Facebook ordered to clean up undersea drilling equipment in Oregon – By Mariella Moon (Engadget) / Aug 14 2020
The company has no plans to retrieve the drilling equipment from the ocean.
Facebook has earned the ire of Oregon residents and officials for abandoning drilling equipment off the state’s coast, 50 feet under the sea floor. According to the Tillamook Headlight Herald, Facebook subcontractor Edge Cable Holdings, Inc. left 1,100 feet of drill pipe and approximately 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid, among other drilling tools, in the ocean back in April. The company used all those for Facebook’s undersea fiber optic cable project but had to abandon them after an accident that snapped the drill pipe. Facebook said it has no plans to retrieve the equipment.
The social network confirmed that to The Oregonian that the drilling equipment left behind during the accident is still at the site. A spokesperson said that Facebook performed an environmental assessment and “determined that there is no negative environmental or public health impact from the drill head remaining at the site.” The spokesperson added: “While marine retrieval of the remaining equipment and drilling mud may be possible, such an effort is not guaranteed to succeed and it is not an environmentally prudent option.”
Despite the company’s insistence that the abandoned equipment won’t impact the environment, Oregon Coast Alliance executive director Cameron La Follette told The Oregonian:
“This accident, which resulted in Facebook/Edge Cable abandoning equipment and at least 6,500 gallons of bore gel under the seafloor, occurred due to corporate incompetence, combined with negligence and extreme irresponsibility about Oregon’s priceless marine natural resources.”
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