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14 EPA J. 35 (1988)
What to Do With Those Old Oil Rigs

handle is hein.journals/epajrnl14 and id is 208 raw text is: What to Do With Those Old Oil Rigs by Clay Fulghum W hat's almost twice as tall as the Washington Monument, weighs hundreds of tons, and attracts visitors of both the two-legged and finned persuasions? Actually, the riddle has multiple answers, all in the form of oil-drilling platforms, most of them in the Gulf of Mexico. These platforms, or rigs, as they are often called, can extend to depths of 1,000 feet and more. They have become popular gathering spots for a variety of sea creatures from barnacles to barracuda-as well as for enthusiastic sport and commercial fishermen. The platforms-over 4,000 in U.S. and state waters-are susceptible to the ravages of time, not to mention weather. And not only that. The oil fields beneath them are being used up. In fact, over 1,500 platforms will be retired and dismantled between now and the year 2,000 at a cost that the National Research Council has estimated at over $1 billion. They'll be retired, that is, unless another use can be found for them. Enter Villere Reggio, point man for the Rigs-to-Reefs program of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), Department of Interior. He thinks it would be imprudent at best to scrap the 4,000 acres of marine habitat now provided by producing platforms in the Gulf and points to the fact that offshore oil and gas structures can act as excellent artificial reefs, attracting bryozoans, mussels, mollusca, anemones, sponges, corals, crabs, shrimp, red snapper, grouper, and others too numerous to name, to form a complete food web. So, Reggio says, take advantage of a good thing. Instead of paying millions of dollars to establish artificial reefs out of other materials, as the United States and other countries are now doing, use the materials at hand. Make the oil companies happy, along with environmentalists, fishermen, and fish. An easy solution; everybody wins. Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as he suggests; even though the program is gaining momentum with 10 such rigs-turned-reefs already in place and others well on the way to changing from oil producers to fish habitats. In fact, it might be argued that determining exactly how to deal with aging oil platforms is the really challenging riddle, and there are a variety of answers. Some charge, for example, that converting oil and gas structure to reefs is a way for oil companies to avoid expensive disposal procedures, which can easily cost $1-4 million per platform. Says Sally Ann Lentz, an attorney for the Oceanic Society: It's an excuse for dumping; it's not based on a scientific need for a structure. Citing a potential for navigational hazards that could lead to pollution incidents, she contends that oil platforms worldwide should be completely removed when their useful - . - -- -s - - . - -- .7-: - - -4 - * f l-r -7 ~ ~ ' This 300-ton oil rig platform was barged from Louisiana to offshore Florida to become an artificial reef. It was placed on its side near Pensacola about 175-feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Not shown, the platform's upper section was placed nearby Tenneco Inc photo JUNE 1988 35

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