The evidence includes testimony from a senior Enbridge employee who suggests the energy company, now promoting new projects in Canada such as the multibillion dollar Northern Gateway pipeline from Edmonton to the British Columbia coast, is years away from achieving "world-class" safety standards.
The environmental disaster in July 2010 triggered clean-up operations that Enbridge estimates will cost it more than $700 million. The energy company is also facing a record $3.7 million fine for 22 alleged violations related to the U.S. spill that continues to leave traces of oil in the Kalamazoo River.
Enbridge has declined interview requests about the evidence, but the president of its Liquid Pipelines division, Stephen Wuori, said in a statement earlier this week that it has made "numerous enhancements to the processes and procedures" in its control centre since the accident, including new training for employees.
The evidence includes records of control centre operations as employees took about 17 hours to shutdown the pipeline despite repeated alarms.
Stuart Horan, a control centre operator employed by Enbridge since 1980, told U.S. investigators that he was starting to see a negative change in the company's philosophy prior to the accident.
"It kind of went (to a philosophy of people saying) let's get the oil out of here as fast as possible and as much as possible, and that's kind of when things went down hill a bit," Horan said on Feb. 2 in an interview at an Edmonton hotel.
Enbridge said in its statement that it has co-operated with the U.S. regulatory agencies such as the Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board, since the disaster and "appreciates the hard work and due diligence that the PHMSA has put into this investigation."
The company has 30 days to respond to the notice of the fine and the alleged violations.
Other employees from the control room suggested inexperience was a factor for employees under pressure to keep lines running and discouraged from initiating any stoppages.
"I think that junior employees that have just become operators would have a feeling of trying to make the supervisors happy, and, yeah,they would possible (sic) have that feeling," said Rex Vader, a control room operator who had been with Enbridge for 26 years, during a Feb. 1 interview. "I think there was more pressure to run (the lines) before the accident. That's my feeling."
Jonathan Vaters, another control centre operator with about four years of experience at Enbridge, suggested supervisors also influenced the decision of one of his co-workers on the floor during the drama.
"I think he was almost bullied into starting the line back up," said Vaters, in a separate interview with investigators on Feb. 1. "I don't know the whole story, but - and I'm not sure if he was fully confident in starting up."
Records of the evening in question have suggested control room operators were not sure how to respond to the alarms going off and debated whether to start or stop the flow in the pipeline.
"So close it, all my pumps are down, so I don't care," said one operator to another, according to the evidence released by the government. "You can close off whatever because it's not going to take me down, that's for sure."
Another operator responded that he had never seen this type of situation, believed it might be a leak and found it to be interesting.
"Whatever, we're going home and will be off for a few days," said the operator.
Allan Baumgartner, the director of Enbridge control centre operations in Edmonton, told investigators on Feb. 2, that it could be years before the energy company achieves its goal of becoming the best and safest in the industry.
"Are we there today?" said Baumgartner, a 29-year veteran employee of Enbridge. "I don't think so. Have we made progress or taken steps towards getting there? I think we have. Will we be there in the next year or so? Probably not. We'll be in the middle of the pack someplace and it's probably multiple years before we become, you know, best in class or world class. That's our timelines, right."
Enbridge Spokesman Graham White told Postmedia News in an email that "safety has always been core our operations," and is a "top priority" for people who live and work near its pipeline rights of way. He also wrote that Enbridge would evaluate all information from the incident and apply it to all of its pipeline operations.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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