WHISTLEBLOWER - TRANSCANADA INSPECTIONS???
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:55 amPipeline Rupture Report Raises Questions About TransCanada Inspections
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/04 ... 22126.html ]
CBC Posted: 02/04/2014 5:00 am EST Updated: 04/05/2014 5:59 am EDT
A CBC News investigation has unearthed a critical report that the federal regulator effectively buried for several years about a rupture on a trouble-prone TransCanada natural gas pipeline.
On July 20, 2009, the Peace River Mainline in northern Alberta exploded, sending 50-metre-tall flames into the air and razing a two-hectare wooded area.
Few people ever learned of the rupture — one of the largest in the past decade — other than the Dene Tha’ First Nation, whose traditional territory it happened on.
In an early 2011 draft report about the incident, the National Energy Board criticized TransCanada, the operator of the line owned by its subsidiary NOVA Gas Transmission, for “inadequate” field inspections and “ineffective” management.
Final reports are typically published by the investigative bodies, either the NEB or the Transportation Safety Board, but this report wasn’t released until this January when the CBC obtained it through an access-to-information request.
The NEB said the delay was caused by an “administrative error” when an employee left without transferring the file over.
TransCanada did not respond to a CBC request for an interview.
MORE:
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/04 ... 22126.html ]
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Did TransCanada Try to Discredit a Pipeline Safety Whistleblower?
[ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
Email suggests TransCanada sought to sap the credibility of a former employee who accused the Keystone pipeline builder of lax safety.
By Mike De Souza, InsideClimate News May 1, 2014
A newly released internal e-mail from TransCanada Corp. is raising fresh questions about whether its managers attempted to undermine the credibility of a former employee who questioned the company's commitment to safety, describing him as "disgruntled."
The email is the latest in a collection of thousands of pages of records released by the former employee, engineer Evan Vokes, who has been at the center of a dispute over the safety of TransCanada's operations in Canada. The emails also touch on TransCanada's record in the United States, where it hopes to build the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline project. Another TransCanada pipeline, which runs from Alberta, Canada to Cushing, Okla. and is known simply as the Keystone, has been plagued by at least 35 leaks or other incidents in the U.S. and Canada since it opened in June 2010.
The records Vokes released document internal safety concerns raised within the Alberta-based energy company, along with the responses from management. Vokes worked at TransCanada for five years, specializing in "non-destructive" examination, which uses tools or visual inspections of the infrastructure without damaging the pipeline.
Vokes, 48, collected most of the records before TransCanada dismissed him in May 2012. They were later submitted as evidence when he appeared at a Canadian Senate committee hearing studying energy policies in 2013.
Vokes obtained the latest email in February 2014 following a request he made through Canadian legislation that protects personal information. TransCanada censored large portions of the message before releasing it, but one section of the email mentions what was described as "managing the EV [Evan Vokes] credibility issue."
"My understanding is that we have been reasonably successful at influencing authorities [portion censored] and pointing out EV is disgruntled, and actually had the responsibility to correct these same matters and did not," said the email, dated July 26, 2013.
TransCanada declined to identify the employee who wrote the comments about Vokes, or to say which authorities were referred to in the email.
"We are not going to debate interpretations of the wording used by TransCanada staff members in old emails or private records," said spokesman Davis Sheremata in a written response to questions.
The U.S. State Department, the lead agency reviewing the Keystone XL project, declined to say whether it had discussed Vokes with TransCanada.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration also declined to comment on the email, but spokesman Damon Hill said the agency acts to protect the environment whenever it finds evidence of non-compliance by a company.
Canada's National Energy Board announced in October 2012 that it would audit TransCanada's operations in response to Vokes' complaints. It released the audit in February 2014 and found no immediate safety concerns. However, the audit also concluded that TransCanada was breaking Canadian onshore pipeline regulations in areas such as hazard identification, risk assessment, monitoring and management review. A separate audit of the company's management, released on April 24, found that TransCanada wasn't meeting requirements to protect whistleblowers who report concerns, incidents and near-misses.
MORE:
[ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
- - - - - -
"I told them in no uncertain terms to go f**k themselves because what they were doing was blatantly unsafe and illegal"
[ http://canadians.org/blog/i-told-them-n ... -blatantly ]
November 17, 2014
“I told them in no uncertain terms to go f**k themselves because what they were doing was blatantly unsafe and illegal” -excerpt from TransCanada whistleblower Evan Vokes’ eye-opening speech to our annual conference in Hamilton. To watch the video of his speech click here: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0fdQ7h ... e=youtu.be ]
TransCanada has had five ruptures over the past year- far more than any other pipeline company according to National Energy Board statistics. [ "HTTP 404 - FILE NOT FOUND" - Ed. ]
The five ruptures occurred on both recently built pipelines and pipelines that are up to 40 years old which raises serious questions about TransCanada’s ability to safely build and maintain pipelines.
From Brent Patterson’s blog “Council of Canadians recognizes Evan Vokes with Whistleblower award”
[ http://canadians.org/blog/council-canad ... ower-award ]
“On October 4, Evan Vokes received a 'Special Award for Whistleblowing' from the Council of Canadians at this year's annual conference in Hamilton. Vokes, who gave a powerful acceptance speech at our gathering, first came to public attention in late 2012 after he went to the National Energy Board with concerns about TransCanada inspection practices. TransCanada is the Calgary-based corporation behind the 1.1 million barrels per day Energy East tar sands pipeline and the 830,000 barrels per day Keystone XL pipeline to the United States.
In October 2012, CBC reported, "A former TransCanada engineer says he reported its substandard practices to the federal energy regulator because he believed the company’s management, right up to the chief executive officer, refused to act on his complaints." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2550175 ]
"Vokes said he met with the Calgary-based company's vice-president of operations, and he also wrote a detailed letter to TransCanada Corp. chief executive officer Russ Girling. Frustrated, he finally made a formal complaint to the National Energy Board... Vokes said he raised concerns about the competency of some pipeline inspectors and the company’s lack of compliance with welding regulations set by the NEB, the federal energy industry regulator. ...Vokes said he refused to back down and the workplace friction eventually took its toll [on his health]. ...Vokes went on stress leave in November 2011. In March 2012, he met with top National Energy Board officials and on May 1, he filed a formal written complaint with the NEB. TransCanada fired him on May 8."
"Many of the complaints by Vokes focused on TransCanada's practice of allowing its pipeline and fabrication contractors to hire the inspectors that would be inspecting the contractors' work. In 1999, the NEB imposed a regulation which requires the companies contracting the work, such as TransCanada, to supply independent inspectors to inspect the contractors' work. ...Vokes said the NEB regulation ensures contractors can’t pressure inspectors to sign off on work that is not up to code. TransCanada has publicly admitted it did not always follow this regulation in the past, but said it was industry standard. Vokes said TransCanada believed independent inspection slowed production, driving up construction costs."
The National Energy Board found that Vokes acted properly in taking his concerns first to TransCanada management and then to the regulator. It also found that many of his allegations were valid.
"[On October 12, 2012], the NEB issued a public letter to TransCanada. Without naming Vokes, it said 'many of the allegations of regulatory non-compliance identified by the complainant were verified by TransCanada’s internal audit. The NEB said it was 'concerned by TransCanada’s non-compliance with NEB regulations, as well as its own internal management systems and procedures'. The regulator warned the company it would not tolerate further infractions of regulations related to welding inspections, the training of pipeline inspectors and internal engineering standards. It also announced a further audit of the company’s inspection and engineering procedures. The board, however, said the deficiencies 'do not represent immediate threats to the safety of people or the environment'."
Eighteen months later, in February 2014, CBC reported, "Earlier this week, the National Energy Board released an audit of TransCanada’s integrity-management system conducted after the complaints of whistleblower Evan Vokes were publicized through a CBC News investigation in October 2012. ...The board found TransCanada didn’t comply with several key areas including hazard identification, risk assessment and control, inspection, and management review. But the audit also found the processes now employed by TransCanada have 'identified the majority, and most significant, of its hazards and risks'. The NEB ordered TransCanada to submit, within 30 days, a corrective action plan which details how the company will address the areas in which it is failing to comply." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2550175 ]
"[While Vokes complaints were validated], that is cold comfort for Vokes. He was fired by TransCanada a week after he filed a formal complaint with the NEB in May 2011 and has only worked sporadically ever since. Vokes said he stood up because it was the right thing to do but other engineers at TransCanada did not."
Furthermore, Mike De Souza reported in May 2014 that, "A newly released internal e-mail from TransCanada Corp. is raising fresh questions about whether its managers attempted to undermine the credibility of [Vokes] who questioned the company's commitment to safety, describing him as 'disgruntled'. ...Vokes obtained the latest email in February 2014 following a request he made through Canadian legislation that protects personal information. TransCanada censored large portions of the message before releasing it, but one section of the email mentions what was described as 'managing the EV [Evan Vokes] credibility issue'. 'My understanding is that we have been reasonably successful at influencing authorities [portion censored] and pointing out EV is disgruntled, and actually had the responsibility to correct these same matters and did not', said the email, dated July 26, 2013. TransCanada declined to identify the employee who wrote the comments about Vokes, or to say which authorities were referred to in the email." [ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
The Council of Canadians extends its appreciation to Mr. Vokes and believes that the information he made public at great personal cost must continue to be considered as TransCanada advances its Energy East pipeline and advocates for its Keystone XL pipeline.
Further reading
Energy East pipeline company found non-compliant in safety audit (February 25, 2014 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/energy-east-p ... fety-audit ]
Whistleblower presents ‘bleak picture’ of TransCanada pipeline safety (June 14, 2013 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/content/whistleblo ... ine-safety ]
TransCanada fails to comply with pipeline construction regulations (October 17, 2012 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/node/8839 ]
Mark Calzavara,
Council of Canadians' Ontario-Quebec regional organizer
http://canadians.org/blogs/mark-calzavara
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/04 ... 22126.html ]
CBC Posted: 02/04/2014 5:00 am EST Updated: 04/05/2014 5:59 am EDT
A CBC News investigation has unearthed a critical report that the federal regulator effectively buried for several years about a rupture on a trouble-prone TransCanada natural gas pipeline.
On July 20, 2009, the Peace River Mainline in northern Alberta exploded, sending 50-metre-tall flames into the air and razing a two-hectare wooded area.
Few people ever learned of the rupture — one of the largest in the past decade — other than the Dene Tha’ First Nation, whose traditional territory it happened on.
In an early 2011 draft report about the incident, the National Energy Board criticized TransCanada, the operator of the line owned by its subsidiary NOVA Gas Transmission, for “inadequate” field inspections and “ineffective” management.
Final reports are typically published by the investigative bodies, either the NEB or the Transportation Safety Board, but this report wasn’t released until this January when the CBC obtained it through an access-to-information request.
The NEB said the delay was caused by an “administrative error” when an employee left without transferring the file over.
TransCanada did not respond to a CBC request for an interview.
MORE:
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/04 ... 22126.html ]
- - - - - -
Did TransCanada Try to Discredit a Pipeline Safety Whistleblower?
[ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
Email suggests TransCanada sought to sap the credibility of a former employee who accused the Keystone pipeline builder of lax safety.
By Mike De Souza, InsideClimate News May 1, 2014
A newly released internal e-mail from TransCanada Corp. is raising fresh questions about whether its managers attempted to undermine the credibility of a former employee who questioned the company's commitment to safety, describing him as "disgruntled."
The email is the latest in a collection of thousands of pages of records released by the former employee, engineer Evan Vokes, who has been at the center of a dispute over the safety of TransCanada's operations in Canada. The emails also touch on TransCanada's record in the United States, where it hopes to build the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline project. Another TransCanada pipeline, which runs from Alberta, Canada to Cushing, Okla. and is known simply as the Keystone, has been plagued by at least 35 leaks or other incidents in the U.S. and Canada since it opened in June 2010.
The records Vokes released document internal safety concerns raised within the Alberta-based energy company, along with the responses from management. Vokes worked at TransCanada for five years, specializing in "non-destructive" examination, which uses tools or visual inspections of the infrastructure without damaging the pipeline.
Vokes, 48, collected most of the records before TransCanada dismissed him in May 2012. They were later submitted as evidence when he appeared at a Canadian Senate committee hearing studying energy policies in 2013.
Vokes obtained the latest email in February 2014 following a request he made through Canadian legislation that protects personal information. TransCanada censored large portions of the message before releasing it, but one section of the email mentions what was described as "managing the EV [Evan Vokes] credibility issue."
"My understanding is that we have been reasonably successful at influencing authorities [portion censored] and pointing out EV is disgruntled, and actually had the responsibility to correct these same matters and did not," said the email, dated July 26, 2013.
TransCanada declined to identify the employee who wrote the comments about Vokes, or to say which authorities were referred to in the email.
"We are not going to debate interpretations of the wording used by TransCanada staff members in old emails or private records," said spokesman Davis Sheremata in a written response to questions.
The U.S. State Department, the lead agency reviewing the Keystone XL project, declined to say whether it had discussed Vokes with TransCanada.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration also declined to comment on the email, but spokesman Damon Hill said the agency acts to protect the environment whenever it finds evidence of non-compliance by a company.
Canada's National Energy Board announced in October 2012 that it would audit TransCanada's operations in response to Vokes' complaints. It released the audit in February 2014 and found no immediate safety concerns. However, the audit also concluded that TransCanada was breaking Canadian onshore pipeline regulations in areas such as hazard identification, risk assessment, monitoring and management review. A separate audit of the company's management, released on April 24, found that TransCanada wasn't meeting requirements to protect whistleblowers who report concerns, incidents and near-misses.
MORE:
[ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
- - - - - -
"I told them in no uncertain terms to go f**k themselves because what they were doing was blatantly unsafe and illegal"
[ http://canadians.org/blog/i-told-them-n ... -blatantly ]
November 17, 2014
“I told them in no uncertain terms to go f**k themselves because what they were doing was blatantly unsafe and illegal” -excerpt from TransCanada whistleblower Evan Vokes’ eye-opening speech to our annual conference in Hamilton. To watch the video of his speech click here: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0fdQ7h ... e=youtu.be ]
TransCanada has had five ruptures over the past year- far more than any other pipeline company according to National Energy Board statistics. [ "HTTP 404 - FILE NOT FOUND" - Ed. ]
The five ruptures occurred on both recently built pipelines and pipelines that are up to 40 years old which raises serious questions about TransCanada’s ability to safely build and maintain pipelines.
From Brent Patterson’s blog “Council of Canadians recognizes Evan Vokes with Whistleblower award”
[ http://canadians.org/blog/council-canad ... ower-award ]
“On October 4, Evan Vokes received a 'Special Award for Whistleblowing' from the Council of Canadians at this year's annual conference in Hamilton. Vokes, who gave a powerful acceptance speech at our gathering, first came to public attention in late 2012 after he went to the National Energy Board with concerns about TransCanada inspection practices. TransCanada is the Calgary-based corporation behind the 1.1 million barrels per day Energy East tar sands pipeline and the 830,000 barrels per day Keystone XL pipeline to the United States.
In October 2012, CBC reported, "A former TransCanada engineer says he reported its substandard practices to the federal energy regulator because he believed the company’s management, right up to the chief executive officer, refused to act on his complaints." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2550175 ]
"Vokes said he met with the Calgary-based company's vice-president of operations, and he also wrote a detailed letter to TransCanada Corp. chief executive officer Russ Girling. Frustrated, he finally made a formal complaint to the National Energy Board... Vokes said he raised concerns about the competency of some pipeline inspectors and the company’s lack of compliance with welding regulations set by the NEB, the federal energy industry regulator. ...Vokes said he refused to back down and the workplace friction eventually took its toll [on his health]. ...Vokes went on stress leave in November 2011. In March 2012, he met with top National Energy Board officials and on May 1, he filed a formal written complaint with the NEB. TransCanada fired him on May 8."
"Many of the complaints by Vokes focused on TransCanada's practice of allowing its pipeline and fabrication contractors to hire the inspectors that would be inspecting the contractors' work. In 1999, the NEB imposed a regulation which requires the companies contracting the work, such as TransCanada, to supply independent inspectors to inspect the contractors' work. ...Vokes said the NEB regulation ensures contractors can’t pressure inspectors to sign off on work that is not up to code. TransCanada has publicly admitted it did not always follow this regulation in the past, but said it was industry standard. Vokes said TransCanada believed independent inspection slowed production, driving up construction costs."
The National Energy Board found that Vokes acted properly in taking his concerns first to TransCanada management and then to the regulator. It also found that many of his allegations were valid.
"[On October 12, 2012], the NEB issued a public letter to TransCanada. Without naming Vokes, it said 'many of the allegations of regulatory non-compliance identified by the complainant were verified by TransCanada’s internal audit. The NEB said it was 'concerned by TransCanada’s non-compliance with NEB regulations, as well as its own internal management systems and procedures'. The regulator warned the company it would not tolerate further infractions of regulations related to welding inspections, the training of pipeline inspectors and internal engineering standards. It also announced a further audit of the company’s inspection and engineering procedures. The board, however, said the deficiencies 'do not represent immediate threats to the safety of people or the environment'."
Eighteen months later, in February 2014, CBC reported, "Earlier this week, the National Energy Board released an audit of TransCanada’s integrity-management system conducted after the complaints of whistleblower Evan Vokes were publicized through a CBC News investigation in October 2012. ...The board found TransCanada didn’t comply with several key areas including hazard identification, risk assessment and control, inspection, and management review. But the audit also found the processes now employed by TransCanada have 'identified the majority, and most significant, of its hazards and risks'. The NEB ordered TransCanada to submit, within 30 days, a corrective action plan which details how the company will address the areas in which it is failing to comply." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2550175 ]
"[While Vokes complaints were validated], that is cold comfort for Vokes. He was fired by TransCanada a week after he filed a formal complaint with the NEB in May 2011 and has only worked sporadically ever since. Vokes said he stood up because it was the right thing to do but other engineers at TransCanada did not."
Furthermore, Mike De Souza reported in May 2014 that, "A newly released internal e-mail from TransCanada Corp. is raising fresh questions about whether its managers attempted to undermine the credibility of [Vokes] who questioned the company's commitment to safety, describing him as 'disgruntled'. ...Vokes obtained the latest email in February 2014 following a request he made through Canadian legislation that protects personal information. TransCanada censored large portions of the message before releasing it, but one section of the email mentions what was described as 'managing the EV [Evan Vokes] credibility issue'. 'My understanding is that we have been reasonably successful at influencing authorities [portion censored] and pointing out EV is disgruntled, and actually had the responsibility to correct these same matters and did not', said the email, dated July 26, 2013. TransCanada declined to identify the employee who wrote the comments about Vokes, or to say which authorities were referred to in the email." [ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140 ... stleblower ]
The Council of Canadians extends its appreciation to Mr. Vokes and believes that the information he made public at great personal cost must continue to be considered as TransCanada advances its Energy East pipeline and advocates for its Keystone XL pipeline.
Further reading
Energy East pipeline company found non-compliant in safety audit (February 25, 2014 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/energy-east-p ... fety-audit ]
Whistleblower presents ‘bleak picture’ of TransCanada pipeline safety (June 14, 2013 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/content/whistleblo ... ine-safety ]
TransCanada fails to comply with pipeline construction regulations (October 17, 2012 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/node/8839 ]
Mark Calzavara,
Council of Canadians' Ontario-Quebec regional organizer
http://canadians.org/blogs/mark-calzavara