-t....

The town of Berwick is set to do much-needed repairs to some streets thanks to a nearly $600,000 state grant.

During Tuesday’s town council meeting, Angela Kraemer of Firmin Architects said that officials learned Monday that town government will receive $599,560 from a state Community Block Development Grant to be used to for road improvements. Town officials have agreed to pay for engineering and inspection fee costs of $84,142, grant administration costs of $35,000 and pre-agreement costs of $3,700.

Construction will include work on Fourth, Fifth, Francis, Texas and Ehrlich streets. Officials have to go through an environmental review process, which will take four to six months, before work can begin, Kraemer said. The grant is meant to be used for complete reconstruction of streets and not just patchwork, she said.

Officials applied for the grant under former Mayor Louis Ratcliff’s administration, and hope to be able to start construction with the grant funds by the end of the summer, Mayor Duval Arthur said.

Council members adopted a resolution to allow for the creation of a cultural district in Berwick. Such a district provides a sales tax exemption on the sale of certain original works of art, individual income tax credits for eligible expenses incurred during the rehabilitation of certain owner-occupied mixed use structures and income and corporate franchise tax credits for eligible expenses incurred during the rehabilitation of certain historic structures.

There are also other benefits, such as grants, businesses can get, Mayor Pro Tem Lud Henry said. Cultural districts don’t have as many regulations as historical districts in terms of restrictions on buildings, he said.

The proposed district takes in areas along 6th Street, Pacific Street, the railroad track, the riverfront , Fairview Drive and La. 182 around the civic complex, Henry said.

Town leaders are in the process of applying to establish a cultural district and still need approval from the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

Also at the meeting, the council introduced two proposed ordinances. The first ordinance would amend an ordinance regarding Berwick trash pickup, which mainly refers to tree branches not in garbage cans. The amended ordinance would require customers to cut tree branches to be no longer than 5 feet for pickup.

The second ordinance would require that political campaign signs be displayed not earlier than 60 days before an election and be removed within 30 days after an election.

The council approved changing the council’s monthly meeting time to 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. The change will go into effect for the April 9 meeting, and the council will still meet the second Tuesday of each month.

In other business, Public Works Director Rafael Lopez said Gilmore Street will remain closed for a drainage project until the end of March when traffic will be opened in one direction.

The council approved First United Pentecostal Church to hold an Easter Festival for local youth from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 20 under the U.S. 90 bridge between 1st and 2nd streets.

A 20-year-old Thibodaux man was caught Tuesday after leading authorities on a high-speed chase that reached a maximum speed of 130 mph, started in Lafayette Parish and ended in Berwick.

At 1:24 p.m. Tuesday, a trooper with state police Troop I attempted to stop a white Chevrolet Camaro on U.S. 90 east near milepost 116 in Lafayette Parish for speeding. The vehicle accelerated and a pursuit ensued, Troop I spokesman Thomas Gossen said in an email.

Authorities later identified the driver as Brennan C. Garman, 20, of Thibodaux, who was charged with aggravated flight, reckless operation, no insurance, passing on shoulder and disobeyed red light.

The vehicle traveled east on U.S. 90 through St. Martin, Iberia and St. Mary parishes. As the vehicle proceeded through St. Mary Parish, law enforcement personnel from several local agencies convened near the U.S. 90 bridge over Berwick Bay. Once the vehicle approached the bridge, the driver traveled east briefly in the west lanes before the driver stopped his vehicle and surrendered, Gossen said. The pursuit traveled a distance of roughly 60 miles, lasted 28 minutes and reached a maximum speed of 130 mph, he said.

Law enforcement officers deployed tire deflation devices on the suspect vehicle as it approached the bridge and successfully stopped the vehicle, Berwick Police Chief David Leonard Sr. said.