An environmental assessment, commissioned by Facebook for the drilling equipment it abandoned under the Oregon Coast, has found that the machinery and lubricating fluid pose no significant risk to the environment, according to a report released Tuesday.

The equipment — including more than 1,100 feet of steel drilling rods and 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid — was lost 50 to 70 feet under the seafloor after an accident in April as Facebook was drilling to connect an international undersea fiber optic cable between Asia and the tiny coastal community of Tierra Del Mar.

The assessment was conducted by Environmental Resource Management, based in Portland, and peer reviewed by Geosyntec, another environmental consulting firm.

“ERM’s analysis concludes that there are currently no adverse environmental, scenic, recreational, or economic impacts resulting from the drill break or presence of Remaining Materials 50 to 70 feet below the sea floor,” the report says. “Nor is there a reasonably conceived scenario (e.g., earthquake, tsunami, long-term coastal erosion) that would expose the Remaining Materials to the surrounding environment and result in future impacts.”

The report was met with skepticism by residents and coastal advocates, including Cameron La Follett, executive director of the Oregon Coast Alliance, an environmental advocacy group, which intends to sue the social media giant over its abandoned equipment.

“It is entirely expected that the firm hired by Facebook to evaluate the status of the abandoned equipment would conclude there is no danger or adverse effects,” La Follett said. “Facebook has from the beginning of this debacle acted in a manner to ensure as thoroughly as possible that the equipment could not be recovered.”

The controversy over the Facebook project began well before Edge Cable Holdings, a Facebook subsidiary, broke ground earlier this year in the vacant lot it bought from former University of Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington in 2018.

Many residents of Tierra Del Mar — a residential-zoned enclave made up of about a dozen mostly gravel streets running perpendicular to an idyllic stretch of beach — were vehemently opposed to Facebook’s presence on the coast. Of the nearly 60 comments submitted during the permitting process, every one recommended denying the permit outright or seeking an alternative location.

Despite the locals’ objections, permits for the project were approved by a host of county and state agencies, including the Tillamook County Land Use Board, the County Commission, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the Department of State Lands and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction began in March with crews using a horizontal drilling rig to bore a hole under the beach and 3,000 feet out to sea, where the cable would ultimately be connected to land. The project was nearly complete when the accident occurred.

On April 28, the drilling crew hit an area of hard rock and the drill pipe snapped. The crew developed a plan to recover the lost equipment, but that would have required getting equipment they didn’t have on hand and construction would have extended past the time allowed under their permits, according to an incident report from the drilling subcontractor reviewed by Environmental Resource Management. Instead, the crews packed up and left with plans to return to bore a new hole in early 2021.

Ali Hansen, a spokeswoman for the Department of State Lands, said the state only found out about the abandoned equipment in a meeting with Facebook representatives on June 17, five weeks after the accident. Earlier this month, the agency told Facebook that it was in default of its permits because it was using the area to “store” the abandoned equipment, which was unauthorized. It told the company to remove the equipment or apply for a new permit to leave it under the seafloor.

“While we did an initial impact assessment after the incident, we thought it made sense to do a full, independent environmental assessment to make sure we were doing things absolutely right,” Kevin Salvadori, director of network investments for Facebook, told The Oregonian.

According to the assessment from Environmental Resource Management, the drilling fluid, which is made up mostly of bentonite, a natural clay, likely hardened soon after the accident and encased the drilling equipment.

Nikki Payne, a partner at Environmental Resource Management, said there was virtually no scenario in which any of the equipment or fluid would become dislodged from where it sits under the ocean floor, even accounting for a powerful earthquake on the nearby Cascadia Subduction Zone.

The assessment also found that, even if the drilling fluid and equipment were to somehow migrate to the surface, the compounds used in the lubricant do not exist in large enough quantities to pose an environmental threat.

Removing the equipment would be difficult, according to the assessment, which analyzed two methods for retrieving the drill pipe and fluid.

Construction crews could drill a new hole, try to attach a tool to grab on to the abandoned equipment and drag it out, but that would require a high degree of precision and was unlikely to work, the assessment concluded. The only other option would be to dredge the seafloor, which would be time-consuming, expensive and would cause more environmental damage than leaving the equipment where it lay, the report said.

Hansen said that, regardless of what the report said, Facebook will still need to apply for a permit to leave the equipment under the seafloor.

La Follett said the Oregon Coast Alliance plans to proceed with the lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that Facebook violated the federal Clean Water Act and state water quality control laws when the drilling equipment was abandoned.

“Corporations don’t cop to pollution problems until fully challenged, which my client intends to do,” said Charlie Tebbutt, an attorney representing the group.

Salvadori said the company would be fighting the lawsuit.

“We believe their claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves against those claims vigorously,” he said.

Lynnae Ruttledge, who lives part time in Tierra Del Mar and who has been a vocal opponent of the project since its inception, had not seen the report, but is not ready to take Facebook, or the report it commissioned, at face value.

“Once again, Facebook will say ‘You can trust us.’ My response: That hasn’t worked very well and based on their track record, we need to ‘trust and verify,’” she wrote in an email. She added that she was curious whether the analysis was based on a study of the actual materials under the seafloor or just generic information about those types of materials.

“I can read a recipe and assume my complicated dinner meal will turn out just fine. But if I follow the outlined steps but cut corners and use substitutions, the outcome is not predictable,” Ruttledge said. “The same is true with this situation; it doesn’t mean that the abandoned equipment is necessarily safe for the environment now or that there may not be possible economic costs in the future.”