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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (2010)

Updated: July 20, 2010

Unusual Step Recalled With Blowout Preventer

A former worker on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig testified July 19 that he had used an abnormal way of testing a critical emergency device that failed on the day of the explosion. The worker, Leo T. Lindner, a drilling fluid specialist for M. I. Swaco, testified at a government hearing in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner that BP had given him permission to use an unusually large amount of a fluid called a “spacer” when conducting tests of the blowout preventer, a last-ditch safety mechanism that failed during the disaster. That decision ran counter to normal industry protocol, Mr. Lindner said, “and was made because BP could not easily dispose of the excess fluid any other way without violating environmental laws. “I remember seeing one e-mail from a BP mud specialist saying it would be O.K.,” he said, adding that the company’s environmental department had also approved the switch. Investigators from the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Regulation and Enforcement are holding the hearings. They began in May, resumed July 19 after a two-month hiatus and are scheduled to continue through July 23.

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http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/oil_spills/gulf_of_mexico_2010/index.html