Alyeska Pipeline Service Company - King Kong of UNION Busting

How Alyeska keeps the UNION busting guns loaded:

* Valdez UNION Drive #1 - Timeline To Defeat *

January 19^th & 23^rd of 1979: Though a “Direction of Election” mandated by the National Labor Relations Board, the Valdez Marine Terminal(VMT) Instrument & Electrical workers vote for a UNION, a unanimous decision with a final tally of 22-YEAS and 5-NAYS. An overwhelming victory for the UNION and IBEW Local 1547.

Alyeska, in objection, timely appealed that election’s outcome and that request was turned down by the NLRB’s Region 19 Director, in “opine” that the IBEW did not engage in any interference of a worker’s rights those not interested to be represented by “organized labor” and the tactics at the organizing meetings was normal bargaining unit “puff” so harmless, therefore the election results “stayed” and certified as legitimate. It was another Alaskan “We’re In” for the workers, sick and tired of drunk tanker crews interfering with the work at the Marine Terminal loading berths.

Alyeska, again in objection, timely appealed that decision, this time to the newly seated NLRB Chairman, a recess appointee of Ronald Reagan the incoming U.S. President - thus using that tactic to delay the appeal process until such time it was to Alyeska’s advantage the outcome demanded, to set aside the election.

April 12^th, 1982: Alyeska wins the 2^nd appeal with the Board, in spite of the Reginal Directors call upon the legitimacy of the UNION vote by the workers for the workers, as the Reagan appointee - who could not even get U.S. Senate confirmation with a republican majority due a record of Union busting - the Chairman issues an “opine” that the IBEW engaged in unlawful promises akin to a “fist inside the velvet glove”, thereby setting aside the election results and directs another election. 3-years had past since the original vote awarded the workers a UNION, and in that time "puff" morphed to that "fist", as it now turned to a political agenda, KILL the UNION & KILL the MESSENGER! Alyeska in earnest then starts to break up the VMT I&E rank and file and soon all workers in Valdez reclassified as “Technicians”, the conquer by divide and there is not enough interest in a UNION with the operators and mechanics as the IBEW does not represent all trades, so no interest can be found for a majority vote to UNIONIZE and Alyeska targets the “vocal UNION supporters”.

* Valdez UNION Drive #2 - Timeline To Defeat *

December 10^th, 2004: With enough interest to attempt an “organized labor” in UNION effort once again, the NLRB is sanctioned by the PACE(Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers) Local 8-0369, an affiliate of the United Steel Workers Local 4959-AFL-CIO, to allow for an election based on the single-facility unit, as the “public utility” presumption is not applicable. The former includes the VMT Technicians only, the latter the entire pipeline’s technician headcount. The Region 19 Director calls for the “Direction of Election”, for the VMT Technicians as a single-facility bargaining unit, 163 employees eligible to cast a vote FOR or AGAINST the Union, in this case a labor organization more friendly to all trades and very likely to succeed in the majority a vote for the UNION.

December 22^nd, 2004: Alyeska files a motion for dismissal any election under the “Public Utility Status” for a system-wide presumption(entire pipeline not just VMT Technicians or a head-count of 327 vs. 163) over the single-facility unit, an election already authorized by the Region 19 Director.

February 9^th, 2005: Alyeska’s motion denied, Region 19 Director calling the single-facility unit appropriate and the "system-wide public utility" presumption not applicable. A win for the UNION and the election will go on for the VMT Technicians only.

February 22^nd, 2005: Alyeska requests “Board Review” of Region 19 Director's denial of motion.

April 6^th, 2005: NLRB Board grants Alyeska’s request for a review.

September 29^th, 2006: Again using the delay of the Board, the NLRB now under a Bush appointee, the Chairman remands the Region 19 Director’s “opine” in favor of Alyeska’s “Public Utility” presumption. One Board member files a dissent(see opine below, under What It All Means?).

October 31^st, 2006: Region 19 Director issues “Direction of Election”, wherein the 2-member Board’s overruling decision that the “system-wide public utility” is presumed with the election covering all 327 Alyeska Technicians, not just the 163 VMT workers. The pipeline has no interest in a Union, so the drive fails. 

~~~~~ 

*What It All Means? Is Alyeska for real, to think it is a “Public Utility”?

Black’s Law Dictionary defines “public utility” as “a privately owned and operated business whose service are so essential to the general public as to justify the grant of special franchises for the use of public property or of the right of eminent domain, in consideration of which the owners must serve all persons who apply, without discrimination. It is always a virtual monopoly.” Additionally, the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 247(b)(1) defines a “public utility” as “a corporation engaged in the furnishing of telephone services or in the sale of electrical energy, gas, or water, if the rates for such furnishing or sale, as the case may be, have been established or approved by a State or political subdivision thereof or by an agency or instrumentality of the United States or by a public utility or public service commission.”

NLRB Board member Walsh’s dissenting “opine” why Alyeska failed the litmus test: “The Employer failed to cite and I am not aware of any case in which the Board has recognized a crude oil company or a crude oil pipeline as a “public utility.” The Employer is asking me to extend the public utility presumption beyond the current state of Board law to a common carrier crude oil pipeline.

I do not find the traditional public utility presumption applies to a crude oil pipeline where the users and direct benefactors of the pipeline are commercial entities and not the general public in any direct manner. In cases where the Board has extended the presumption, those employers exclusively provided a vital or essential service directly to the public. Here, however, TAPS only moves crude oil from one place to another for the benefit of a few commercial customers. Moreover, the Employer in this case is not the owner of the pipeline, but rather the service company charged with operating and maintaining TAPS. Unlike the cases in which the Board applied the presumption, TAPS’s product is a least three steps removed from the general public. At best, TAPS has an indirect, aggregate effect on the public’s consumption of oil as a fuel source. TAPS only transports about 20% of the Nation’s domestic oil and presumably far less than 20% of the nation’s overall oil consumption.

My decision that the VMT technicians constitute an appropriate unit is based upon a rejection of the argument That TAPS is a public utility under Board law. There is sufficient evidence to support a conclusion that the VMT technicians constitute an appropriate unit under the Board's single-facility presumption. 'However, if TAPS were a • public utility under Board law, I would conclude differently; namely that a systemwide unit of technicians would be the only appropriate unit under the Board's systemwide unit presumption for public utilities. While there are limited exceptions to the systemwide presumption, the facts here would not be sufficiently compelling to overcome the Board's strong presumption for a systemwide unit if TAPS wete a public utility.

In sum, I am declining to extend the public utility presumption to a crude oil pipeline for the reasons stated above and particularly because the Board has never extended the presumption to such an industry.

And herein is the rest of the story. Imagine if all the $loot$ spent by Alyeska for expensive “UNION” busting, had that cash flowed in a different direction, say to put  a halt to “I Abuse Alcohol” tanker captains - wow, maybe that EXXON Valdez would have never had a chance? And this last reach, this “Public Utility” jurisdiction that crashed a second attempt for the VMT workers to get protection from “organized labor”, it is very Un-Patriotic that a lawyer or law firm would even think of such a proposition - it’s Un-American but who cares, as “$Greed$” covers those “flag burning” risks. Now with the trickle-sown, the Owner Companies that “Own” Alyeska would or could find an unbelievable “Tax Incentive Advantage” by claiming that “Public Utility” status, for the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline segment of their business enterprise. Who does it hurt? Well the U.S. Taxpayers for one, as it ain’t a “Public Utility” by any stretch of Uncle Sam’s IMAGINATION maybe fascination! And if so, that the “Owner Companies” take advantage of that “Public Utility” designation, as that is what the NLRB said it was, then one would think that the royalty share of oil owned by the citizens of Alaska would see a lion’s share of any tax benefit. Say in the “what goes around comes around” contracts to purchase that oil and added tariffs to ship that oil, hey if “Big Oil” sees a discount, so should the citizens! But I really doubt it, and every damn citizen of Alaska should realize this point blanker, when the workers are attacked by efforts to circumcise any UNION interests, so is that PFD being robbed, as that is wherein any savings behind this “public utility” would find a sharing agreement. Think about that the next time the governor signs them yearly bonus checks, as someone is getting robbed! And if still puzzled, just look in the damn mirror, mirror on the haul who’s the stupidest of them all! Sad, that one man, as an appointee to a sitting U.S. President can yield so much disrespect the workers that keep this nation safe, and a company like Alyeska understanding how it can use that “soul” for its own disrespect, as it appears that respect no longer exists and wasn’t there once upon a time in “My Country ‘Tis of Thee - Sweet Land of Liberty” a law against “double jeopardy”? Ask an Alyeska executive how to spell “respect”, it will start with “DIS”, end of story!

Hey NORM - How’s Life in Alaska?

And while I am at it, Dear Uncle Al, how many times did you check to see if the pipeline workers on your payroll were in the general vicinity of Mr. NORM, you know or should know all aboard all about that Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material? Sounds ugly and nasty, Hazardous Duty Pay? I mean, I mean it, your fucking executive cowards spend all kinds of loot throwing roadblocks up to every damn attempt the workers try to bargain for organized labor - for real, what happened to honesty the best policy as Alyeska now considered a “Public Utility” for purposes of a single-facility unit? To forever STOP a UNION? Fucking sick, more like “Public Enemy #1” and anybody associated with Alyeska’s executive and or management ranks that thought that was a Make America Great Again idea, our Founding Fathers had a definition of your destructive mindset, it is spelled TREASON. Despicable, that some never learned the pledge of our allegiance and just because you draft an honorable Coast Guard Vice-Admiral as the “Boss Hog” then dishonor his once allegiance because he knows not the difference never before engaged in the private sector, it's more TREASON by TURNCOATS! Workers in America once-upon-a-time had the right to that “UNION”, and Alyeska’s “corporate crap” has single-handedly re-written the charter that “right” and with high powered lawyers, as I stated it is TREASON! How Alyeska went classified a “Public Utility” in efforts to avoid a “Union”, it is NOT such an entity and I guess the same judges this comedy show so sad, the same ones that make the decision for that awarding of that “Most Ethical” crap in hoax your pathetic existence! And like I have voiced time and time again, when you waste money going after the dedicated workers that are only trying to do things right, only trying to promote a safe work environment and help make not break a “once” ethical company name they can trust, that money is wasted fighting the workers’  righteousness. So, is that executive bonus for wreaking the “Union” worth it - as that buys your Un-American Un-Patriotic acknowledgment and that TREASON reason keeps on giving and too bad Woody Guthrie was not still with us, as he would have strolled up and down Bragaw in protest and I would be right there with him. He is with us in spirit, it resonates so in protest your pathetic ways and means.

So remember this factoid, when you 5th Floor Bragaw “ass kissers” and brats-in-heat trying to please no-one but yourselves were so busy thinking up clever ways to break the “UNION”, well human “shit” was at the starting gate and introduced into the pipeline in a “boys will be girls” experiment, so was NORM as that was discovered by British Petroleum in the late 80s. Long time ago, and like a good wine NORM gets better with age! So if it were discovered “late”, it started in earnest Pipeline Dynamics 101, like with “Oil In” in 1977. OK, benefit of doubt, it became a problem in 1980 when pipeline “throughput” was up against the wall you Mother Fuckers. And we tried, so hard to tear down that wall! To revisit, “The presence of NORM containing scale has been known on the North Slope since the late 1980’s. This scale has been found on the inner walls of pipe, valves and vessels. Monitoring programs began at that time to determine the extent of NORM in the oil field and the potential for worker exposure. Scale is deposited very gradually on the inside of pipe walls as oil and water flow through it. Scale formation can take years to occur. Regarding your question concerning your right to know, BPXA’s NORM management practices have minimized the number of workers with potential for exposure to NORM, and therefore limited the number of workers who need NORM awareness training. These workers survey piping and equipment and if it exceeds the action level, an HSE advisor is notified and the equipment is marked, sealed, and removed to a specifically designated area on a cold storage pad…in combination with a rigorous NORM management process, assures that exposures are extremely low for workers with the potential to contact NORM.” as explained through personal correspondence from Ross Klie, BP Exploration Health, Safety & Environmental Manager as CC’d to Richard Campbell, Reginal President BPXA. A letter this Alyeska worker received, because mention NORM around Alyeska’s experts, they laugh and say it was a great show Mr. Peterson cheers? Dear Alyeska management, ever think about a rigorous program for your own workers safety, instead of your classic “Trust Us”! I talked to a homeless guy the other day, said he stopped going to Bean’s Café for a handout because Alyeska had volunteer cooks helping out, following Joe Hazelwood’s recipe for disaster?

So also remember, “shit” flows downhill and anything in NORM “fusion” fashion that escapes the upstreamers up in Prudhoe Bay, it finds its way to Pump Station #1 for safekeeping, that Mile-Post 0, and then a journey south to Valdez. So British Petroleum acknowledged this NORM activity. And everytime that United Steel Worker mechanic’s wrench unbolts a pressure vessel at a BP Gathering Station’s processing train, or removes a piece of pipe to a valve, that NORM “scale” gets dislodged and guess where it would eventually end up? Yours truly as those processing centers are but for a few miles away by a trunk pipeline that delivers its bounty to the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. But low and behold, rest assured those BP “Union” workers are protected, the reason the Valdez workers wanted in that “organized labor” back in 1979, for protection against a fucked-up management that did not give a rat’s ass. Don’t count on my witness this radioactive problem, as the 2002 “Renewal of the Federal Grant for the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline-System Right-of-Way”, it is quoted: “Scale can also form on equipment at the Gathering Facilities and the scale that forms will exhibit radioactive properties”. Nobody reads this stuff, Appendix C, p-42, until it is too late. But not to worry, as Alyeska is so regimented in regulation due outside oversight every which way but loose, that’s it as that NORM never gets “outside” its intended distribution chain, remaining totally confined within that pipe 800-miles long. So whatever breaks away from those Gathering Centers or Flow Stations in the form of scale and christened by NORM, it doesn’t harm a single soul. Ok, maybe a handful come in contact with that NORM character, like Howie the lab guy, cheers! And it ain’t regulated, as the same ROW renewal is specific that nobody gives a rat’s ass: “NORM wastes are excluded from regulation. The State of Alaska has not developed rules that apply to the measurement and disposal of NORM wastes.” Off the hook, no reason for “proactive” approaches possible nightmares on the horizon?

OK, Alyeska did perform surveys starting in 1991, and none of the “worst case scenario bottom sludge” samples from the Valdez storage tanks indicated a NORM above background. What “background”? See, this is the moving target syndrome, as that bottom sludge immunes itself away from continuous bombardment of radioisotopes associated with NORM, passing through those tanks in the “aqueous phase”. The dissociation of free radical radioisotopes dissolved in solution, in efforts to form NORM waste scale, it is a very complicated process. But when I witnessed the NORM problem at Pump Station #1, it was at the same time the issue was being discovered by BP, and corrective action was taken to address this “un-regulated” radioisotope that gets dissolved in that “formation water”, by changing the ways and means this “formation water” was associated, handled away from the crude oil stream. That is what a UNION will do for the workers called upon to deal with hazardous waste - sorry I forgot as NORM is not regulated so out-of-sight is out-of-mind. But that is wherein the benefit of a “UNION” speaks so loud and clear. See, even if the governor of Alaska cares not about this NORM because she is safe and away in Juneau and fascinated more with seeing Russia from far away, so what if a worker “glows in the dark” and our dweeb Congressional delegates even further away from the “hot zone” busy legislating hate for that “UNION”. At least a shop steward could say, “No Way” and my dues well worth the extra protection.

And who gives a rat’s ass what happened after March 24^th 1989, as that wrecked the entire ecosystem of Prince William Sound. And as is published by the experts in this field of radioactive glowing scale and sludge; “Norm waste is generated as a result of the precipitation of isotopic salts into the inside surfaces in contact, like pipes and heat exchange surfaces.” To highlight, these isotopes are present “only in the aqueous solution phase”. So when water enters the pipeline comingled with “crude oil”, there exists no time for this surface contact the majority of the aqueous stream dormant, not until that oil is rested in the storage tanks in Valdez. Woo, escaped that pipeline problem! And then there is still very little surface contact time, as the water is drawn off in a few hours. Look, when 2-million barrels each and everyday was being hauled into Valdez, that would fill the storage tank farm capacity to the brim in 4-days. It means the turn-around did not allow any hang around time for this “aqueous phase” to gain attention with NORM scaling, way to go! Woowoo, another great escape! So it was then on to the next phase, the Ballast Water Treatment facility and the same damn thing a process on over-drive get that water to the “outfall” pronto, so it can overflow into the abyss. Yes, it stayed away from the playground wherein the salts could precipitate and make waste, in this case haste does not make waste and an “all clear”. Except for the fish stocks that saw the light at the end of the tunnel, that glow from the outfall line’s fallout. Like a Dan Quayle hot potatoe, just because it did not cause the workers to grow ugly things, those lesions on those herring fry…glows in the dark and maybe had Joe Hazelwood used that radioactive beacon flowing out of the Valdez Bay as a guiding light…this was the “Big Oil Man’s” plan all along. A problem YES, but un-regulated but that does not erase that problem, it passes the test for contributory madness, I mean negligence. How so? BP told us it was there!

And there’s thousands of fish in the “Sound” affected by this “fallout”, so what they gain a little attention around the girth with a glow, as that would excite the predators, like the famished migrating salmon, to go after the easy prey shining out loud. And then with hook, line and sinker we catch dinner! The way it was in the 80s, turn off the lights and have a romantic “fresh catch” dinner from the “Sound”, forget the candle-light, as with that glowing fish fry it is enlightenment to the very last bite!

Please Take Note: The argument herein would be the amount of “NORM laced water” that was allowed to be accepted then discharged into the environment, through tidal currents and tide cycle exchanges, in this case eventually at rest in the marine ecosystem of Prince William Sound. And that “amount” means a ways and means to measure the water content, especially if there had been in place limits of acceptability by Alyeska as operator of the one and only pipeline that was capable of bringing the “black gold” and “water” to a market stream. And there was an attempt to measure that water, but the accuracy and repeatability - during the 80s - was inferior. I know, as I was involved in the testing of the then available industry standard devices that on paper met the criteria assurances for that “accuracy” and “repeatability”. This testing was performed in Valdez, early-80s, accomplished by dedicating a 500000-barrel storage tank from the West Tank Farm and subjecting to a “controlled” experiment. It was probably the best test of record ever performed, with precision so devised to field test “water cut” probes and composite sampling techniques. A tank with a 75% fill was allowed to achieve “characterized” stable oil through a time and temperature recess, a majority of the “as found” water manually drawn off and this tank top-gas pressurized heavier then normal at 1.0”W.C. with inert, to make sure no un-necessary light-end boil-off occurred. We were trying to replicate “in-situ” restraints, to validate the test and whatever findings found interest some credibility. Then water was added, flow controlled and measured, and the contents mixed to the extremes so there existed a well-known “homogeneous” mix that which represented North Slope “crude oil” but with an exact known “water content”. “Thief Hatch” hand sampling tests in duplicate verified no stratification, and when 3-samples were within the acceptable tolerance, the test started. All in efforts to see which industry standard probe best captured the “water content” of the fluid flowing from the tank. The probes were then removed from the “Test Tree”, cleaned and repacked and rebuilt if necessary and re-tested and the results compared against the hand sample a second test. Then, more water added and the same strategy. This was a “controlled test” and from this test a verification of which probe best suited the capture of a representative sample consistent a water content from 0.25% to 1.5%. At the time, 3-differetnt style probes went tested. The True Cut series, a Jistkoot and the old fashion API that was designed in 1942. Only the latter was a “static” type device, wherein the other “modern day” devices utilized the “moving parts” concept like a piston pump or window opening to “thieve” an “isokinetic cut”. But there exists a whole lot of science the workings of such probes in real life, very complicated. Probes, those used to capture a representative sample of the fluid of interest, these front-line excuses exhibit the same aerodynamics as a wing of a plane. With “slip”, stall, transitional turbulence, it goes with the territory when a fluid - defined as anything that flows, like air like water like crude oil - flies across a boundary and these devices are very sensitive to changes in velocity of that flowing media. OK, it is not the device itself that succumbs to boundary layer restrictions, but the velocity changes due the “probe” as an obstruction can impede the dynamic fluid’s property profile and that can cause the “slingshot” effect, wherein heavy molecules disrupt away from the mainstream and that “representative sample” is compromised. Like with any device used to measure, or correlate, there are limitations as we do not live in a perfect world and for the most part, in process control which still relies on the “analog” realm, it finds limitations we deal with. So when designed, the operating profile is paramount to achieving the 2-state fundamentals, stated accuracy with repeatability - and that usually means finding a “correction factor”. Yes 2-state, as both the “accuracy” and “repeatability” is the key, as one is nothing without the other. And once that “correction factor” is established through testing, through observations, through dedication, with deduction of testing results it works. As long as the profile remains consistent, and if deviations occur, like in oscillating flows, it limits even the best of reasoning. The estimates of “water” leaving Prudhoe Bay and arriving in Valdez, it never jived with the “samplers” the reason the testing as there was always more water accounted for come the storage tanks “water draw”, then what was measured at critical locations. By a factor of…it varied but we had a comparison that warned us of something on “Tilt”. And when the tests were complete, what was puzzling the fact there was not really a valid correlation between the various probes, so we went back to the drawing board. We decided to re-evaluate, redo the test and this time concentrate of the “velocity profile” of the mainstream, wherein we had such control as once that oil left the “test” tank, it was directed through the “Custody Transfer” skid and then found final control at the berth, where it entered a tanker’s manifold. It meant we had precise control of the flow, to see if the flow rate flow regime, which we assumed was piece-wise turbulent sometimes in “transitional”, was it a factor in how the probes behaved? The results of the second test under even tighter control verified that fact, that even though these probes have been tested in ideal situations, well here we had the “Ideal” no doubt about it and there appeared to be a velocity dependent “bias”. Now this “bias” for the most part would never enter the picture with a pipeline transporting “crude oil”, the problem herein was the fact the TAPS was a “common carrier” and had to deal with “comingled oil” from different formations and under different ownership, it was sometimes an apples and oranges state of affairs. So rest assured, a “bias” existed no matter how well we performed. And let me throw another wrench into the “puzzle”. I was the “Lead Measurement Technician” at Pump Station#1, the beginning of the TAPS. At the time, 5-separate players had oil being delivered and accepted and that meant a boatload of those “water analyzers” we knew held a “bias” to accuracy and repeatability. But we did our best for some it was not good enough. OK, 14-analyzers, which meant full-time maintenance to rebuild the “probes” and along with a full-time lab with personal to test those samples for revenue accounting, on a daily basis as the $cash register$ receipts for those oil deliveries went on a 24-hour basis. The “Owner Company” of Alyeska hired a field auditor from some fancy New Mexico scientific think tank, to audit how we did the business with the “chain of custody” the analyzer maintenance to collection of the samples to the lab testing results to correct the $receipts$ - as the water content was subtracted from the measured deliveries to accommodate a “Net Oil” result. Low and behold, the auditor’s report thought one of the techs was fudging the results - as his lab results were pretty consistent when time-marked, day after day after day for 7-days in a row as that was the work schedule. And then, his relief would have the same duties, and her results were time-stamped all over the map and that was the thought process, as nothing in the real world stays the same and the auditors thought it was a red-herring-flag warning, such consistency with the guy now under the microscope. See, we are talking “Big Bucks”, so there was always room for doubt. So I came to the defense of this guy under this scrutiny and explained, he does the test the same damn way the same damn time and like a robot and never takes a break - wherein his counterpart did some here and then there a break in between, so no consistency end of discussion the auditor felt like a fool. So with these samplers and our quest for accuracy and repeatability, we have to remember there is also that “human element” involved an essential component the overall requirement to measure that “water”! Here is what I know and care to share. I would venture to say, 10000 barrels each and everyday of unadulterated formation bearing NORM water waves coming to rest in Valdez, then thrown overboard - free of any tar balls or stubborn oil, but still containing the same amount of NORM - not as a NORM waste, but in that dissolved form. At least when that stuff precipitates out at its origin, the forming scale traps that radioisotope charm, but when in a hurry as sell that booty is all that counts…And when thrown overboard, the solution to NORM pollution is…it does not mix, nor does it get neutralized, it remains in solution and helps fish grow with a glow. See, when the herring fisheries in the “Sound” started to decline in the years before the EXXON Valdez “wreck”, of course the scientists involved in researching the why for how comes, well they had all the data they needed from the oil industry to try and catch the culprit, except this NORM. It was not regulated so it was not measured, it means no background data available as there was never a requirement to document this sidearm - like a concealed weapon. And to this day, the same scientific community remains baffled as to how and why even before Joe sunk his career on Bligh Reef, a navigational hazard taught to the kindergarten class in Valdez, why the herring population was seeing weird patterns of survival. And then the “Wreck” added another element of surprise, as by 1993, what herring? But scientists are equipped to deduce worst case scenarios, yet with all the research $loot$ from the “wreck” litigation-in-payoff, still no definitive acknowledgment the weak returns of that species which forms the backbone of the food supply, relied upon by salmon to whales. Now I would place a bet on my reputation as the most dedicated technician that ever worked for Uncle Al, but because I gave that rat’s ass and was taken down by Alyeska’s inHumane Resources clowns, if somebody came forward with NORM levels consistent with oil development activities on the North Slope, then the scientists would then have that missing link - the last ingredient necessary to…best get a UNION to represent those findings as back pay for hazardous duty? Ch-ching game “Not Over” anyone!

Hey NORM - Life in Alaska!

Tale of Two Stools

Not fair, by any stretch or stench of George Mucus Nelson’s pipeline imagination, that in a pinch yellow rain mildew can substitute for hot-diggity-dog mustard. Yes, that yellow matter custard, not dripping from a dead dog’s eye, but that afterbirth that exits the exhaust stacks of the power turbines used to motivate that oil south googoo g’joob. Chalk it up, stool sample Number One! And for those not in the know, due permafrost and a limited budget, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company did not sink disposal wells at the 12-pump stations along the 800-mile long Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. Instead, it used all the allocated latrine duty $loot$ for the $million$ dollar crappers at the loading berths in Valdez, so drunk tanker crews could puke their guts out before returning to duty. What’s up with Chuck, and at the stations, what a novel idea - just burn harmless the human shit. Now all the fromunder bottoms and slip stream stuff is congregated in a tub, the liquid crap and urine squeezed out and injected into the stacks, to be burned harmless. But there is an afterbirth phenomenon, as the dispersed liquid going through the annihilation process due the dew point it reaches in the upper atmosphere - hot air mixing with colder air - it creates its own weather system and the afterbirth falls as “yellow rain” and covers everything around the stations’ outside perimeter with a “yellow matter custard”. Singing in the rain, it’s 2^nd generation “crap”, no doubt about it. That is why the piping looks so dingy, it’s afterbirth crap. And when on a beautiful blue-sky day, the reason a yellowish cloud could be seen miles and miles away engulfing these stations - the air we breath! Matter of fact, crash Harvey the crew change pilot used to fly high above the cloudy horizon on bad weather days and look for the “yellow eye of the storm” poking through, then hold on to your lunch as the Convair commenced a super-sonic dive and there was the station time to go to work. Now there is this thing called a “shit bag”, where the liquid depleted outhouse waste forms into a cake, that has to be removed and all the guts and strainers cleaned, on a regular basis depending on the camp cooks menu and episodes of explosive diarrhea.  Yes, cleaning chores by a human pipeliner and it is usually a “Dirty Job” reserved for the low seniority workers or if there is a female on the staff, bingo. I once heard that a fellow pipeliner wrote to Mike Rowe, to see if he and his crew was interested in doing a segment on this “shit bag” - no response. Now up in Big Oil country, well just dig an expensive disposal well that is out of reach of a discovery drill bit, pump the crap downhole and hope no one ever “fracs” for “crap”.

OK, I have been chastised because my Uncle Al’s Closet blog does not paint a very enlightening picture of Alyeska, especially its executive management and the trickle-down theory seems to have ruffled some feathers of the underlings, with my once upon a time coworkers in fame. So let me clear the record, as many of my associates up and down the line in and around Valdez, good people even though I could never understand that “kiss everything that looks like an ass” sign in the crappers on the 5^th Floor of Bragaw. So, giving credit wherein credit is due my brethren pipeliner.

Now pipeline work can be boring, as the prime goal is to keep that station pumping oil, and there is very little down time as gas turbines like found on the wing of a passenger jet, on and on forevermore. But the stations are manned, not for the maintenance criteria as a priority, but the pipeline is required to have a certain head-count for oil spill “recon” response should the pipeline leak detection find that a drunk shot a hole through the pipe thinking that groaning from a passing “shit scraping pig” was a moose in heat. Which means feeding the captive audience and that means human waste accumulation. Well the folks at a pump station wanted a project, so the supervisor told them to take a good shit, and they did. See, while sitting around the break table, the crew came up with the bright idea that “shit” rolls downhill and some of the low rank technicians needed a project in efforts to progress up the Technician ladder - for more pay for doing nothing, but eating and shitting! Wow then, why not send the shit to Valdez? Yes indeed, where daily major maintenance activities finds the technicians in constant contact with that oil, so what that lump I just cleaned out of pressure transmitter, it was a turd - coming down the Alyeska Poopline!

For real, the station folks started a project to re-pipe the shit and urine and kotex and used rubbers waste line, new pipe allowing the stinky stuff to be pumped into the freak’n pipeline. And they were so proud of themselves, like a 3-year old getting party trained! As it was a somewhat major project and materials, like pipe and fittings and valves, all that stuff had to be ordered and approved by the station manager and purchased. And because it became part of the “pipeline”, you can’t buy the “certified” stuff at Home Depot. Then they got caught, because the station was no longer ordering new shit bags, GOTCHA.  

But herein is wherein the Alyeska management finds no bragging rights, as if you can take your focus off the “mission”, the stool pigeons will get away with…and I was one of those technicians that was in constant contact with that oil when it made its way to Valdez, you son-of-a-bitches is my sentiment. How fucking dumb, as even a kindergartener would know the difference between this kind of wrong verses right. And no one got fired over this? And was this reported to the regulators? Show me the proof. The sad thing, while we were working with that crude and these station master jerk off artists just sitting around the break table and eating a free lunch to shit some more our way, we were getting paid the same! And every time I rethink that stuff that looked like a floater may have one time belonged to Fat Alex, we should have sued the bastards for hazardous waste pay. So, why in hell should I give a rat’s ass my feeling towards a bunch of hoodlums that had nothing better to do but cause trouble, due laziness. In Valdez, like already mentioned, there was no “free lunch” and we worked our ass off, sometimes 6-hours each day up to our knees in slush and snow. And had we a UNION, when this was discovered, we could have demanded justice. Matter of fact, any of the guilty party technicians or management reading this response, send me your home address and I will reciprocate, with a bag of shit as your retirement is empty until the Fat Lady Brings. So those of us in Valdez, we got douched with human feces. But I guess the fact the company continues to win the most ethical…I rest my case!

Tale of Two Fools - Interview

The following is the 4^th and final in a series of interviews between Patriotic Alaskan Chronicles(PAC) and Ex-Alyeska Employee Michael Kelley on the root-cause leading up to the EXXON Valdez “Wreck”. This follows a self-publication by Kelley titled the “Tale of Two Fools - The Oil Man & the Environment Guy”, as found on Uncle Al’s Closet - UncleAlsCloset.blogspot.com:

PAC Interviewer: Wow, in that Tale of Two Fools - The Oil Man & the Environmental Guy you recently published, that mention of Hey Norm, well I thought all my time went wasted in these interviews as was this supposed to be in joke with this Norm thing? So I start off in apology for casting doubt your writing. The little we know about oil development.

Lead Technician Kelley: No apology this way, and one must remember that this, routinely Hey Norm it is not a problem in the oil patch, only when it gets concentrated.

PAC Interviewer: But before the Norm chapter, you seem to pick on the local authority, what appears to be for good reason, that those in authority outside Alyeska but with oversight over Alyeska seemed to display a laissez faire attitude upon concerns.

Lead Technician Kelley: Fair assessment.

PAC Interviewer: Like the time you called the environmental cop when someone was purposely trying to pollute, by demonstrating a disregard of proper operation of the devices designed to make safe the vapors from the storage tanks.

Lead Technician Kelley: Got your Dramamine?

PAC Interviewer: I’m ready, and willing for another wild ride.

Lead Technician Kelley: After I had moved away from Valdez, not too long before the wreck, I had a face to face incident, a confrontation with the local environmental cop, threatened…

PAC Interviewer: While on the job?

Lead Technician Kelley: No, while on vacation.

PAC Interviewer: Threatened how?

Lead Technician Kelley: The brandishing of a sidearm…

PAC Interviewer: For breaking the law, a law, like under arrest?

PAC Interviewer: No, no laws broken, not under arrest but subjecting the cop to cross examination duress, while watching him commit an environmental crime.

PAC Interviewer: So you’re telling me that the guy designated as the environmental cop, committing such a crime, caught in the act?

Lead Technician Kelley: I was down at Perkins Cove, where my brother in law lived, a small cabin on the shoreline outside of Valdez. It was just around the corner from town, so not remote and road access. It was early morning, a beautiful day, and I woke up to the straining sound of an engine, like someone was stuck…

PAC Interviewer: On the road?

Lead Technician Kelley: No, in the damn tide-flats, a stuck backhoe.

PAC Interviewer: What was that all about?

Lead Technician Kelley: Above the cove some investors were building a new sub-division and this guy was cutting a drainage ditch, for sewerage runoff.

PAC Interviewer: The local environmental cop?

Lead Technician Kelley: Same guy, same badge.

PAC Interviewer: Wow…

Lead Technician Kelley: And when I got close to his stuck hoe, seeing all the crushed sea life and hearing the screaming disaster under the cat tracks, I was pissed as I knew exactly who I was dealing with, and my brother in law was with me, also pissed.

PAC Interviewer: Then…

Lead Technician Kelley: I asked him for his permit, and that is when he drew his sidearm, and we retreated.

PAC Interviewer: Did you call his bluff, challenge this crime?

Lead Technician Kelley: It would be no different then calling the cops on yourself. So no to your question and kind of glad I had moved away. This is how it was in Valdez.

PAC Interviewer: Anything else, unusual about this cop and such behaviors?

Lead Technician Kelley: He was one of Hamel’s coattails, a main men. And my belief that when we tried to get him involved with things not working right at the Terminal, by not doing his job he was helping Hamel’s cause.

PAC Interviewer: So is it your belief that he understood your concerns, but chose to turn a blind eye because of his affiliation with Hamel?

Lead Technician Kelley: BINGO!

PAC Interviewer: Like in the worse it gets out of control the easier it is to prove a point?

Lead Technician Kelley: Right on assessment.

PAC Interviewer: OK, switching hats to Jane Fonda, in China Syndrome. This NORM stuff, what do you know about it, let’s say with respect to what went on in Alaska, on the pipeline?

Lead Technician Kelley: Ok Kimberly, then I’m Mr. Wilbur an automotive expert with a dual-column gas chromatograph, Hewlett-Packard model 5710a with flame analyzing detectors…

PAC Interviewer: Funny…My Cousin Vinny right?

Lead Technician Kelley: For real. I had my boss purchase a Hewlett-Packard Data Acquisition System, the kind used by NASA. To evaluate things around the station, especially with the crude oil measurement stuff. And there started to be some weird things happening at the station, unexplained. But I had a hunch, from some things overheard about in the field. See, the town of Deadhorse up in Prudhoe Bay is a dry-gulch town. No nothing, except Child’s General Store, which was an after-work congregating place away from the “oil”, away from the monotony of camp life. A place to meet people, and I overheard a conversation about this NORM, when some BP maintenance workers had opened up a heat exchanger and found high levels of this stuff.

PAC Interviewer: So you reacted, I’m getting to understand your philosophy.

Lead Technician Kelley: Well anything done upstream, the trickledown works as that NORM was heading our way. So for 25 bucks, I picked up a used gamma ray scintillation detector…

PAC Interviewer: Used for?

Lead Technician Kelley: Measuring this Norm. And with the HP, it was very easy to build a device to, well evaluate a sample of oil and water taken from the pipeline.

PAC Interviewer: Did it work?

Lead Technician Kelley: To good to be true.

PAC Interviewer: Well, did it scare you, to take cover from this fallout?

Lead Technician Kelley: No. As for the most part any NORM would be confined inside the pipeline. Same with a maintenance crew racking out a heat exchanger, which could dislodge surface scale, and eventually that stuff ending up in the pipeline.

PAC Interviewer: And not a problem until it reaches Valdez...

Lead Technician Kelley: And not a problem until the NORM containing water and scale went separated and the leftovers discharged, heading south.

PAC Interviewer: So it was a not a safety concern to the workers?

Lead Technician Kelley: It was contained, but ask the herring the same question.

PAC Interviewer: Like I have mentioned before, everything you bring forward for this outsider, it adds up. So one of two things, you are really good at the puzzle pieces or tell a good story. But the puzzle pieces find credibility and you put it together in a form a story that fits, it tells the truth.

Lead Technician Kelley: Thank you for hearing me out.

PAC Interviewer: So even though Charles Hamel did not directly interfere, direct involvement any harmful hands on and maybe merely a sentiment of intent, that his followers, his cult, they became involved based on Hamel’s failures with Big Oil and felt sorry, felt a sense of camaraderie time to get even?

Lead Technician Kelley: I have tried to bring what I saw, what I knew, what I heard and what I believed was a very easy means to put it all together. Yes, it was poor me, poor oil broker going broke. And some jumped to his side.

PAC Interviewer: But your understanding of who this Charles Hamel was and what Charles Hamel was all about, you were an insider so that was an advantage over others, even within the Alyeska organization, an advantage many did not have. Am I correct?

Lead Technician Kelley: Nature of the beast, but my vigilance helped.

PAC Interviewer: So if the Exxon Valdez wreck was a planned sabotage, it is apparent from your publications and these remarkable interviews a reliable source, that it was possible by a cult following, that an ex-oil broker was harmed by the mighty Exxon so tuned into an environmentalist, all in efforts to beg for sympathy.

Lead Technician Kelley: Yes, sympathy for the devil, pleased to meet you hope you guess my name.

PAC Interviewer: And with Hamel, cause what’s confusing you is just the nature of my game?

Lead Technician Kelley: Exactly.

PAC Interviewer: Well Mr. Kelley, I don’t know if there is anything beyond this, here it is all out in the open, for the general public to believe or leave.

Lead Technician Kelley: Well said, but the good thing, my honor finds no misery.

PAC Interviewer: Best of luck in the future.

Lead Technician Kelley: Same here.

~ EOI ~

Tale of Two Fools - The Oil Man & the Environment Guy

In a recent interview with Patriotic Alaskan Chronicles, this author in the know makes it clear and convincing that Charles Hamel was far from any modern day John Muir environmentalist gadfly, and used that cover merely as a masquerade for his own personal vendetta against Big Alaskan Oil men. He was smart to use such a disguise, such a decoy, due inherent vulnerabilities his followers - the same cult that despises the oil men but first in line for that State of Alaska “oil revenue” bonus handout. Hamel’s posture, it gained overnight notoriety anybody that held a grudge or bone of contention upon the dreaded oil industry in Alaska. And for Mr. Oil Broker himself, a public spectacle and a stage to claim, that he was “born again” to save Alaska from an environmental Armageddon Apocalypse Now. When all he cared about was saving his own bacon. Of course he failed, as there was never ever any dedicated passion that “mission”, as with all his huff and puff the EXXON Valdez wreck came to be no matter how loud mouthed he became - no one was listening. Why? He was an oil broker with $billions$ at stake in the lucrative Alaskan North Slope oil trade, but went to bat, up against the titans in “Who’s Who in Big Oil”. He lost his shirt in bankruptcy, big time and went to his grave some say a broke man with physical and mental fatigue. Not all a lost cause all surrounding, as Hamel was right about one thing, that Big Oil “spiked” the oil coming down the Trans-Alaskan-Pipeline with copious amounts of “water”. Even though an administrative law judge ruled differently, that it was not of concern as it was considered part of the normal processing cycle when extracting the “black gold” from downhole. See, once an issue hits the courts, that gavel can find discretionary inability for justice served. As the lawyers make money by seeding doubt and using that ace-in-the-hole that “expert witness” to…well “Half of the people can be part right all of the time, some of the people can be all right part of the time, but all the people can't be all right all the time…I think Abraham Lincoln said that.”, and that is what happened to Hamel as Big Oil had the better convincing legalsleaze.

It all started when a concern executed as a complaint found Hamel making waves and at odds with EXXON with that “water”. See, water is part of the pay zone, as even though oil and water don’t mix, it can combine in unison when money is to be made. Downhole “Duke of Earl” - maybe best said “Dukes of Hazard” when a boatload of that “earl” gets in the wrong hands of an “I abuse alcohol” Captain Joe Hazelwood - well unadulterated “Earl” brings water topside when extracted. There is the original “pooled” formation water that has been trapped for eons with the “black gold” and then the additional water that comes by virtue of “tertiary recovery”. When a field starts producing, usually it is the original water that must be dealt with, when once topside the oil finds before a marketable price-tag water extraction - through a settling period - wherein the heavier water molecules rest away at the bottom of the barrel. And then as the field gets tired even before any senior senile moments, water flooding is used to lift that oil “I want to take you higher, Boom shaka-laka-laka Boom shaka-laka-laka”, so the drill points can continue to make money, a ways and means to control the “pay zone”. And of course not to forget an all important ingredient this “greed squeeze” the addition of a blanketing gas, to top-heavy squish the formation dry. In Alaska, that gas is a byproduct of oil extraction, boatloads of natural gas with no place to go but back down hole. That gas pays off handsomely, to assist oil extraction and the reason that after 40-years since it was “Oil In” for Alaska, there has yet to be built a natural gas pipeline to bring that commodity to the world marketplace - its advantage is to stay “home alone” where it belongs. These are oil men, not gas men explorers we are dealing with. Mr. Hamel was one of thum “Oil Men”! Oil extraction is a simple process, yet when we see the magnitude of how much oil is involved up North to Alaska, it becomes a very complicated scheme. Like in a court with jury showdown, the party with the greatest waste of paper in discovery deposition…no different with lots of oil. Yes it is a scheme sometimes turned sham if not a scam take that to heart, oil men are smart and wherein “blood out of a turnip seed” resonates their goal in life. So water is here to stay in that oil that tumbles down that one-and-only 800-mile long pipeline, and the extent of removal follows that proverbial diminishing returns, and thus the pipeline has limits on just how much water is allowed. Yes it is so, only extract what is required. And that is wherein Charles Hamel was right, but there was nothing wrong with the way the Prudhoe Bay producers were minding their business and maximizing that water content to the “limit” and often times a temporary without restraints deviation above and beyond, as there was a time constraint before Alyeska the pipeline operator could threatened to block in a producer - like EXXON - for over douching the pipeline with that “Water”. It was a game. Over the limit alarm, start the STOP watch. Times up, give “Warning Number 1” and start that worn out STOP watch for round number 2 - yes a game! Never once in my many years working at Pump Station#1 did I ever see Alyeska block in a producer due too much water in the crude oil stream, even though the limits were exceeded, well on a routine and regular basis. There came many phone call threats to behave or else, but no action just big talk. To shut in a producer, one of the Seven Sisters, hari kari hairy scary! Water geysers, especially on Sunday night when a producer’s “slop” tank went unloaded, uploaded to the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline! Water “spikes” up and down all night long, in alarm then out of alarm - it was a game they played! See, Hamel held interests in that water, but he was not in a position to benefit so went on the warpath. Water was making $money$, and “I want in” was this Oil Man’s sentiment! His interest goes way back, and those interests were shared with EXXON and many other major players in Alaska - the oil scene of the 49er. Bottom line, water made money for a few producers. Nickle and dime ya? Yes, that simple - and when 2-million barrels each day heading south, you do the math a penny saved that penny earned adds up!

Oil is measured as a “fluid” as in anything that flows. Yes, peanut butter is a fluid as is olive oil as is crude oil mixed with water. And the devices used to accurately account for that commodity with respect to ownership rights, the “cash register meters” measure that fluid by a force administered against turbine wheel blades subject to movement by that “fluid’s front” and then it’s those wheels in motion. Each revolution of that “wheel” means a specified volume. These “meters” don’t know the difference from oil to water to peanut butter, or urine. And to adjust for the water percent, specialized analyzers were used to measure the oil content and then the metered fluid is adjusted down, for that included water to yield Net Oil - free and clear. But it was well known that by using the Best Available Technology - like in Al Capone’s BAT of revenge - there was an inherent weakness in this subject matter in expertise lacking, when forced by the regulators to use that BAT, when studies indicated that old technologies had a better chance of accurately and timely measuring the water content then the new stuff - especially when controlled spiking occurred. And the new stuff cost a whole lot of $loot$ and a maintenance headache to boot. Yes, the BAT was a step backwards and the oil companies took advantage of it, as the water that was not measured, it was realigned to be called “crude oil”. Yes, a barrel of water bringing in the price of a barrel of oil through some simple “fudge factoring”! So with that, the North Slope producers pushed the limits of just how much water was allowed pumped in that pipeline heading south. And Hamel was an oil broker, he saw the $$$$ in water. See, in some locations every drop of water extracted with oil development is re-purposed, for that “tertiary” thing. Take it out and reuse it. But in Prudhoe Bay, the entire Arctic Ocean is at the producers’ fingertips for…well so water can make $money$ as it is not necessary to retrieve every drop of the bucket.

OK, for shits and giggles. On a good day with the TAPS, how about this water registered as oil equates to an additional “year-end” profit margin of…drum roll please, $70-million bucks plus when that stuff is refined and delivered to those gasoline pumps for you and I to enjoy - buying air pollution “carbon credit” time shares. Now Mr. Hamel, he understood very well the Alaskan oil scene, from an investor and producer and lease owner objective standpoint, yet failed at Pipeline & Oil Field Roustabout Fundamentals 101. See, seeing the writing on the wall he was not to be included in this preferential water-boarding club, thus he started his vendetta, one of many against “Big Oil”. Hamel complained about too much water in the oil, when he was really engaging in a bitch session that he was not finding an advantage like the others, with this miracle water barrel. As that “miracle barrel” Hamel thought was hidden in Valdez, 800-miles off course and we thought Joe Hazelwood went confused? Hamel felt left out, as in if he cannot take advantage of it why should Mighty EXXON, so tried to put the brakes on tranquility by bringing in outside interference - a.k.a. Regulators. He fought and fought, until an oh shit was about to take down the House of Raymond. Talking Lee Raymond of EXXON and all the big players in Alaska, that you can have your cake and eat it to, just don’t overeat. See, water and oil don’t mix for a whole lot of reasons. The operator of the oil fields and the operator of the pipeline, together these organizations measure 1000 and 1 things of interest to make sure things are on the up and up, for the safety of the environment as mandated by state and Federal jurisdictions. And also some rigid oversight upon the financial incentives to dig where no man has dung before. Somebody once tallied the agencies with oversight just on the Alaskan pipeline alone, it was over 110 individual governors. Now then, well that 1000 and 1 was “1” governor short, as it was a mister-meaner that was unregulated and had a name, called NORM. Hey Norm!

When water flows through underground caves, in that journey it can find an affinity for this Mr. NORM, as in Naturally Occurring Radioactive Matter and not really of matter due the background level of nuclear fallout, well very shallow but still a concern. And when massive amounts of water are part of the process, well that shallow matter can become a “Shadow Knows” matter, a hidden bastard that can take one by surprise. And that is what happened in Valdez. See, the Alyeska Marine Terminal was designed with a hi-tech “Ballast Water Treatment” facility designed to strip hydrocarbon molecules from the water de-ballasted from the incoming tankers. Ballast is required for a ship’s sobriety, I meant stability when on the high sea and there is no such thing as an empty tanker coming into the Port of Valdez. Stop it, not talking a booze bottle on empty, with a note like in which way is Bligh Reef! So a tanker calls on the Alyeska facility and the usual course of events, 8-hours to de-ballast and another 10-hours to load up, it’s a done deal of a day gone bye before it is all said and done. And that de-ballasted water, it costs the shippers to treat that tainted seawater, through additional costs so tied to the transport tariffs. And you and I pay for that also, at the pump. Now Big Oil went smart, as in design of its new age class of tankers calling on the Alaskan Oil Trade in the late 80s, it meant “segregated ballast”, as that would kill two birds with one stone - decrease the docking time due no need to de-ballast as that water was thrown overboard when a tanker reached the “Narrows” with calm waters ahead and therefore no additional processing fees with the tariff. So the turn-around time for a tanker, cut in half so was Joe’s freelance binging. Now that allowed the BWT facility to work at its minimum design rate, well below its level for efficient removal of leftover bits and pieces of oil. Well, fill it up with water spiked to the incoming crude oil from the pipeline! What a solution! And herein is how it worked that magic. Tony the Tiger brings two barrels of something to the pipeline for delivery to his tanker in Valdez. That something is a barrel of oil and a barrel of water, still measured as “oil” and when it finally gets to Valdez after a 5-day journey, it spends time asleep in one of the mighty storage tanks at the Terminal. And the water settles out and now Tony gets but for a single barrel of, not something but good old North Slope “black gold”. Then the Tiger’s bean counters cry foul, as the receipts from up north show 2 barrels of something, and no bullet hole leaks along the way, so what gives and takes? Creative accounting as 2 minus 1 equals a loss of 1 barrel of that something that they thought was “crude oil”,  “You got to beep-a-gunk-a-chucha, Honk-konk-konk-kadanta, Each-ya puna-ney-cha, Bap-pa-lula-ni-chao, Pao-pati-cha, Ni-saong-kong, Yeah, ride. Well I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer.” Then comes a 1-barrel write-off based on the value of “Crude Oil”. Cha-ching? Of course it was, and this is what Hamel wanted in on, so his venture looked for a way to purchase North Slope oil and take advantage of the added value of the water. Hey, everybody else was taking advantage of it, why not he? It failed, as when his tanker showed up in Valdez, he received stabilized oil, the water was cut! Remember, that “miracle barrel” was somewhere else! It was a shipwreck this first bon voyage, and his investors were pissed as this was a loose lips sinks ships venture from its inception. But he fought and fought, until such time the cat was out of the bag.

Brilliant, as that adaptation of “Extra” water pushed to the maximum the pipeline’s limits, it was used to make sure the BWT facility could work, and erase away the comingled water, offer up a loss factor, until there came a drastic reduction in the hearing stocks in Prince William Sound. Low and behold, the designers of that BWT through permitting by state and Federal oversight agencies back in the early 70s, the cesspool’s outfall line was sunk smack in the middle of the Valdez Bay wherein ocean currents exited towards the Sound, to take advantage of a sweeping like action of the tide cycles. Yes, that proverbial “solution to pollution is delusion”, I meant “DILUTION”! And that is how the herring species navigate, using those incoming currents and swimming through water that was…well glowing with extracurricular activity. And those particles that look like gleaming gems, those minute “pieces of eight”, battle down the hatches as that fish food is oil field pipe scale - highly concentrated NORM sieved through the process. And like mentioned already, oil men are smart. And of course “Big Oil” scientist not off course were aware of this problem not considered a problem, so did Hamel find an understanding as this NORM is a common everyday occurrence in the “Oil Patch”. Matter of fact, in Texas as the second biggest oil producing state, the water and scale from oil development from those itsy-bitsy leases in the middle of a cow pasture, the NORM contaminated stuff is allowed to sit and bake in the sun - as the radio-nuclides in the half-life cycle will eventually make things safe for humans, and maybe the cows. But nothing to fret as this stuff was “unregulated”, so no environmental crimes committed. Yet you did not see the Mighty EXXONs claiming to be “ENVIRONMENTALISTS” did you? And try to explain that herring stock crashing to the local gadabout gaddis fishermen that rely on a catch that relies on the herring for breakfast. So BIG Oil understood this problem and how it could backfire, and  instead of an age old mindset of letting bygones be bygones, get proactive and offer up assistance with financial help and at the same time, well already changing the ways and means how it handled production up north to minimize this NORM. That was easy, as the formations can be delineated to indicate the NORM patterns, and corrective measures taken already. And this remedy, sure Hamel can have what he wanted with that water, but he would have to pay up just like all the rest were willing to do so. Hamel understood the financial wherewithal of that water, as an added value and should have also understood the fallout. It was that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sentiment, wherein you cannot have that cake and eat it to - a dueling banjos responsibility. So Mr. Hamel complained only about the Dr. Jekyll side of things, and dismissed the Mr. Hyde side, in a hide & not seek out-of-state out-of-mind environmental madness - the NORM. Of course he knew about, or should have, as an accomplice as it was all part of the game, how the oil industry was aligned. And what if he had come forward with this as part of his environmentalist movement message? He couldn’t, as that was apples and oranges it don’t mix he was part of the problem. Said again, he was an Oil Man, and Oil Broker and just as guilty as his cohorts in shame “Big Oil” men. Between a rock and a hard place? Look, pinch yourself, as one cannot be an Oil Man, an Oil Broker and at the same time a vocal environmentalist with a “mission” statement against that same oil.

Then on March 24^th in 1989, with the wreck of the EXXON Valdez, well that cratered the herring population’s health already weakened so why worry about a little radioactivity activity! Why even bring it up, as the Sound was on a death wish watch, for a spell and still somewhat deranged 31-years after the wreck. So here it was, maybe for the first time wherein Big Oil was willing and able to show an ethical outreach, something it had a responsibility upon without any negligence per se just blame the G-men, instead of hiding this something. Said again, this NORM was unregulated, so there was not a court in the land that would have sided with any far-reaching class action lawsuits against “Big Oil” having to defend itself, should the lawmen get involved. Any such attempts, it would have been a dismissal on day one on the court house steps. And after that “Wreck”, how about a “Prove It” lullaby if all else failed. So by considering a proactive approach to invite some ways and means to make whole the fishing industry so robbed by NORM, after the wreck forget about it. And that’s what happened, no need to open up a can of worms and Mr. NORM was silenced. That wreck, if it were not planned by disgruntled investors that were about to lose a whole bunch of their investments and on the verge of bankruptcy, well simple stupid get rid of the evidence. As a little oil overboard in the “Sound”, case closed. Look, Hamel had a thousand and 1 reasons to see destruction of the oil industry, a self-serving prophesy get even Steven interest. Since 1984, Charles Hamel fought “Big Oil” and lost $billions$ and in 1989, just before the wreck, landmark court decisions in favor of Big Oil that saw Hamel’s empire - well entering that “Emperor Has No Clothes” zone. The same in 1993 as he was not about to give up, as he had nothing else to lose. And maybe the EXXON Valdez wreck was an insurance policy, that no matter what in the end that the fishermen and many cult followers would remember Hamel as an environmentalist - and maybe that is why dogs piss on his grave and nothing grows green and the only thing of significance in that “green” category - a soylent green. OK, let’s make a movie about this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality in Mr. Hamel and from the profits, pay for a gardener!

The EXXON Valdez “Wreck” was not a coincidence, not of human error but human manipulation. It was not due bad weather, it was not due to a Captain known to abuse alcohol, as the first sobriety test was a “Negative”. It was not due a malfunction, like from an engine failure. It was a premeditated cover-up, the perfect storm at the right time. Because of failure on top of failure on top of failure and more failure ahead, by and through an individual that found a following, a cult, that helped bid fare the well, to Tarwathie.