Friday, May 27, 2011

Stranded on the slope

I never realized one could be stranded on the north slope in summer. I knew it was possible in winter with the high winds and blinding snow storms, but not the summer time. Well, Alaska has figured out yet another way to defeat our struggle to pump black stuff out of the ground by knocking out our bridges.

The Kuparuk river flows through the middle of the oil field, and is frozen 3/4 of the year. However, it has an annual increase in levels due to melting snow from the Brooks Range mountains south of us; as a result, this water and ice flow can knock out our bridges. Last year was mild, thus the bridges were saved. This year, particularly bad and it even washed out the road leading to where the bridges once were...

You may ask if this is a result of global warming, to which I would reply "shut up". This has been going on for 35 years, and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Also, BP will continue to build cheap bridges that can be knocked out yearly so the root cause is still there.

I'm somewhat busy now, but I did want to let you know I'm trying to get your gas prices down.

-Russell

2 comments:

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  2. Russell - your blog is hilarious! I love how you write like you talk...makes an enjoyable read. Hope you update soon.
    Give Joe a call when you get back from the slope and we'll get together for a beer or something.

    (I deleted the first one because I had a typo. Fail.)

    Jess

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