Manassas man offers plan to save gulf

MANASSAS, Va. -- Russell Payne has a plan to save the Gulf of Mexico from any more spewing oil.

After weeks of trying to contact everyone from the White House to BP, Payne finally was able to bend someone's ear.

Last week, Payne presented to his plan to Virginia Sen. Charles Colgan, and the elder politician who repre-sents Manassas, Manassas Park, parts of Prince William told Payne he would send his plan down to a contact with the Louisiana Senate.

"It's interesting," Colgan said of Payne's idea. "He's trying, so you got to give him credit for that."

He also left a message for U.S. Sen. James Webb, whose secretary said he would be willing to listen to the idea.

Payne has worked in heavy construction, land development, demolition and excavation for 30 years. His plan involves reaming the original oil pipe that is leaking, then fitting another pipe of the same dimensions and material inside the existing one.

The idea is that the well will continue to pump oil through the new pipe while preventing any more oil leakage into the Gulf of Mexico.

The disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill started after an explosion on April 20 that killed 11. It is esti-mated that anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 gallons a day are still being spilled into the gulf as BP has failed in numerous attempts to stop the oil from flowing.

There have been reports by several media outlets that BP may have taken shortcuts with the well before the explosion. Like other critics, Payne said that BP should never have attempted to fill the well with concrete.

"This could be BP's biggest mistake," wrote Payne. "The hydraulic pressure of the oil well could possibly push up [the concrete] outside the sides of the oil pipe casing and then it can never be stopped until all the oil is gone and into our oceans."

In his time working construction, Payne has worked specifically with wells. In one case, he experienced the power of hydraulics, which is essentially defined as pressure applied to any part of a confined fluid trans-mits to every other part with no loss.

"I experienced a well that was capped shut," wrote Payne. "The hydraulic pressure pushed the water up the outside of the casing. It could only be stopped by re-opening the well."

Payne recently demonstrated his idea to this newspaper on his kitchen table with items from his tool set. Up to that point, Payne had received no response from anyone he contacted.

In the last week, he received letters from the White House and from Gov. Bob McDonnell but was unim-pressed with both pieces of correspondence.

The White House letter addressed him only as "friend," while McDonnell's letter stated that the oil spill "falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government" and "that Gov-ernor McDonnell has no authority to intervene in federal matters."

"I feel it is grossly negligent on his [McDonnell's ]part that he should not get in-volved," said Payne. "...I don't understand why he can't intervene. This is a national disaster."

The letter then refers Payne to Webb and Sen. Mark Warner, both of whom he contacted. Warner's office said Payne would have to be put on a waiting list to speak with the senator. It also referred Payne to BP's website for submissions called deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, where individuals may send ideas on how to stop the oil spill.

However, Payne had already submitted his plan late last week and all he received in return was a confirma-tion of his submission.

According to the website, more than 20,000 ideas have been submitted. The company is vetting these re-sponses in three categories: Not possible or not feasible in these conditions; already considered/ planned; or feasible.

The website states that 100 of these ideas are being looked at further.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.