Latest BP Oil Spill Took Place at Facility Employee Warned Was "Operating in Unsafe Condition"

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http://www.truth-out.org/latest-bp-oil-spill-took-place-facility-employee-said-was-operating-unsafe-condition/1311082418


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The employee was prompted to write that email following a November 29, 2009 pipeline rupture at the same facility, which spilled 45,828 gallons of oil and water into the tundra, one of the largest spills on the North Slope. BP blamed the rupture on ice plugs that built up inside the pipeline that resulted in increased pressure and finally the rupture. But the employee said BP's negligence contributed to the disaster.

The employee, whose identity Truthout had agreed to keep confidential because he said he feared BP would retaliate against him, listed more than a dozen pieces of crucial production equipment that he claimed were not working or were out of service at Lisburne during the time of the November 29, 2009, spill, thereby "leaving no back-up to running equipment and equipment out of service which should be on-line as per the system requirements to run the plant."

"With minimum manning in maintenance and operations we are basically running a broken plant with too few people to address the problems in a timely and safe manner," the employee's email said. "Operations cannot rely on Management to provide them with a safe and reliable plant to work in. The management of our maintenance at simply is not working to maintain a safe operation. This gap in maintenance management causes problems that increase the overall risk of plant integrity and personnel safety."

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"We still have hundreds of miles of rotting pipe ready to break that needs to be replaced," Kovac said at the time. "We are totally unprepared for a large spill."
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Barons should go to jail

america, the land of rotten pipes