102 



weather. The fumes — I know Mr. Wyatt will remember when we 

 flew over the IXTOC spill. 



Mr. Studds. He did not really get seasick. 



Mr. Wyatt. I was in an airplane. 



Captain Corbett. He will recall the fumes which we experienced 

 at 500 feet were very noxious. This kind of thing is a people 

 problem. This is another reason why we are talking about 8- to 10- 

 foot seas. I really believe we can operate in that range. I also 

 believe it will be a long time, if ever, as you suggest, that we will 

 be able to operate in anything, say above 12-foot seas. 



Mr. Studds. Right, and what you are saying to me is that during 

 substantial segments of the year, and in fact during intervals even 

 in summer under normal conditions we would not be able to deal 

 with the spill on the Georges Bank or Gulf of Alaska or presum- 

 ably other areas. 



Captain Corbett. I did not say that. I said on the Georges Bank 

 the environmental impact statement indicates we can operate 

 about 10 percent of the time. 



Mr. Studds. I think you meant 



Captain Corbett. Ninety percent of the time. Thank you Mr. 

 Chairman. 



Mr. Studds. Whoever wrote the environmental impact statement 

 concluded only 10 percent of the time do the waves go over 10 feet 

 on Georges Bank, is that right? 



Captain Corbett. That is right. 



Mr. Studds. The person probably could not find it on the map. I 

 suggest if they can stand repetitive things and they work in Wash- 

 ington which they probably do or they would not have written a 

 statement like that, if they would turn on NOAA's weather condi- 

 tions radio reports and leave it on for a few days any given month 

 in Georges Bank, they might revise their environmental impact 

 statement. 



Mr. Pritchard. 



Mr. Pritchard. Tell me how much have we learned in the last 

 couple of years from more recent oil spills since we had our prob- 

 lem up in the Georges Bank area? 



Captain Corbett. We learned a great deal at the IXTOC 1 oil site 

 in this matter of open water recovery. In fact we had scheduled an 

 exercise, I think it was just a few months ahead of the time when 

 the IXTOC 1 occurred, which was canceled because of IXTOC. We 

 were eventually invited down to that site by Mexico to recover oil. 

 We were quite delighted with the recovery efforts. We had some 

 setbacks as well. I would like to read you some extracts, Mr. 

 Pritchard, of some of the operational messages which were received 

 from our man on the scene, Lt. Com. Jim O'Brian. Before I do that 

 I would like to tell you a little bit about Jim. He is a Texas boy 

 who grew up in Texas, he really has no ax to grind with anybody, 

 he just reports the facts as they are. He is not in the business of 

 selling equipment or anj^hing of the sort. But he is very reliable at 

 reporting facts as they are and really knows his business. On the 

 10th of August he reports: 



Failure of mooring points on initial pump sled during heavy seas prevented the 

 establishment of the recovery system. Launched second sled and will utilize an 

 improvised mooring design. Expect recovery/pumping ops to commence P.M. 10 

 August. 



