ForeThought: Where there’s a well, there’s a way

July 1, 2010 | Galynn Nordstrom

Today (Wednesday, June 23), the Associated Press (AP) reported that tens of thousands of gallons more oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico after an undersea robot bumped a venting system, forcing British Petroleum (BP) to remove the cap that had been containing some of the crude. The setback, one of many in the nine-week effort to stop the gusher, came as thick pools of oil washed up on Florida’s Pensacola Beach, and the Obama Administration worked on resurrecting a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. The current worst-case estimate of what’s spewing into the ocean is about 2.5 million gallons a day. Yet U.S. District Court Judge Martin L.C. Feldman stated that just because one oil rig failed, that doesn’t mean that they all will; a comment that I, personally, can only describe as Complete Piffle (CP).

The oil is destroying habitat, wildlife, lifestyles and livings at an astounding rate, yet the court feels that the deepwater drilling moratorium might harm the local (and not so local, I’ll wager) economy. And here I thought it was mostly politicians (and, possibly, beauticians) that subscribed to the “it didn’t work, so let’s do it some more” philosophy.

When I think about this disaster (and Katrina, and Haiti), it has become such an overwhelming event that all I seem to be able to do is fervently hope that BP will hire a competent flack and get their top executives off the public airwaves. (“I want my life back”? The “small” people? Just how long has it been since these people have had to be careful about what they say?) I visited www.whatshouldbpdo.com to see what creative ideas the small people are suggesting on how to stop the leak, but I don’t really have the engineering background to know if some of the suggested remedies could possibly work. How to stop the leak is a problem without a solution, so far. But how to remediate the effects of the leak is a problem that has hundreds of solutions—and a whole bunch of them are being supplied by the specialty fabrics industry.

All seven of IFAI’s publications (you’re reading the flagship right now, of course) are carrying stories, product developments and news items on how textiles and textile products are being used to clean up the oil. If you do a universal search on “oil spill” on this site, you’ll start to see how our industry (and others) are gearing up to respond. But more immediate and extensive coverage is being compiled on the home page of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), detailing how IFAI members are responding to the spill. Both manufacturers of materials and manufacturers of end products are included, as well as information on new technologies being developed, and a section on how you can help with relief efforts, ranging from listing your company as a supplier to submitting a white paper to the U.S. Coast Guard.

This might be one instance in which “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should” is 100 percent in error. As for BP’s efforts to solve the hole problem: If the company couldn’t operate the platform sustainably in the first place, why are we relying upon them for a solution?

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