Solutions need common purpose

Aug. 9, 2010
Occasionally things go wrong. It is important after things go wrong to consider why they did.

Occasionally things go wrong. It is important after things go wrong to consider why they did. Not simply for the sake of assigning blame, but rather to reach an understanding of events that might allow us to move forward in the manner of our choosing without risk of repeating our mistakes. In order to be effective, this consideration must be deliberate. To lunge for the first possible explanation or solution and act upon it is ultimately no more effective than choosing not to investigate at all.

Finding the middle ground of deliberate consideration is difficult, however, as competing interests seek to protect themselves from the consequences of the initial misfortune. In between these competing interests lie our country's legislators and regulators.

Springing into action

Both have sprung into action in the wake of first BP PLC's Macondo blowout and more recently the July 26 crude leak on pipeline 6B of Enbridge Energy Partner's Lakehead system (OGJ Online, July 29, 2010). Estimates place the size of the Enbridge leak at 19,500 bbl, affecting Talmadge Creek and 25 miles of the Kalamazoo River, but stopping just short of Lake Michigan.

The US House of Representatives on July 30 approved the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act of 2010. The CLEAR Act would require liquid pipeline operators to put spill response plans online, including the risk analysis used by operators to develop the plan, to open spill response plans to public comment, create several new regulatory requirements for dispersants used in response plans, and amend the 1990 Oil Pollution Act to require covered facilities to compensate the federal government for its enforcement activities and allow claimants to file suits against covered facilities for damages or adverse impacts to human health, including mental health.

Congressman Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) introduced the Corporate Liability and Emergency Accident Notification (CLEAN) Act 3 days after the Enbridge spill. This bill seeks to improve response times to pipeline incidents, limit to 1 hr the time a company has to report an incident to the National Response Center, and increase fines for failure to notify the NRC within that time limit to $250,000 from $100,000, with multiple violations leading to penalties of up $2.5 million.

Patrick Daniel, Enbridge president and chief executive officer, said the company's goal was "to return this river to the state it was in before this incident." Daniel also emphasized that Enbridge will pay "all legitimate damages from the spill."

Appropriate responses

These are appropriate responses to the damage done by the spill, but they do not remove the importance of understanding why it happened in the first place. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation attempting to discover when Enbridge operators first became aware of the leak and how they responded. It expects this investigation to take 12-18 months.

The US Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration on July 28 ordered Enbridge to correct deficiencies on Line 6B as a condition of eventually restarting it (OGJ Online, July 30, 2010). Enbridge last assessed Line 6B for corrosion in June 2009, repairing some of the discovered anomalies, but as recently as July 15 notified PHMSA of an alternative plan to address the rest which would push remediation outside the timeframe allowed by current regulations. PHMSA cited Line 6B as recently as January for improper monitoring of corrosion near its starting point in Griffith, Ind.

Following the Macondo blowout, PHMSA told pipeline operators to review their spill-response plans to ensure they were adequate to address a worst-case discharge. Officials say they will review Enbridge's response that this was the case against the backdrop of the 6B leak.

Failure of the industry, regulators, and the citizenry at large to cohesively address incidents such as these will serve only to nurture the environment in which they can occur again.

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