I want to give the Oil and Gas Producers, OGP, a big SEAL Team HOOYAH!! They set up the event and to this old divers way of thinking was a success. All the major players in U. S. diving regulation, with the exception of OSHA, were in attendance. Commander Robert. L. Smith, Chief Vessel and Facility Operating Standards Division, made the opening remarks and participated in the full workshop. He was there early and stayed after to answer any questions he could, for anyone that had them.

As always, you get to see a few guys you don’t get to dive with enough, just stroll around, and do a little BS-ing. This year there were 3 things that impressed the hell out of this old Diver.

Fact - Not on your Dive Supervisors Test: If you are diving from a Licensed Vessel you don’t come under OSHA Diving CFR’s. You come under Coast Guard CFRs and there is NO three man dive team allowed!

Opinion: Mine, what’s yours?

Joe Bates     Roy Gray     Frank Hale     Fred Collins     Charley Cockershell     Frank De La Oliva

Who are these guys and what do they have to do with my dive station?

To set the record straight, I do not now and never have thought that everyone in the ADCI, or IMCA for that matter, are bad people.  If anyone feels like they were being attacked personally that was never my intention. My intent is to change the vague OSHA and USCG regulations that currently exist. I believe they have led to needless commercial diving fatalities! We get not so much as a Safety Flash, let alone a full and public report as to why it happened, coming out of the current process.  Contrary to what some may think I do not enjoy bad mouthing our Industry. I am a plain speaking old diver and I call it as I see it. So in plain English: I believe we are well on the way to changing what needs to be changed.  The Roat DEAL will now get back to the Good, Bad and the Ugly of our dive operations, what we do.

The two attached commercial diver death reports, one from the Coast Guard and one from OSHA are perfect examples of what the problem is the U.S.!

Coast Guard:  When you open the report you will find there was no investigation. They also list the work the diver was doing as welding; he was not welding but Oxy Arc Burning/Cutting. Two very different processes that have different consequences.  Mark died from an explosion using equipment I have been raising issues on for over 10 years. NO INVESTAGATION! Begnaud Report (PDF)

OSHA: If anything this is even worse, the death happened on a licensed vessel so by regulation it came under the Coast Guard.  The OSHA investigators applied OSHA rules not Coast Guard and fined the operator for not having a piece of paper that listed where dive chambers can be located.  No mention that it was a three man dive team that the Coast Guard does not allow. No mention the Dive Supervisor was a just broke out diver that knew nothing about the type vessel he was working off. OSHA Document (PDF)

Ten years ago the U.S. CDC, Center For Disease Control, published a report regarding commercial diver fatality rates. At the time, they estimated 3000 working commercial divers in the United States. They said:

“At the average of five deaths per year this corresponds to a rate of 180 deaths per 100,000 employed divers per year, which is 40 times the national average death rate for all workers. This group, which accounts for most of the commercial dive time underwater, includes divers involved in construction, maintenance, and inspection of vessels and structures such as oil rigs, bridges, and dams. The remaining 67 deaths occurred among workers who were not full-time divers; these include seafood harvest divers, search and rescue divers, scientific divers, dive instructors, and nonmilitary federal agency divers.”

Nothing has been done about this report! At this time OSHA nor the Coast Guard has a means for tracking Death or serious incident among Commercial Divers. All though they regulate the Industry they have NO classification for Commercial Diver.

The OGP has compiled a summary of diver fatalities in the ten years since the CDC report. This is it. Click to download the PDF file.

Any Diver who has ever driven to Fourchion knows about the Golden Meadow Rule. SPEED in Golden Meadow you get a ticket, the speed limit is enforced! Everyone also knows before or after Golden Meadow there is no enforcement. We all speed before and after Golden Meadow!

OSHA nor the Coast Guard enforce any rule, there is NO ENFORCEMENT, why would anyone expect the ADCI to be any different, I don't. They don't even have the Sack to be honest about what they are. Promote Safety my ass.

The OGP is doing something about the lack of initiative shown by the ADCI and IMCA on Diver Safety and yes, they have divers and supervisors involved again.

Single page PDF, 171K

click here to download

It appears that the ADCI has decided to publish their Standards prior the Coast Guard putting up their CFRs for public comment. If it is what I saw, it’s the ADCIs same old crap. One of two things is going on:

(1) They are being stupid and will have to republish after the Coast Guard CFRs come out.

(2) They are being stupid and know the Coast Guard is going to co-sign their stupidity as OSHA does.

Well let’s see how long the ADCI continues to support a three man dive team in shallow water. The OGP has told them they have 30 days to except the proposition of a minimum manning level expectable to the major Oil and Gas Producers! If not: The OGP will no longer accept the ADCI membership to work for them. In other words, there would be: Another Dive Company Trade Group. Anyone wanting to do business with any OGP company would have to belong to that new trade group. We are not talking IMCA here; we are talking a new trade group. I do hope the ADCI gets the message.

The Oil and Gas Producers, OGP, Oxy Arc Task Force is moving along.  The recommendations for Minimum Standards in Training and Operations for Underwater Burning will be presented to the full OGP Diving Sub Committee the middle of February. They are meeting in New Orleans prior to the ADCI Convention.  The proof will be in what they do at that meeting. I believe they will do what needs to be done. If I think it is all BS I will tell you my thoughts.

The ADCI has had it review period and should now be in the process of reviewing what suggestions it received. Many of you may have seen the first Freedom of Information Act Request I got back the end of November. It was a simple request for the number of Commercial Divers deaths in the US since 1990. The numbers the Coast Guard has are 428.

They explain that previous to 2001 there may be some recreational divers mixed in, as the information was tracked in an older system. Well from 2001 to November 2010 that leaves 196 deaths the Coast Guard Classes as Commercial Divers.

I have done another Freedom of Information Act Request.  This one should allow us to figure out what the in the Hell is going on here. I want every bit of information made public so we can do something about it. Believe me this will not end here, no more mister nice guy.