Some more spill info...

The latest (potential) mess involves the clean-up. A little backstory is in
order.

In the aftermath of Katrina, the debris cleanup, trailer moving and set-up,
etc., was contracted to several large "prime" contractors who then subbed the
actual work to sub-contractors. One of the issues was the how the clean-up
payments were handled. Neither cubic yardage or weight proved to be "safe"
methods as if yardage was used, the workers would "fluff" the trailers, thereby
getting many more loads than they would have had they been fully loaded. If
weight were the criteria, then it was fairly easy to pump that up. A variety of
methods were tried to make it fair for all, but there was a lot of iffy payments
as well as some outright fraud (like taking the same load through multiple
times). What does this have to do with the spill, one might ask? Well, since
essentially no one has any experience with this type of thing, most importantly
those doing the actual clean-up, there is a potential problem.

As many have seen, the pictures widely distributed show people in Tyveks
shoveling sand and "tarballs" into "garbage" bags. If one looks closely, it is
clear that in most cases, there is far more sand being gathered than "tar ball."
Some would argue that all of the surrounding sand is "contaminated" and it must
be gathered as well (not surprisingly, the subs fully support this premise). And
the reasonableness of that aside for the moment, it still leaves a large amount
of sand to deal with (and remember, there is a fair amount of
naturally-occurring "tar balls" constantly washing up, too). So, what this
leaves is _large_ volumes of a fairly heavy product that is now, at least
arguably, "hazardous waste." For those that do not know, not just anyone can
transport "hazardous waste." And as most can guess, once something is
"officially" declared "hazardous waste," this brings a whole new set of rules,
regs, etc. into the picture. Including disposal. And once again, the problem
of paying for the disposal and the associated "fluffing" of those costs. We've
heard reports that in some cases, there may be as much as a cubic yard of sand
gathered with less than a gallon of oil (I've heard even less than a quart).

For those that have no frame of reference, a typical residential home slab for a
typical tract ranch-style house is, for the most part, four inches thick. If
the home's slab is 2000 sq. feet, it contains roughly 25 yards of concrete, and
the volume of the house is roughly 600 cublic yards. A large dump trailer holds
roughly 20 yards, so it would take 30 loads to move this volume of sand.
Assuming the mid-point of 2 quarts per yard of sand, or 300 gallons in the 600
yards, you have approximately 1.5 "yards"of oil (approximately 7.5 gallons per
cubic foot). The average "homeowner" wheelbarrow is about 6 cubic feet, or 45
gallons, so it would be a little under 7 wheelbarrow loads of oil and 2700 loads
of sand.

So what does THAT mean, money-wise, you might ask. Prior to the spill, a 20
yard load of material, in this area and with a material such as sand, cost
roughly 150USD to transport "locally" (usually under 10-15 miles or so, the
material cost not included in the 150.00) and dump it anywhere the buyer wanted
on their property (obviously, this would not have been "hazardous waste"). If
your local "quick lube" oil change place did a coupla-hundred oil changes a
week, they would generate about 300 gallons of "waste oil" (most cars use 5
quarts, some use more, some a little less, and pickups with diesels use
substantially more). The collection company could collect from several of these
in one round trip using a much smaller truck.

Now, however, if each of those loads is "hazardous waste," the cost of
transport, handling, disposal, etc. goes up exponentially, it cannot be dumped
anywhere, etc. What does all this translate into, "real world?" Well, here's a
"real world" answer. Take a small material hauler who has three trucks, one he
drives and two driven by hired drivers. If he can keep all three running on
jobs all day (averaging about 6 loads a day, fairly easy to do if the work is
there), five days a week (VERY unlikely), he can _gross_ about 3000.00 a day
(out of which must come material cost, equipment cost and maintenance, fuel,
insurance, tags, driver pay, etc., etc., etc.) and if he is very lucky, net
maybe 2-3000.00 a week. Realistically, it'd be about half the gross and net
because it is unlikely he could keep all 3 running all day, every day. IAC,
about all he can charge is 150.00 _a load_ for transport.

However, now, he can contract the three at 4500.00 per day (1500.00 per day
each) plus expenses (they even pay for the hazmat cert) and a per diem, without
regard to loads carried. From what I've heard, he can (and from his
perspective, need) only make, at best, two runs per truck per day, so the "wear
and tear" is less. And he is at the very entry level of this pyramid. Based on
Katrina, the sub he works for likely takes around 500.00 per truck and the prime
takes between 500.00 and 1000.00 per truck _per day_, again regardless of number
of loads, for doing little more than getting the subs, doing some basic
paperwork, and handling logistics (IOW, the contract pays 2500-3000.00 a day,
and the levels above take their cut and pay those below). There were a fair
number of "mid-subs" post-Katrina that made multiple millions of dollars with
very little overhead, etc.

Also, I've heard reports that there are many "civilian" boats (IOW, boats that
were not "cleanup' boats pre-spill, such as charter boats, shrimping/fishing
boats, etc.) sitting idle, yet the captains and crews are being paid similar
extraordinary amounts. I've heard one figure of over 10,000.00/day per
boat/crew, at the "prime contractor" level, for a smaller boat with a crew of
3-4, and captains (who would be at bottom of the "contractor chain), getting, or
really, being contracted at, 2500.00 a day, working or not, and if working some
or all expenses are covered. I haven't seen those contracts, but I have heard
first-hand accounts, and I do know a number of people who have been contracted
via the VOO or hazmat transport program, and while I've not asked any for
specifics, what they are saying tends to support these numbers.

TC,
R