1 So, if we say 500 meters, then we can be pretty sure that nothing 



2 will go into the canyon. 



3 DR. HECKER: For very fine material? 



4 DR. TEAL: No, the heavy stuff, the stuff that accumulates on the 



5 bottom. I'm not talking about stuff that gets mixed up into the water. 



6 What you could say is that we recommend that nothing be closer than 500 



7 meters from the canyon, so that we can consider impacts of a more 



8 important class of things. 



9 What are these things that you are really worried about? You 



10 would be really worried if they proposed to drill right at the head of 



11 the canyon, but let's just count that out. That is certainly going to 



12 be unacceptable. 



13 DR. VALENTINE: We haven't even discussed that. We haven't 



14 discussed what the probable impact would be of drilling in a canyon from 



15 what we know about the sedimentary environment in the canyon. 



16 I don't think we--rm not for it or against it. I don't see how 



17 we can exclude talking about that. 



18 DR. TEAL: I think we're wasting our time if we talk about it, 



19 because he and she are going to see to it that their governments would 



20 hang this-- 



21 DR. VALENTINE: That doesn't preclude a discussion on it. 



22 MS. HUGHES: That has no meaning here. 



23 DR. AURAND: If I can, I think Bob's comment to me was that it is 



24 a given that you will bury the organisms that are in the immediate 



25 vicinity of the rig; that is an uncontestable fact. If they are down 



26 there and you drop this stuff on them, they are buried. 



27 As far as he is concerned, if there was to be the conclusion of 



28 the group that that was not something that you wanted to do, you didn't 



29 want to bury half a kilometer of the things that live in the head of the 



30 canyon, then the easy solution is to say, "Don't put it there." That 



31 is where the comment about being offset by 500 meters came from. 



32 I do not think that that is the same as saying that fines would 



33 not ultimately be transported into the canyonhead, but it is a comment 



34 that you wouldn't have massive burial in the canyon. 



277 



