Lecture Series: SPECIAL GUEST - DR. RIKI OTT

Dr. Riki Ott

Riki Ott, a former commercial fisherwoman, trained marine toxicologist and "accidental activist" since the Exxon Valdez disaster on issues of concern to coastal communities and democracy will be the guest speaker for Acadian Group of the Sierra Club on Wednesday May 21, 2014.

Ott visits the Gulf Coast this month to meet with community organizations to discuss upcoming proposed revisions to the National Contingency Plan, what this means to people who live in areas impacted by these activities, and how to make an official public comment. The Federal Government is preparing revisions to the NCP to direct future disaster response efforts relating to all forms of oil and energy extraction contamination.

Ott will discuss the petitioning drive to Ban the Use of Corexit as an oil remediation tool and her effort to organize communities for a new program called ALERT -A Locally Empowered Response Team - that will gather baseline data to be compared with data after a disaster, and will provide treatment to people who have been chemically exposed.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Please contact us to RSVP so we may plan an appropriate sized room at the church meeting hall to accommodate everyone.

Meeting begins at 6:30pm located at First United Methodist Church, 703 Lee Avenue, Lafayette, LA. Entry to the church hall faces the rear parking lot visible from Johnston Street. Meeting room upstairs on the right. Share this update, and please bring a friend!

An Engineering Look at the Cause of BP's 2010 Blowout and Oil Spill

Offshore Drilling Expert/Author to speak at Lafayette Southside Library April 17, 2013, 7:00 pm

On this third anniversary of the Macondo disaster we can honor not only the 11 who died, but the 115 who survived and all of those who continue to work on this new ultra-deep water, ultra-high pressure frontier.

Lafayette - John Turley spent two years studying Macondo well data and investigative reports and published a book in September 2012 about the drilling of the well and how it went wrong. That was months before announcements including BP's and Transocean's blowout-related, multi-billion-dollar criminal charges; the indictment of two BP company men; and BP's civil trial, which started 25 February 2013.

John Turley's goal in studying BP's Macondo blowout was to use his education and experience to cut through all the media and finger-pointing noise, so as to document the drilling of the 3-1/2-mile-deep well and the engineering, operating, and human causes of the disaster. Through those studies, he came away with a simple message for those touched by the disaster, for petroleum engineering students, politicians, regulators, the media, and for his oil-&-gas colleagues around the world. The message is this:

Only if we understand and care about
the cause of BP's Macondo blowout
will we know why it should not have happened
and why it should never happen again.

Mr. Turley's presentation is about his documented findings on this important oil and gas industry topic. This will be a one hour presentation with time for Q and A. The presentation is sponsored by Sierra Club Acadian Group.

John Turley began his offshore career as a company man for Tenneco out of Lafayette, Louisiana. He has worked as Gulf Coast drilling manager, operations manager, manager of worldwide drilling, and VP of engineering & technology for Marathon Oil. His academics include petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, ocean engineering at the University of Miami, and executive education at Harvard Business School. For additional information, see Mr. Turley's Website: JohnTurleyWriter.com

 
Per our custom, we may take dinner at a local restaurant after the meeting. Guests are welcome to join us.

Please also visit our new Facebook Page and RSVP for this event here