The Goleta Nightmare: The Storm Sewer Delivery System

" What government body approved this pipeline design? What responsible authority would allow such inept engineering to be foisted upon the public? At what point do political cronyism and bureaucratic indifference become criminal negligence?"

Santa Barbara's Nightmare

Santa Barbara's Nightmare has returned. Delivered unimpeded with pinpoint accuracy by a storm sewer running along Highway 101, crude oil has again blackened a formerly scenic California beach and decimated a marine ecosystem. Didn't we learn anything from the '69 Santa Barbara disaster?

Click here for the breaking story from CBS: Santa Barbara's Nightmare , Do I need to describe the grim landscape that will appear on tonight's six o-clock news? Black sludge-covered seabirds and otters, seals and sea lions, struggling for life. An undulating mass of blackened seaweed where foamy breakers formerly rolled shoreward.

The Goleta oil spill reveals flawed engineering from horse-and-buggy days rife with ecological ignorance and indifference.

Why weren't automatic shut-off valves operating? Where was the backup system? A drop in pipeline pressure should have stopped the pumping and triggered an investigation. Catch basins could have been built along the pipelines for ease of clean-up and to prevent spillage from reaching sensitive areas. What design considerations were made for local seismic conditions?

Post-1969 and considering the high threat of earthquakes, catch basins should have been required. It is criminally deficient to not include even the simplest environmental safety features in pipeline design. We can send spacecraft to Saturn and beyond, but we can't build and safely operate a simple pipeline?

And don't use the worn-out cost excuse. Cost gets factored into the feasibility of the project. Safety is integral to cost. Are we mentally impaired when it comes to the design of ecologically prudent oil pipelines?

What government body approved this flawed pipeline design? What responsible authority would allow such inept engineering to be foisted upon the public? At what point do political cronyism and bureaucratic indifference become criminal negligence?

Lack of regulatory oversight was a major factor in the Goleta tragedy: Click here for an expose on how the pipeline operator dodged regulation  "Because the county was denied the regulatory authority to require that Plains equip its pipeline with an automatic shut-down valve in case of a rupture, The Santa Barbara Independent has discovered, the Plains pipeline is the only pipeline in the county without this key safety feature. "

The corporation must pay damages, but real accountability means some corporate types need to be in handcuffs and orange jumpsuits.


Storm sewers may be implicated in the still unsolved 2015 Seabird Massacre, presently under investigation by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health, and myself. (This investigation is the main purpose of this web site.)

Storm sewers. We never think about them, but they are pipelines for toxins into San Francisco Bay. What goes down the gutter ends up in our marine environment.

Goleta and the Seabird Massacre are wake-up calls. Attend the June 10 (click here for details) PUBLIC WORKSHOP HEARINGS FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY STORMWATER PERMIT This hearing will consider comments regarding pending action which will help protect the entire San Francisco Bay from the discharge of toxic waste through storm sewers.

Don't let this happen to San Francisco Bay:

If you can't be at the hearing and have comments or questions, post them here on this blog and I will present them on your behalf at the hearing and post the follow-up here.

Here's a list of Bay Area politicians and organizations who can effect change: Whom to Contact

How many seabird massacres does it take for you to take action?

Goleta coastline, May 19, 2015.

Get Involved or Get Ready for Empty Skies

"More of us must become educated to the threat to wildlife imposed by ecological ignorance and indifference and poorly designed development and get actively involved--or..."



AT LEFT is a common tern looking for a meal in San Leandro Bay, where the marine ecosystem has entered a new era of catastrophic ecological threat due to global warming and other human activity.

Sediment buildup from Alameda's lagoons and dredging of the Oakland-Alameda Estuary have recently combined to shift tidal currents, drawing toxins from street run-off and lagoon chemicals into the feeding grounds of these magnificent aerial acrobats.

The human threat to marine wildlife here took a dramatic turn once before in the early 1900s, when dredging of a marsh turned the Alameda Penninsula into an island. The ecosystem had to adjust to the flooding and scavenging effect of powerful new tidal flows.

Further dredging of the newly-created Oakland-Alaemda Estuary made possible the Port of Oakland, a thriving seaport with hundreds of jobs, but a side-effect was a curse for the marine ecosystem of San Leandro Bay. New ship channel depths allowed larger ships to enter the Port but also increased the strength of tidal currents, drawing toxins from Alameda's lagoon effluent around the eastern tip of Alameda Island through the habitat of thousands of seabirds in San Leandro Bay.

Alameda's Tidal Curse is documented here on my blog: Alameda's Tidal Curse . The Curse is that whatever is carried down the Estuary from San Leandro Bay will be returned there and gets recycled repeatedly, day after day. The Tidal Curse is a prime suspect in the Seabird Massacre of 2015, where three hundred beautiful seabirds died and hundreds more were treated and released. The birds were caked in an oily goo that causes hypothermia a hideous death after hours of shivering from the cold.

The Massacre is still under investigation, but we don't have to wait. Action is already underway by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, who recently issued a new tentative ruling effectively declaring Zero Tolerance for anything but storm water to be released into storm sewers: Regional Water Quality Control Board Action .

This new ruling needs to be extended to include lagoons and all inland waterways feeding the San Francisco Bay. Call or write the Board with your comments. If you can--show up on June 12.

What will we learn from the 2015 Seabird Massacre? Will Alameda wake up? Will the City continue to use chemicals to control algae in their ancient finger lagoons? Will first responders become more responsive? Will the police show more interest in environmental cases? Will people use their cell phone cameras to record and report environmental threats? Will schools expand their ecological awareness curriculum?

Everyone enjoys seeing herons, terns, grebes, ducks, pelicans and egrets in our skies and waters. We share their living quarters. Urban development doesn't have to destroy wildlife. More of us must become educated to the threat to wildlife imposed by ecological ignorance and indifference and poorly designed development and get actively involved--or...

...one day the skies will be empty.

Get involved.

Here's a list of politicians, agencies and organizations you can contact: Who to Contact

Did a Coast Guard Island Drilling Fluid Disaster Kill the Seabirds?

"Such a fracture could leak drilling fluid into the Bay Area basin and watershed with catastrophic consequences to marine life such as the Bay Area's 2015 Seabird Massacre."

Suspect Number Two in my investigation is last year's trans-Estuary directional drilling project to string conduit to Coast Guard Island from Alameda. In the shot below, Alameda is to the left and Coast Guard Island is bottom center. (Refer to the attached Initial Study for a detailed project description.)

Coast Guard Island in Foreground

The material spewing into the air in the picture below is drilling fluid, an essential material in almost all earth-boring projects like last year's Alameda Municipal Power bore under the Estuary to lay 1,700 feet of flexible conduit to serve the Coast Guard's needs.

This Youtube video shows what can go wrong: Link to Video of Directional Drilling Nightmare

Directional Drilling Nightmare

Drilling fluid is often used under high pressure, so a massive uncontrolled discharge such as this could happen deep under water and go temporarily unnoticed by everyone but the drilling crew. A geologist should be consulted before using a rock bit anywhere near Bay Area waterways because of the risk of fracturing the often fragile native subsurface geologic formations. Such a fracture (called a "frac-out") could leak drilling fluid into the Bay Area basin and watershed with potentially catastrophic consequences to marine life such as the 2015 Alameda Seabird Massacre.

A drill bit could also hit a subterranean air pocket and fill it with drilling fluid that later leaks to the surface. For that matter, the entire 1,700-foot bore could contain drilling mud residue that continues leaking into the marine environment long after project completion.


Elsewhere in this blog I report that the Bird Goo lab analysis matches a type of additive used in drilling mud. Such additives are for various purposes, such as accelerating the rate of penetration (ROP), thereby reducing the cost of a project and enabling a contractor to win-out over higher bidders.

But speed can lead to mistakes, and accidents can happen. There's insurance to cover such eventualities.

I have asked the Coast Guard for a contact who can answer questions about the CGI drilling project. I will also speak to someone at Alameda Municipal Power.

There a questions to be answered: Were proper engineering standards for environmental protection followed? Was the bidding process deficient? The drilling was practically in AMP's backyard. Did they have on-site supervision throughout the project?

California Trenchless, Inc. was the drilling contractor. I have questions for them too, like how much drilling mud was used, and what kind. What kind of additives were used and how much? How did they dispose of waste drilling mud? What geological data did they use to ensure environmental safety? Did they do any post-project testing for drilling mud leakage? If so, what were the results? How much experience did CTI have in drilling projects of this scale?

Whenever there's dredging in the Bay Area, a Water Quality Board rep is on site testing turbidity every ten minutes. Drilling mud is equally if not more ecologically risky than turbidity. Was a Water Board rep present during drilling? If not, why not?


I am aware of only two significant drilling projects in the vicinity of Alameda within the relevant time frame prior to the Seabird Massacre--the Lagoon Seawall Sewer Replacement and the Coast Guard Island Conduit project. If anyone knows of another, speak up.

The finger of suspicion points at these two drilling projects and lagoon dredging in Alameda ongoing prior to the Seabird Massacre. Maybe all three played a role in the massacre. I am intent on probing these areas until answers are out in to the open.

The Mystery Bird Goo Matches Drilling Mud

"Compare the grey on the duck's chest with the color of the drilling fluid..."

Strong indications have surfaced that a type of drilling mud is a likely source of the "Mystery Goo" that killed and injured hundreds of Bay Area seabirds this winter. All five of the goo's chemical components are present in the type of drilling mud described in detail in this patent application.*

Drilling fluid, or "mud," is a concoction of liquids and other materials used in drilling boreholes into the earth. The main function of the viscous liquid is to provide back pressure to prevent other fluids from coming up, to bring cuttings to the surface, and to lubricate, cool and clean the drill bit. Well-drilling involves drilling mud and waste mud must be disposed of. Here's a video illustrating how drilling mud works: Click here for Youtube clip on drilling mud.

Laboratory analysis of the Mystery Goo was reported by California Fish and Wildlife's Janna Rinderneck to contain five types of material: "silicone fluids, tung oils, resins or rosin oils, animal fats, and edible or inedible seed oils from plants." All five of these categories are present in the type of drilling compound described in detail in the above patent application.

One-hundred percent is a pretty strong indication that some form of drilling mud is repsonsible for the Goo.


How did drilling mud get into the waters that surround Alameda where the bird massacre occcured?

Last year, two large drilling contracts were let in Alameda--one by the Department of Public Works for replacement of a sewer line in a lagoon seawall** and the other by Alameda Municipal Power for running conduit across the Oakland-Alameda Estuary to Coast Guard Island. The CGI project began and ended before the October 12 sludge spill.

The project schedule for lagoon seawall sewer line replacement calls for contract award Sept 2, in plenty of time for a hemorrhage of drilling fluid into the lagoons to occur before October 12.

Dredge in Alameda lagoon

Alameda Public Works also conducted major lagoon dredging in the months prior to and including the first two weeks of October, 2014.

Lagoon,showing white and grey foam

The photo at right reveals the apparent use of a white foaming agent and/or a surfactant to clarify lagoon water after dredging.

A well-drilling surfactant matching 80% (4 out of 5) of the Goo's chemical components shows up in a 2007 patent application.***

Duck saturated with "Mystery Goo"

Around the same time the grey and white foam was photographed floating in the lagoons, a plume of foamy grey sludge was reported in San Leandro Bay. The lagoon foam, the San Leandro Bay sludge and the Bird Goo all are grey.

Compare the grey on the duck's chest with the color of the drilling fluid in the top photo.


On October 12, 2014, the plume of sludge was seen entering San Leandro Bay from the direction of a lagoon portal just west of the Otis Street/Bay Farm Bridge. The plume was observed moving from there into and down the Oakland-Alameda Estuary toward San Francisco Bay on the outgoing tide. (See below for a map depicting tidal currents around Alameda.****) By mid-January, 2015, hundreds of seabirds caked with a grey goo of unknown origin were found near Alameda.

Alameda Public Works was in charge of lagoon dredging and water clarity and also of the seawall sewer project that entailed the use of a drilling fluid, possibly the type described in the patent application mentioned in the first paragraph of this page. Did the seawall drilling project expel a ton of drilling mud into a lagoon? Was that covered up by lagoon dredging and then cleaned up with a foaming agent and a surfactant?

Eye-witness observations, visual characteristics, time frames and the lab analysis of the Bird Goo all support a connection between the Goo and Alameda's lagoons and drilling projects.

Public Works has some questions to answer.



*See patent application for drilling fluid containing all five of the Bird Goo's ingredients (silicone, tung oil, seed oil, resin and animal fats): Click here for patent application for drilling fluid

**See bidding notice for drilling contracts: Click here for bidding notice

***A 2007 patent application for a surfactant used in well drilling reveals a combination of materials that include polymeric fluids (e.g., silicone) tung oils, fish oils (animal fat) and various seed oils: Click here to examine patent application for well-drilling surfactant.

****Here is a map and discussion of Alameda's tidal currents: Click here for explanation of tidal movements

Bid Specifications for Sewer Line Replacement

Item 5 of the following excerpt from a City bid document specifies 91 linear feet of directional drilling that would involve use of drilling mud. 

The Milestones specify an "N.T.P" (notice to proceed) date of Oct-Nov 2014, is in time to create the October 12 plume of grey sludge observed entering San Leandro Bay from the direction of the lagoon's portal.

BID DOCUMENT

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The following items are important elements of the proposed work and the contractor should refer to any similar work she/he has performed in the past within their pre-qualification application.

1. Saw cut and remove an existing 10" sewer pipe from an existing retaining wall adjacent to a Lagoon waterway including removal of the corrugated metal roof covering of the pipe and its supports. The wall is a historic seawall built in the early 1900’s. The waterway is owned by a private Homeowners association and private residents. The wall is in need of minor repairs. Private laterals through the existing wall will need to be abandoned.

2. Construct a temporary access road within the lagoon during the drawdown period for Item No. 1 pipe removal. Care must be taken of the historic lagoon seawall during the pipe removal. Contractor to provide a design submittal with details of the pipe removal and temporary access.

3. Install new sewer pipe - main extensions by open cut construction with in the public street Right of Way. The street is asphalt; a. Install PVC SDR 26- 4" sewer laterals from the sewer main to the back of walk and also to the existing single family structures within well- established lawns adjacent to historic homes on four streets;

4. Install and restore surface improvement on 21 separate private lots including various varieties of the following: grasses, bricks; concrete; landscaping plants, trees and bushes; specialty pavement surfaces; concrete curb, gutter and sidewalk. The contractor will be expected to enter and exit private properties to perform said work efficiently and with concern and respect for resident’s existing structures, improvements and property. Working limits are restricted to 10 ft. wide maximums with the pipe installation as the centerline on the existing private properties.

5. Installation of sewer pipe by horizontal directional drilling of +/- 91 LF of 8" sewer main between two manholes in close proximity to existing homes using front steer guided bore and jack method with steel bend VCP. Install new sewer manhole and rehabilitate existing sewer manhole with epoxy/cement like coating on Hawthorne Street. 

6. Abandonment of existing sewer pipes by filling with lightweight cell-Crete or equal under residential structures.

7. The on-site Resident Engineer of the Construction Company has recent construction project management experience in working directly with the residents at their homes and property before, during, and after the construction and subsequent restoration of the surface improvements in a high profile historic area. References would be helpful.

8. Location of existing utilities by pot holing and protecting existing utilities in place in an older neighborhood including water, storm drain, underground telephone, gas lines, fiber optic, underground electric and cable.

9. Open cut installation of 700 LF of 8" sewer main in private back yards of local residents with subsequent restoration in "like kind" of various surface improvements. Reconnection and or installation of four new private sewer laterals to new sewer main.

10. Install new sewer pump station (approximately 5 ft. diameter, 17 ft. deep), motor control panel, SCADA communication equipment and construct approximately 700 LF of 4" PVC C900 force main on Paru Street.

11. Install new PVC SDR 26 -8" sewer main and sewer manholes on St Charles Street.

DRAWINGS: The plans and specifications are not available for review at this time.

PROJECT SCHEDULE: The anticipated Project schedule is summarized below:

Preliminary Project Milestones	Anticipated Date
Issue Request for SOPQ	April 4, 2014
Pre-Qualification Conference and submittal from contractor of Questions and Comments form due Date	April 21, 2014
Issue PreQUAL - Q and A and comments	April 28, 2014
SOPQ Packages Due to City	May 5, /2014
Final Plans and specifications to City Clerk	May 19, 2014
City staff Reviews SOPQ and Rank firms	May 21, 2014
City staff notifies all firms with Ranking status	May 22, 2014
Final Plans adopted by City Council	June 17, 2014
City Invites Bids from Qualified Bidders list	June 20, 2014
Bid Opening/Bid Due Date	July 24, 2014
Project Award	Sept, 2, 2014
N.T.P. [notice to proceed] issued	Oct - Nov 2014
Substantial Project Completion	May 2015
Anticipated Project Final Completion	July 2015

The Owner has determined that Prospective Bidders on the Project must possess a valid State of California Class A General Engineering Contractor License at the time of submission of this SOPQ.

The entire SOPQ Package (SOPQ questionnaire answers and financial statements), submitted by Prospective Bidders, are not public records and are not open to public inspection. All information provided will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. However, the contents may be disclosed to third parties for purpose of verification, or investigation of substantial allegations, or in the appeal hearing. State law requires that the names of Prospective Bidders applying for pre-qualification status shall be in the public records subject to disclosure, and the first page of the SOPQ questionnaire will be used for that purpose.

The Prospective Bidder shall provide only complete and accurate information in their SOPQ Package. The Prospective Bidder acknowledges that the Owner is relying on the truth and accuracy of the responses contained herein. Each SOPQ questionnaire must be signed under penalty of perjury in the manner designated at the end of the form, by an individual who has the legal authority to bind the Prospective Bidder on whose behalf that person is signing. If any information provided by a Prospective Bidder becomes inaccurate, the Prospective Bidder must immediately notify the Owner and provide updated accurate information in writing, under penalty of perjury. Should a Prospective Bidder omit or falsify requested information, the Owner may designate the Prospective Bidder as not pre-qualified.

The Owner reserves the right to waive non-material irregularities and omissions in the information contained in the pre-qualification application submitted and to make all final determinations. The Owner reserves the right to cancel this Notice or to reject any and all responses and SOPQ Packages, in its sole discretion. City of Alameda – General Contractor SOPQ -4-g:\pubworks\cip\90909 lagoon seawall sewer\pre qualification documents\prequalification for lagoon sewer replace.doc

The Owner shall not be liable for any costs incurred by Contractors in the preparation and submittal of responses to this Request for Qualifications. The Prospective Bidder accepts all risks and cost associated with the completion of the SOPQ Package without any financial guarantee by the Owner.

SIGNED: City of Alameda Public Works DepartmentCapital Improvement ProjectsCarol Clark, PEProject Manager/Associate Civil Engineer

***END OF NOTICE***