My letter home from the "war room" while working
Deepwater Horizon... in July of 2010...
And so.. be
careful what you say. NOAA had come under criticism by calling the program I'm working on “Project Cleansweep”..
thoughts were that.. we were trying to "sweep the truth" under the rug.... so one of our esteemed leaders threw
out the project name "dipstick" because, as he pointed out we were trying to determine how much oil had been spilled
and was present in the Gulf.
The effort
that I'm part of here is really impressive. You'd never know from the lack of news and publicity that there are over 400 people
here at Unified Area Command in New Orleans occupying two entire floors of a major downtown building. There are 900 at another
command post in Houma and several hundred more over in Mobile. The folks commanding these posts are impressive and dedicated.
To give you an idea of the extent of whats happening here, I have a security badge. I need it to open the door to the building,
then I have to show it to the guard on the second floor before I get on the elevator. Then, when I get to the 14th floor,
I pass another badge and use it to unlock the entrance door to the 14th floor. Then, once inside, I have to show my badge
to the entrance monitor who scans it so there is a record of when I come in and when I leave.. The theater has included dozens
of research ships, airplanes, helicopters, etc., my program involves a slew of underwater robotics both autonomous and tethered
to the ships.
My daily routine has me grabbing a cup of coffee at the
downstairs coffee shop and leaving my hotel (The Roosevelt) at 7 a.m.. I walk to the building (where I learned by reading
a tourist sign that Louis Armstrong was "adopted" by a Jewish family), passing a mix of abandoned buildings and
new skyscrapers.. and sit down at my table/desk about 7:30. After I do my morning situation reports and get a handle on what
needs to be done, I walk around the corner and grab my breakfast. There is a full spread of food, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It’s a little better than the food I'd expect to get on a boat. But, it keeps us from leaving the site.. very efficient.
I get back to my desk about 7:45 in a room of about a hundred people. My
"station" consists of 6 folding tables with power strips on top w/ data links. We all use laptops. The area in my
immediate vicinity includes Senior folks from BP, EPA, USGS, NOAA, and others. The “speak” during the day
is full of acronyms, very technical discussions, legal issues, and some levity. The stapler is tied to the desk due to its
frequent loss to the masses. We have a USB connection on the back end of the cable that we've convinced others that its a
computer activated system to staple files together...
Our objective was to determine how much oil was left in the environment.
That name brought some pretty good laughs to the home crowd here in New Orleans.. then today we learned that a NOAA scientist
on one of the ships used the name with Reuters.. and now its public... ouch...
Ok.. what else. In addition to getting our food taken care
of we also can have our laundry done. This is a good thing, because I was supposed to be down here til last Wednesday... It’s
now Monday and I'm scheduled to fly home on Thursday (fingers crossed). The laundry is a great thing 'cept they lost
my Tommy Bahama shirt.. but they found it and its upstairs hanging on the rack.. it was supposed to be under the "L"
section, but it was found under the "D" section.. funny thing is I didn't put my first name on the laundry list..
only "Levin"... hmmmm...
It’s now going on 9:00 p.m.and I'm losing steam. I spent the day
developing a plan for collecting sediment samples from the shoreline out to the continental shelf edge ( a long way).
We'll be using a combination of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Underwater Gliders, and Old Fashioned Regular Samplers.. the
samples will be collected in water depths between 30 and 5,000 ft of water. I'm figuring this effort alone will cost
BP on the order of $5 - $10,000,000.
It’s been incredibly impressive watching this process and being
part of this part of the evolution. Be certain that everything that can be done to find and account for problems that may
be of concern to the public are being addressed by the best and the brightest. Its unfortunate that that message is not getting
out well.
I'll close for now but let you know that the highlight of my day came at the end of our evening
(5:30 to 7:00) status meeting where I was awarded the "Super Star" flashing button for my work on the sediment sampling
plan that required coordination between EPA, USGS, MMS (BOEMM), and NOAA. I get to give it away after tomorrow evening's meeting.
OK.. I'm going to log out now.. after which I will tidy up my work area, walk upstairs to get my laundry, and
make my way back to the hotel. I need to be back here ultra early tomorrow because I have about 10 reports due at 7:30
a.m. Lest you think I'm not having any fun, I had a great night with my buddy Scott, who came down on Friday and
we made a night of it with a nice dinner and a visit to a great bar with a great live jazz/blues band. On Saturday night,
there was a football game over at the Superdome, which is next door to my office. I walked down 'bout 6:30.. walked along
the sidewalk, and came across a $100 ticket which I purchased for $50. I'm always nervous that these tickets aren't going
to work when I get to the gate. It did and I sat about 10 rows back from the field. Watched a neat preseason game with a little
bit of the starting corps of the Super Bowl champs...
Ok.. I'm really logging out now.. I will walk to the security
person who will flash my card, then I'll hit the green button that opens the door, I'll pass the guard before i get on
the elevator to the 2nd floor.. where I'll get off, pass another guard before I walk down the stairs to the first floor..
then flash my badge on the sensor that opens the locked door on the first floor. Then I'll walk down Poydras, take a left
on Barrone, and walk the rest of the way to the Roosevelt. I'll get on the elevator to room 20823... and get a little sleep..
My next day starts like it does at the top of the page...
I am hoping to be on a plane home on Thursday
afternoon, but I have to tell you.. it’s been pretty exciting to be here and be part of what’s happening here.
I'm writing this as much for myself as I am for anyone...
Write with questions.. as you'd like. I'll have
plenty to share after this is done. My guess is that I'll be involved in this for a good while after I vacate the New Orleans
site.
'Nite.
