Facebook Stirs More Anger With Oregon-Coast Drilling Accident

A drilling accident on the Oregon coast has local residents, along with environmental groups, accusing Facebook of trying to dodge its responsibilities. What a shocker.

Let’s start at the beginning. Last year, residents of the small oceanside community of Tierra del Mar, Oregon, learned that a company called Edge Cable Holdings wanted to install an undersea fiber optic telecommunications cable.

The company publicly revealed it had spent $495,000 to purchase an oceanfront lot (from ex-NFL quarterback Joey Harrington) and planned to use hydraulic equipment to bore a hole under a public beach to install cable that would link North America to Asia via the Jupiter Cable System. The purpose: enhancing transatlantic connectivity. (Other companies, including Amazon and SoftBank, are also members of the consortium behind this mega connector.)

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While opposed by many locals from the start, due to environmental concerns, the project was positioned as benefiting communications for people around the world, as well as the Oregon region's business prospects. However, some accused Facebook of taking a clandestine approach to the project, including attempting to obscure its ownership of Edge Cable.

Facebook insisted that it had been transparent throughout, working with local and federal officials and going through a public permit process. And in a by-now-familiar pattern, Facebook swiftly moved into PR mode. The company hosted several community forums, made nice with local officials and attempted to charm area homeowners. 

Facebook also said that there would be no ecological or other harm, based on its own funded studies. But the more the company disclosed, the more concerns the implementation plans raised. 

Despite continued, heavy opposition by local residents and advocacy groups, including the Oregon Coast Alliance (ORCA), county commissioners approved the plan on January 15. Pre-construction began January 29 and drilling activity began March 9. 

Then, the project encountered a “hiccup.” On April 28, the drill hit an “unexpected area of hard rock,” reported the Tillamook Headlight Herald. The drill bit seized and the drill pipe snapped 50 feet below the seafloor. 

Although team members were able to retrieve some of the equipment, Facebook abandoned 1,100 feet of pipe, the drill head and 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid.

The Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) told the media that Edge Cable notified it of the accident on May 5, but did not notify it of the abandoned equipment until June 17, and asserted that the notification delay eliminated any potential options for recovery of the equipment. Facebook disputed that timeline, and said that its environmental assessment determined that there was no negative environmental or public health impact from the accident. The drilling fluid was "biodegradable and environmentally neutral," Facebook said.

On August 13, DSL notified Edge Cable that it must reach an agreement with Oregon officials within 30 days regarding damages to be paid for violating its permit by "storing" abandoned equipment in the area; proposed amendments to the easement agreement to address any "current risks and liabilities that may arise from the abandoned" materials; and how it would ensure a removal-fill permit for the project in compliance with local, state and federal laws, reported the Tillamook Headlight Herald.

An initial assessment by DSL determined that there was no immediate risk to the environment, or health or safety concerns. But ORCA and Surfrider Foundation leaders charged in a letter to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department that “The accident represents negligence on behalf of the operator, as the equipment was pushed beyond its limits, putting lives and Oregon’s natural resources at risk,” and that “failure to notify the agency, and abandonment of equipment now apparently unrecoverable on and below the ocean floor, is not only a violation of Edge Cable’s permit, but represents a continuing and permanent trespass of public lands.”

On August 26, ORCA filed a notice of intent to sue Edge Cable under the Clean Waters Act, on or after the 60th day of the notice, in Oregon Federal District Court, the Tillamook Headlight Herald reported on September 1. The lawsuit "will allege that Edge Cable has violated and remains in violation of the Clean Waters Act and will seek mandatory injunctive relief, requiring Edge Cable to comply with and pay civil penalties up to the amount of $55,800 per day, per violation," the paper wrote.

In the same article, the newspaper reported that Facebook had now released a report based on an environmental and public health impacts analysis, which had been requested by DSL. The analysis, described as "an independent hazard study conducted by ERM-West, Inc. and peer reviewed by Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.," concluded that further drilling to try to recover the abandoned materials was not a viable option.

"ERM’s analysis concludes there are currently no adverse environmental, scenic, recreational or economic impacts resulting from the drill break or presence of remaining materials 50-70 feet below the sea floor, nor is there a reasonably conceived scenario, such as an earthquake or tsunami, that would expose the remaining materials to the surrounding environment and result in future impacts,"  the newspaper wrote. "For this reason, [the report's] recommended environmentally preferred alternative is to leave the remaining materials in place." A Facebook representative said the company would work with the relevant state agencies to confirm this is the right direction moving forward.

Prior to release of that report, Tierra Del Mar resident Lynne Ruttledge summed up the situation in a letter to the local paper. “The state is now grappling with the reality of Facebook’s drilling failure in April, the abandonment of drilling equipment that is under the seabed and a portion that is under our ocean shore, having to serve a notice of default, having to negotiate an agreement of damages, having to require and then review the results of an independent hazard analysis and having to respond to the concerns of legislators and community members,” she wrote.

In mid August, State Representative David Gomberg told The Oregonian: "I have come to the conclusion that [residents who opposed the drilling project] were absolutely right. Facebook has been an unfriendly neighbor. These folks now have to be worried about what washes up on their beach for generations.”

Apparently, Facebook will not be deterred. According to various reports, as of August, the company was saying it intends to resume  construction of the cable landing in 2021.

But with its reputation already taking a (deserved, in my view) beating for its belated and still inadequate response to the use of Facebook and Instagram to spread disinformation of various kinds and interfere with U.S. elections, the last thing that Facebook's brand needed was another black eye.

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