Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, March 29, 1970 Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, March 29, 1970 Oil on t By LEE KIRK Daily Wildlife Editor It has been said that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. The thundering crescen4o of rhetoric on pollution has produced much the same phenomena; everybody's talking about it, but the action ends there. Talk is much cheaper than cleaning up the environment.. And as long as talk is cheap and the cast of action is dear, environmental disasters and near disasters will continue to be commonplace. The recent ex- plosion of an offshore drilling rig off the shores of Louisiana and the massive spillage of crude that came after the fire was extinguished have again served to point up the dangers that constantly peril the environment and life as we know it. Poorly enforced regulations that allow tankers and offshore wells to threaten coastlines and to exist as a constant threat to fisheries and wildlife seem to prod no one into anything in the way of concrete action. A near miss such as the one off the bayou shores should have pointed up the dangers of off- shore drilling equally as much as Santa Barbara slime, as was the case in California, the memories are slipping from people's minds and things seem destined to go on as they always have; that is, badly." Only a fortuitous shift in the wind kept the ,oil from flowing shoreward and reaping a harvest of havoc with the shrimp and oyster beds, and imperil- ing a federal wildlife ,preserve. The slick has now been dissolved and stink by a massive chemical bombardment, but the possible effects of the, sunken roubled w oil and the chemicals on ocean floor life remain to be seen; no one is really sure what will happen. THE LOUISIANA near-miss shows how slowly the lessons of the past are learned. The Torrey Canyon, Santa Barbara, the Tampa Bay fiasco - all these past oil spillages pointed up the dangers of casual handling of large quantities of petroleum. But as the explosion and spillage in the Gulf of Mexico show, the bureaucratic powers that be have not as yet taken any action towards the stricter enforcement of laws and regulations that would significantly reduce the possibility of such occurrences. There are almost 8,000 oil wells in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico alone. The job of inspecting these installations falls on the shoulders of seventeen men. Inspecting the platform alone takes two federal inspectors a day, and additional time is required to check the underwater systems. In the eight months since the government started to crack down on offshore rigs that failed to meet the re- quirements, only about 20 per cent of the Gulf oil fields have been checked out. The crackdown has produced pyrrhic victories at best. Federal officials have been reluctant to try and make any of their charges stick. The oil com- panies are in theory subject to a $2,000 a day fine for violations, but one Department of the In- terior official recently admitted that in his thirteen years on the job, he could not recall one instance in which an oil company was prosecuted. 'The reason for this is simple. The government would have to pay for the litigation is a suit were aters: A Louisiana brought. In case of a serious violation, the gov- ernment may order a rig temporarily shut down, but they're hurting themselves in so doing. The government gets a 12 per cent royalty on all U.S. produced oil. The amount of money in- volved for both the oil companies and the federal government is so large as to make the $2,000 a day fine peanuts for both. Governments in states such as Louisiana where oil is vital to the economy have always taken it easy on the industry. Four out of every ten dollars the state of Louisiana spends come from' oil-related revenues, and oil is obviously essential to the economic health of the state and the political health of all Louisiana politicians. Senator Long fought long and hard against any reduction in the oil depletion allowance last year. It is hardly surpris- ing that he is from Louisiana and even less startling that he has a large financial stake in several Louis- iana oil interests. EVEN AFTER the leak, Louisiana officials seem- ed to be more concerned about getting more rigs out in the Gulf than anything else. The State Attorney General remarked that the oil slick appeared to be "an act of God." Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge, the Lieutenant Governor was ranting about the federal government's delay in granting new offshore drilling leases. War is good business, and so is oil. Oil is too good a business to concern itself with, safety devices. If a federally required safety device had been operative on the well that exploded and spewed oil in the Gulf, the whole mess could have been avoided. Regulations require all wells to have a storm choke to cut off the flow of oil when it becomes abnormally high. Such a choke costs all of $800 dollars. The chokes are a nuisance, however, as they need frequent cleaning and are easily damaged on sandy ocean floors, and the federal government is general- ly receptive to companies' requests to waive the re- quirement. The infamous Well No. 6, the well that blew, was supposed to have a choke, and no request had been made to the government to waive the re- quirement. Yet, when the well blew, the choke was not on. INTERIOR SECRETARY Walter Hickel said after inspecting the site that "a choke would have cut off the fire, no doubt about that." In other words, if Well No. 6 had had a choke the surge in oil initiated by the fire would have activiated the choke, and taken the fuel from the fire. The result would have been a short-lived fire and, at worse, a very small slick. Without the choke, the fire was completely out of control for days, and even when the blaze was extinguished, there was nothing down on the ocean floor to keep the oil, forced up by pressures within the earth's crust, from pouring to the surface. Con- sidering the risks of the anticipated slick, it is a wonder that the fire was not allowed to run its course. portrait The forgotten man in all the hassle during and after the slick has been the coastal resident; the fisherman, the beachside motel owner and others whose livelihood is dependant the natural resources threatened by oil slicks. Chevron, the oil company that owns Well No. 6, was hit last week with a $75 million suit filed by nine shrimp fisherman who charged that the slick could cause permanent and substantial damage to the shrimp industry. The spillage came at a particularly bad time for shrimpers, for this is the time of year when the shrimp migrate to breeding areas. Thus, the number of shrimp that could conceivably be af- fected by the oil and the chemicals that dissolved is far greater than it would be at other times. IN ADDITION to this suit, oystermen have filed a claim for $31.5 million for the potential damage their oyster beds could suffer. These suits are of a nebulous legal nature, however, and it remains to be seen if the fishermen will get any satisfaction at all. Even if the suits are successful, it is doubtful that they will result in anything other than imme- diate gains for the plaintiffs. They will not force the oil companies into better policing themselves, and until the howls of disgust cah penetrate the courts and legislative bodies, enforcement will be lax and regulations insufficient. A rhetorical com- mitment to taking the steps to cut down on the chances of more oil slicks occurring is hardly suf- ficient. A, . . .. CHARITY GAME: Dartmouth College Coeducational Summer Term June 2--August 22 East notches win in King Classic LOS ANGELES (OP) - Solo home runs by Ron Fairly of Montreal and Ron Santo of the Chicago Cubs, plus a three-run eighth- inning uprising, brought the East a 5-1 victory over the West Sat- urday in the Dr. Martin Luther LIBERAL ARTS King Jr. Memorial Baseball Clas- Southern California and Dodger sic. star, was awarded the trophy as A Crowd of 31,694 watched the the most valuable player in the charity game in Dodger Stadium. game in which stars from both the Proceeds go to the late Dr. King's National and American leagues Southern Christian Leadership were divided geographically. Conference and a memorial cen- Jim "Mudcat" Grant of Oak- ter planned for Atlanta. land sang the national anthem in Lew Krausse of Seattle was the the pregame program, and then victim of both home runs, Fairly's became the victim of a four-hit coming on his first pitch of the uprising by the East in the eighth third inning and Santo's to open inning that insured the outcome. the fourth. Al Kaline of Detroit beat out Fairly, former University of an .minfield hit to open the frame Undergraduate credit courses in humanities, sciences, social sciences--intensive foreign language instruction - introductory com- puter course. To receive Summer Term Bulletin write to: Summer Programs Office Parkhurst Hall Box 582 Hanover New Hampshire 03755 VilJUi~mO I Fp M-M-m-m-m, yummie! A giant hamburger of 1/4 lb. U.S. Govt. pure beef topped with let- tuce, tomato, mayonnaise, onions, oickles and ketchup ... and moved to second as Tom Agee drove Hank Aaron to the left field wall on a long fly. Kaline raced home on Lou Brock's double to left. Brock scor- ed on Roberto Clemente's double and Clemente came home on Ken McMullen's single. After Jackson put the W e s t down in the seventh inning, he gave up a single to Willie Davis, opening the eighth. Davis reached second after the fcatch of Aaron's long fly and the Dodger scored on a pinch-double by Ken B e r r y of the Chicago White Sox. For his initial charity g a m e, former New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio managed the East, and ex-Dodger Roy Campenella, confined to wheelchair sin c e a 1958 auto accident, directed the fortunes of the West. Denny McLain was to have rep- resented the Tigers until he was suspended for alleged gambling activities. Freehan then replaced McLain. Coretta King, widow of the late civil rights leader, threw out the first ball, with Baseball Commis- sioner Bowie Kuhn and a host of Hollywood celebrities on hand. . I ~- S GMIU . 1EEDY ENVCE West of Arborland 1 BEL-AIR CA RWAS H Free Exterior Wash with 13 gal.*--$1.35 without gas OR Interior-Exterior Wash 49c with 15 gal.* OPEN DAILY 8-6; SUNDAY 8-2 -Associated Press NATE * ARCHIBALD (11) from the Western All-stars drives around Charlie Scott (15) of the East late in the second half of yesterday's game. The UTEP senior scored 35 points, but to no avail, as the East triumphed 116-102. Mount, McMillian pace East 633 S. MAIN GULF CREDIT CARD ACCEPTED *Must be fill up PE CORPS UE 3529 S.A.B. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (A) - The East, behind Charlie Scott's dazzl- ing passes and the deadly shoot- ing of Rick Mount and Jim Mc- Millian, rolled to a 116-102 vic- tory -Saturday in the college bas- ketball East-West All-Star game. The winners led safely from late in the first half on, despite the game-high 35 points by Nate Ar- chibald of the West, a 6-foot-1 guard from Texas-El Paso. Ar- chibald had 22 of his points in the second half. Scott, a 6-5 star from North Car- olina, was named the outstanding player in the nationally televised game..He scored 18 points besides setting up his teammates for easy baskets throughout the game. Purdue All-American M o u n t made 10 of 15 field goal attempts STUDGNT DOOK SGRVIC / March 30-April 3 Peace needs everyone, whatever your degree, whatever your skills. Give peace at least one chance-find out what you can do. The world does need all the help it can get- KILLER SALE EVERYTHING ridiculously Reduced in Price ALL USED BOOKS AT 50% OFF AND MORE ALL NEW BOOKS AT 20% OFF AND MORE - -- ~1l Gay Liberation Front A coalition of homosexuals, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and straights who say NO to sexual repression CALL about MONDAY'S and led the East with 25 points. McMillian, from Columbia, had 23. Rick, Erickson of Washington State was second high behind Archibald in scoring for the West4 with 16 points but had only two in the second half. Jim Ard of Cincinnati had 14. Dave Sorenson of Ohio State, who had seven points in the East drive at the end of the first half, totaled 17 for the game. He, Rudy Tomjanovich'of Michigan . and McMillian gave the East a re- bounding edge in the second half. Collins signs with Chicago CHICAGO (A") - The Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association Saturday signed their No. 1 draft choice, Jimmy Collins of New Mexico State, to a three- f year contract. Terms were not disclosed by Pat Williams, Bulls' general man- ager, who said the club had rated Collins third behind Pete Mara- vich of Louisiana State and Bob Lanier of St. Bonaventure in preference. Collins, 6-foot-2, a fine outside shooter was drafted by the Los Angeles Stars of the rival Ameri- can Basketball Association. 1~ Still No Plans for This Summer? WHY NOT MAKE THIS YOUR ALL WEEK Open till 9 P.M. SUMMER FOR EUROPE? 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