1 gas blow-outs in Canadian waters, one I want to say in the Arctic and 



2 the other in the Canadian Atlantic. I have, I think, both of them 



3 somewhere. 



4 DR. AURAND: My interpretation of what little I do know is that 



5 the impacts from gas blow-out were much less severe, obviously, than oil 



6 spills. 



7 MS. HUGHES: The only reason I remember raising it in looking at 



8 the draft EIS was, if I remember correctly, the measurements that were 



9 done in the Canadian Atlantic, they were finding somewhere between 5 



10 and 10 parts per million total hydrocarbon concentrations below the 



11 surface, almost in a subsurface plume. I will find the reports. 



12 DR. AURAND: Does anybody really want to even say anything about 



13 these, since we don't have anyone here to talk to them? 



14 MS. HUGHES: One question, since there hasn't been very much work 



15 done on them, I have the feeling the answer is no. 



15 DR. AURAND: There haven't been that many gas blow-outs that I 



17 know of that have been studied. I think there was one paper. I think 



18 we sent you a copy. 



19 MS. HUGHES: You did. I have two reports on Canadian work. 



20 DR. AURAND: So, there are three pieces of information. 



21 DR. RAY: Most of your gas blow-outs that occur down there occur 



22 on the platform itself, so you have a combination of sand, rocks, gas, 



23 and water getting blown up into the air. Very few of the situations 



24 actually happen subsurface where you are injecting high volumes of gas 



25 directly into the water. 



26 I don't know of--I haven't seen any of the studies on that that 



27 have been done related to a gas blow-out, but as I say, most of them are 



28 on the platform itself with the exception of shallow gas blow-outs where 



29 you have ruptures totally outside the casing and everything else. 



30 DR. AURAND: Does anybody want to say anything about these? In my 



31 mind, a gas blow-out has less of a significant impact than an oil spill, 



32 but I don't even know if you want to say that. Does anybody have an 



33 opinion or do you just want to pass? 



34 DR. GRASSLE: Pass. 



335 



