News Stories
Fairbanks News Miner
March 7, 2002
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1002,7249%257E447157,00.html
DEC regulator
resigns after reassignment
By The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE--A top regulator has resigned from the Alaska Department of
Environment Conservation, 2[1/2] months after she was stripped of authority to
oversee some North Slope oil activities.
Susan Harvey notified 30 staffers of her resignation Monday. She said she plans
to focus her career on technical work to achieve environmental improvements.
Harvey's departure comes after DEC reassigned her and colleague Robert Watkins
to focus on other duties. That outraged some co-workers, environmentalists and
industry workers, who claimed they were punished for regulating the oil industry
too vigorously.
DEC officials said that wasn't true. They said Harvey and Watkins were
overloaded with other work, but they also said the two officials were nitpicky.
Harvey was a shining star in a state heavily influenced by the oil industry,
said Peter Van Tuyn, litigation director with the Anchorage environmental law
firm Trustees for Alaska.
"She was willing to work with the industry to come up with a way to still get
their oil out of the ground but also ensure environmental protection," he told
the Anchorage Daily News.
Harvey declined to comment Tuesday.
She joined the state agency in 1999 after working as a Prudhoe Bay engineering
supervisor for Arco Alaska Inc.
Harvey oversaw DEC's program on preventing and responding to North Slope oil
spills until December, when she was temporarily relieved of those duties and
told to focus on her other projects. She could not approve spill-cleanup plans
and oil drilling permits this winter.
Watkins worked for Harvey, managing field inspectors, spill plans and permits
for the Slope and Cook Inlet oil fields. He was reassigned to an administrator
job.
Watkins still works for DEC and said Harvey felt she could no longer do her job
effectively because "she had been cut out of the decision-making."
"She did an excellent job and she is going to be missed," he said.
Watkins believes they were removed from their jobs in part because of the debate
over how long oil companies should be allowed to drill during winter and the
frozen months of spring.
To avoid environmental damage, oil companies drill when the ground is frozen and
covered in snow. But recent winters have been shorter, making it harder for
companies to complete drilling projects.
As this winter's drilling season approached, Harvey and Watkins found themselves
disagreeing with Phillips Alaska Inc. over when the company should be finished.
Watkins said he and Harvey wanted to be sure there would be enough time to clean
up a potential spill before the ground began to thaw.
"After we were removed, the department made a decision to approve the Phillips
permits as proposed," Watkins said.
He and his union, the Alaska Public Employees Association, have appealed his job
change.
Michele Brown, DEC's commissioner, said the regulators were reassigned in part
because of issues with drilling permits. But she also said they were both
overloaded with other work.
The agency decided to reshuffle staff, creating a temporary team to focus on
Slope drilling permits and oil spill-response plans. Jeff Mach, a longtime
environmental regulator, became head of the team on a temporary basis.
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Anchorage Daily News
March 6, 2002
http://www.adn.com/business/story/776484p-829025c.html
Top
regulator resigns from DEC
POLITICS: Reassignment leads
Susan Harvey to leave oil industry oversight job.
By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News
A top state regulator, who this winter was stripped of authority to oversee some
North Slope oil activities, resigned Monday from the Alaska Department of
Environment Conservation.
Susan Harvey notified 30 staffers of her resignation Monday, saying she and her
workers had improved oversight at Alaska's biggest industry. She said she plans
to focus her
career on technical work where sound science and engineering, not politics, is
used to achieve environmental improvements.
Harvey's departure comes 21/2 months after DEC leaders reassigned her and
colleague Robert Watkins to focus on other duties. That outraged some
co-workers, environmentalists and industry workers, who claimed they were
punished for regulating the oil industry too vigorously.
Her bosses, however, said that wasn't true. They said Harvey and Watkins were
overloaded with other work, but they also said the two officials were nitpicky.
Harvey was a shining star in a state heavily influenced by the oil industry,
said Peter Van Tuyn, litigation director with the Anchorage environmental law
firm Trustees for Alaska.
"She was willing to work with the industry to come up with a way to still get
their oil out of the ground but also ensure environmental protection," he said.
Harvey, who declined to comment Tuesday, came to the DEC in 1999 after working
as a Prudhoe Bay engineering supervisor for Arco Alaska Inc.
She had overseen DEC's program on preventing and responding to North Slope oil
spills until December, when she was temporarily relieved of those duties and
told to
focus on her other projects. She could not approve spill-cleanup plans and oil
drilling permits this winter.
Watkins worked for Harvey, managing field inspectors, spill plans and permits
for the Slope and Cook Inlet oil fields. He was reassigned to an administrator
job.
Watkins, who still works for DEC, said Harvey felt she could no longer do her
job effectively because "she had been cut out of the decision-making."
"She did an excellent job and she is going to be missed," he said.
Watkins believes they were removed from their jobs in part because of the debate
over how long oil companies should be allowed to drill during winter and the
frozen months of spring.
To avoid environmental damage, oil companies drill when the ground is frozen and
covered in snow. But recent winters have been shorter, making it harder for
companies to complete drilling projects.
As this winter's drilling season approached, Harvey and Watkins found themselves
disagreeing with Phillips Alaska Inc. over when the company should be finished.
Watkins said he and Harvey wanted to be sure there would be enough time to clean
up a potential spill before the ground began to thaw.
"After we were removed, the department made a decision to approve the Phillips
permits as proposed," Watkins said.
He and his union, the Alaska Public Employees Association, have appealed his job
change.
Michele Brown, DEC's commissioner, said the regulators were reassigned in part
because of issues with drilling permits. But she also said they were both
overloaded with other work.
The agency decided to reshuffle staff, creating a temporary team to focus on
Slope drilling permits and oil spill-response plans. Jeff Mach, a longtime
environmental regulator,
became head of the team on a temporary basis.
Harvey was told to focus on other duties and projects, which included oil spill
and prevention oversight for the rest of the state, said Larry Dietrick, her
boss at DEC.
"I don't agree with how this whole thing has been projected," he said. "We
created a temporary project team to take care of the extra workload. We do this
sort of thing all the time."
Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at thopfinger@adn.com or 907 257-4344.
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Anchorage Daily News
March 6, 2002
http://www.adn.com/business/story/776487p-829037c.html
BP worker calls for
oversight
WHISTLE-BLOWER: Prudhoe Bay
veteran claims firm, state fail to properly monitor aging oil fields.
By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News
A BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. whistle-blower is calling for federal oversight
at Prudhoe Bay, claiming the company has poorly maintained the aging oil field
and state regulators aren't doing their jobs.
Bill Burkett of Kenai, who has worked at the nation's largest oil field for 20
years, most recently as an operator in an oil gathering center, met early this
week with staff members of Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Bob Graham, D-Fla.,
claiming BP has serious maintenance backlogs and employee shortages that are
threatening worker safety and the environment.
"My experience at the aging Prudhoe Bay field has shown me that as the field
matures and production rates decline, the potential for environmental harm
increases daily," he said.
BP and state environmental regulators on Tuesday said that there is room for
improvement at Prudhoe but that overall the field is safe and sound.
Burkett, 54, is one of four BP workers who have been passing on safety
allegations at the 24-year-old oil field to oil critic Chuck Hamel of
Alexandria, Va.
Hamel is a tenacious watchdog who took the trans-Alaska pipeline operators to
task over safety matters in the 1980s and 1990s. His latest campaign has painted
BP as a company that skimps on maintenance at Prudhoe and poorly communicates
with oil field employees.
Ronnie Chappell, a BP spokesman, said his company acknowledged last fall that it
must do a better job of addressing worker concerns. The company has also stepped
up maintenance at Prudhoe this year, he said, adding more workers and assessing
the condition of valves, fire detection systems, pipe corrosion and other
issues.
The company's actions come after a BP internal audit confirmed that many workers
share concerns raised by Burkett and other whistle-blowers.
While BP has made improvements, Burkett said, he is skeptical of whether BP will
f ollow through on its promises. He also questions whether state regulatory
agencies
can effectively monitor BP. He wants the federal government to oversee Prudhoe
Bay.
Michele Brown, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental
Conservation, said that although the state isn't "running a first-class
oversight program" at Prudhoe, it is doing a fairly good job.
"I don't have the same degree of confidence that federal oversight will manage
it any better," she said. "The state has the most at stake, and I would like to
see us funded to do a first-class job."
Hamel and Burkett are trying to get Congress to hold hearings on the Prudhoe
concerns.
Spokeswomen for Lieberman and Graham said more research must be done before
deciding whether committees the senators chair will consider hearings.
"We are still evaluating the information, but I can say we are troubled with
these problems," said Casey Aden-Wansbury, a Lieberman spokeswoman.
Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at thopfinger@adn.com
or 907 257-4344.
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KTUU
March 5, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/M156200.asp
BP workers worried
about North Slope's potential for disaster
Washington, D.C., March 5 - Concerned workers from BP Exploration
(Alaska) Inc. said the North Slope is a major disaster waiting to happen. And
one worker is
taking his concerns to congressional investigators.
Seth Linden
BP workers said Susan Harvey's resignation is just one example of why they're
afraid to continue working on the North Slope. They said state regulators and BP
aren't
doing enough to make working conditions safe.
Bill Burkett, an employee for almost 20 years at BP's North Slope operations,
testified to congressional investigators in Washington Tuesday about what he
believes is another
Exxon-Valdez spill waiting to happen.
"If we don't hire enough people to maintain the facility and spend enough money
on maintaining the equipment, it's going to continue to deteriorate, and in my
opinion, it
has only one logical conclusion, and that's a catastrophic event," Burkett said.
Burkett is the first BP employee to come forward publicly to federal
investigators.
He said he has no choice because BP will not adequately address his concerns
about faulty maintenance at the company's Prudhoe Bay facilities.
Among his concerns are aging, corroding equipment, infrequent testing of safety
valve systems and a lack of staff and maintenance repair.
"The staff is reduced to the point where we just plain don't do it," said
Burkett.
"That's part of the reason why we defer maintenance is because there's nobody to
fix it. Even if there's money for the fix, there's nobody to fix it."
Burkett, who works as a production operator, said he's been telling BP about his
concerns for years, but they have not responded. Only recently has the company
picked up some slack, he said, because of media investigations.
BP said it is currently addressing safety concerns.
"We're working down backlogs of fire and gas inspection, pressure safety valve
inspections.
We've tripled the size of our external corrosion inspections," Ronnie Chappell,
BP spokesman, said.
Meanwhile the state, Burkett alleges, has also been at fault by ignoring his
warnings, refusing to answer his inquiries and all while talking to BP about his
complaints.
"I've experienced what I believe is clearly collusion between state agencies,"
said Burkett.
Burkett said he can no longer take the pressure and will leave BP in the next
two weeks.
Burkett said Susan Harvey is one of the few officials who took his complaints
seriously.
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KTUU.com
March 5, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/M156197.asp
DEC
employee resigns three months after being re-assigned
J.D. Wallace
Anchorage, Alaska, March 5 - One of the Department of Environmental Conservation
employees who was taken out of spill prevention and response back in December
resigned Monday. Some considered her re-assignment a demotion.
Susan Harvey oversaw Alaska's oil spill response plans for two years. Her
removal from the North Slope part of the program in December came as a surprise
to her.
Then Monday, she gave a surprise of her own by resigning.
"She brought a really good mix of professional skills to the state," Robert
Watkins said.
Watkins was also re-assigned with Harvey back in December.
After numerous attempts, Channel 2 was unable to contact Harvey, who last spoke
on camera in December.
In a letter she wrote to her co-workers Monday she complimented them by writing:
"You diligently conducted the public's business in a manner that preserved the
integrity of the governmental process and avoided conflicts of interest even in
light of stakeholder pressure."
In the two-year period Harvey led the industry's Preparedness and Pipeline
Program, remote port barge inspections tripled, more unannounced oil-spill
drills were conducted
than in the entire preceding decade and no project was delayed from spill
prevention and cleanup plan approval.
But the agency said it needed faster review of spill plans and someone who would
make more people happy.
"We need people who can pull back and look at the overall issue, touch base with
all the stakeholders and assess where we should be going. What we did was no
different than
what we've done on a number of issues. It just ended up being a little more
controversial, " DEC commissioner Michele Brown said.
Watkins said Harvey's resignation was to get back to the basics of what she
wants to do to help the environment.
One of the final lines in the letter from Harvey gives insight as to why she
quit: "I plan to focus my professional career on technical work, where sound
scientific analysis and engineering principals are honored as the main
determinants for real, measurable environmental improvements, rather than
political solutions." With someone else in charge of North Slope spill
prevention and response, the DEC said it hopes to show it can better serve the
industry and the environment at the same time.
The new manager for the North Slope's spill prevention and response is Jeff
Mach.
The DEC wants to show the Legislature it is worthy of at least $1 million more
in funding.
They think being more efficient on the slope is the ticket.
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Anchorage Daily News
February 28, 2002
http://www.adn.com/business/story/772936p-825202c.html
DEC
staffers raise concerns in survey
PEER: Commissioner says the questions were loaded.
By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News
Low morale, funding woes and weak leadership are among concerns raised from
employees of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation in a survey by
a government worker advocacy group.
Some employees also said they're not as effective because big industries like
oil have too much influence.
And at times regulators have been reassigned for doing their jobs "too well" on
controversial projects, according to more than half of those surveyed.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility conducted the confidential
survey at the request of some DEC employees. The Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofit, which is funded by foundations, membership fees and legal awards,
works to improve environmental accountability in government agencies.
DEC Commissioner Michele Brown downplayed the results, calling the questions
loaded and designed to "come up with biased results."
Generally, in this kind of survey, it is only those people who are disgruntled
who respond," she said. "The others throw it in the trash."
PEER said it mailed the survey to 423 of DEC's roughly 470 workers.
The group said 132 responded. It is making the results public today.
Jeff Ruch, the group's executive director, described it as a large survey sample
that takes into account more than just unsatisfied workers.
"From this portrait, it appears that DEC employees must cast a profile in
courage while enforcing the law against certain industries," he said. "For
example, many employees say that the oil industry carries a get out of jail
free' card in Alaska's environmental protection agency."
Spokespersons for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Phillips Alaska Inc. -- two
of the biggest oil companies in the state -- had not seen the survey and
declined to comment Wednesday.
The survey comes 21/2 months after Brown reassigned two DEC oil regulators for
allegedly nitpicking in their oversight.
That outraged some co-workers, environmentalists and even industry workers. They
claimed the regulators -- Susan Harvey and Robert Watkins -- were removed from
their North Slope oversight roles because of controversial issues, such as how
long oil companies should be allowed to drill during winter and the frozen
months of spring.
Ruch cited worker confidentiality when asked whether the reappointment of Harvey
and Watkins prompted DEC employees to ask for the PEER survey.
Some employees surveyed expressed concern with the agency's ability to regulate
the oil industry, in part because the influence Alaska's biggest business has
over state politics.
"British Petroleum and other major players oversee the regulation of their own
industries," said one employee in the survey. "It's kind of like the fox
guarding the chicken coop."
The survey asked workers to grade Brown and program directors. The commissioner
got a low C.
As for other survey results, some answers seemed to conflict.
For instance, when asked whether DEC does an effective job of protecting
Alaska's natural resources, 43 percent agreed and 18 percent had no opinion. But
in another question, 52 percent said DEC often places more weight on economic
development than on resource protection.
In the written response portion of the survey, some workers were clearly unhappy
with the questions.
One person wrote, "Your survey sucks; it's biased." Another said, "Please keep
this trash out of Alaska."
Respondents were asked whether they agreed to statements like, "I am aware of at
least one situation in which staff were ordered to take actions that violate
state law," and "DEC's administration consistently enforces Alaska's
environmental laws."
In an interview Wednesday, Bob King, spokesman for Gov. Tony Knowles, said, "I
don't give much credibility to polls coming from Outside such as this."
One issue most agreed on is that DEC continues to suffer from inadequate
funding. Seventy-one percent said the agency does not have sufficient resources
to do its job.
Oil industry oversight is among the areas that could use more funding, said
Brown and workers in recent months.
Knowles has a $4.8 million proposal to beef up oil oversight and streamline
permitting. The Legislature would need to fund this effort.
Among other things, the initiative would increase DEC's staff and allow the
agency to station workers full-time on the Slope for the first time in 16 years.
Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at thopfinger@adn.com or 907 257-4344.
Survey results can be found on the Web at
www.peer.org/publications/srvy_02ADEC_Results.html
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Alaska Petroleum News
February 10, 2002
Supreme Court tells DEC to amend BAT definitions
Justices agree with Tom Lakosh that Department of Environmental Conservation regulations at odds with state statutes in definition of best available technology
Kristen Nelson
PNA Editor-in-Chief
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Feb. 1 in favor of Tom Lakosh’s challenge to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s regulations for oil spill contingency plans.
The Supreme Court said it agrees with Lakosh that DEC’s definition of best available technology in its regulations is contrary to that specified by the Legislature in statute. It reversed a Superior Court ruling in favor of the state and declared the regulation invalid.
The state’s 1980 Oil Pollution Control Act required that oil spill prevention and contingency plans “provide for the use of the best available technology by the applicant.”
The court said that in 1990, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Legislature strengthened the statute to require that all contingency plans meet legislatively specified performance standards for containing, controlling and cleaning up spills. The Legislature also modified the best available technology requirement, specifying that contingency plans “must provide for use … of the best technology that was available at the time the contingency plan was submitted or renewed.”
Regulations effective in 1997
The Legislature left the phrase “best available technology” undefined, the court said, but directed DEC to “establish the procedures and time limits applicable to agency review of contingency plans.”
The agency adopted regulations in 1997. Lakosh challenged the new definition of best available technology in the regulations in Superior Court and appealed to the Supreme Court after the lower court found in favor of the state.
Alaska Statute 46.04.030 (k) requires that contingency plan holders comply with specified standards for spill containment and cleanup. Subsection .030 (e) requires that oil spill contingency plans “provide for the use by the applicant of the best technology that was available at the time the contingency plan was submitted or reviewed.”
The court said DEC adopted a “three-tier” approach in defining best available technology in its regulations. The first two tiers, for cleanup and containment technology and for oil spill prevention technology, DEC said technology meets the best available technology requirement if it can meet required performance standards.
The third tier covers remaining technology not subject to either cleanup or prevention performance standards. There DEC determines if best available technology criteria is met “by undertaking a case-by-case evaluation based on specified criteria,” the court said.
Definitions inconsistent with statute
The court said it should give DEC deference in its interpretation “only to the extent that the Legislature has actually granted DEC authority to define best available technology.” The court said the Legislature “specifically required” the use of best available technology. Lakosh emphasized, the court said, the statute’s use of the word best. “As commonly defined, the superlative ‘best’ posits a universe of suitable or
satisfactory candidates and denotes selection of a smaller group of those most desirable within that universe.”
The Legislature adopted mandatory performance standards at the same time it required the use of best available standards to meet those standards. Because those requirements are separate subsections of the statute this indicates that the Legislature was requiring both the “ability to comply with applicable performance standards” and use of best available technology, the court said.
“The first two tiers of DEC’s best available technology regulation conflate these separate requirements by collapsing best available technology into compliance with requisite performance standards,” the court said, effectively rendering the statutory “best available technology requirement superfluous…” If the Legislature had wanted ‘appropriate and reliable’ technology, the court said, it could have easily omitted the best available technology language entirely.
Standards a proxy
The court said “DEC essentially argues that performance standards are a legitimate proxy for best available technology that good technology is bound to follow if performance standards are set sufficiently high.” The court said that while it assumes “DEC’s approach may have considerable theoretical merit, it is legally incompatible with the approach that the Alaska legislature adopted … the statute requires DEC
to insist on the use of best available technology in addition to demanding compliance with performance standards.”
The court said that while it finds the regulations invalid, “we emphasize the limited scope of our ruling.” DEC does have the authority and expertise to define best available technology, and the court said it believes the agency has the authority both to prescribe methods to select “the best from among all available technologies that are satisfactory” and to decide how many satisfactory technologies should be accepted as ‘best.’
But, the court said, “DEC’s definition must at least include some winnowing process” and “requires something more than accepting all available technology that can ‘appropriately and reliably’ comply with oil spill prevention and cleanup performance standards.”
What’s next
DEC spokesman Charles Fedullo told PNA: “We’re going to look at regulatory changes that could fix it, and some changes to contingency plans. We don’t think it changes anything that’s in place now. We’re still analyzing it and if we find that those changes don’t fix it, we could ask the Legislature to clarify their intent.”
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Anchorage Daily News
January 9, 2002
Workers convince BP
valve is faulty
FINALLY: Company to replace part four years after workers first complained.
By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. said Tuesday that it will replace a faulty valve
used to isolate oil and gas leaks, a move that comes nearly four years after
workers first asked the company to fix the problem following a 1,200-gallon oil
spill.
The story of this Prudhoe Bay valve and BP's long road to discovering it is
unsafe illustrates the communication chasm in recent years between company
managers and workers over maintaining the huge but aging oil field.
Some workers believe BP, which runs Prudhoe, is finally replacing the valve only
after facing criticism for poorly maintaining the pipes, valves and other
machinery that handle more than a half-million barrels of oil a day.
These valves are like the brakes on your car, and the brakes don't work right
now, said Marc Kovac, vice chairman of a union that represents about 200 BP
workers on the western side of Prudhoe Bay.
We know these valves leak, we know there are other issues (at Prudhoe), and
we're happy BP is now doing the right thing.
It isn't the first time in the past year that BP has had problems with Prudhoe's
thousands of emergency shutdown valves.
Last spring, state-monitored tests of valves atop Prudhoe oil wells, which shut
down production if pressure drops because of a leak, uncovered high failure
rates. That prompted regulators to step up inspections.
Those wellhead valves are different from the one BP said Tuesday that it will
replace. The company also vowed to step up inspections of hundreds of similar
valves in Alaska's biggest industrial zone.
The valves are in pipes at Prudhoe's gathering centers, sprawling complexes
where production is channeled to separate oil from natural gas and water
produced with the oil.
The government does not regulate or inspect this kind of valve. Kovac said
government oversight might be needed if BP does not work on correcting the
problems.
If a pipeline to the gathering center leaks and the valves don't seal, it can be
harder to control spewing oil and gas because they keep flowing. That could lead
to a bigger spill or explosion, threatening workers and perhaps wounding a major
supplier of U.S. oil.
To grasp the danger, picture a hole in the gas line to your stove. You shut a
line valve, confident you stopped the leak. But little do you know, the valve
does not seal, so flammable gas continues to seep. Several hours later, the room
is socked in with gas, one spark away from exploding.
Kovac said the stage was set for such a scenario in 1998, when a series of
mishaps led to a 1,200-gallon oil spill at the Prudhoe
gathering center where the malfunctioning valve is located. It was one of the
largest North Slope oil spills in recent years.
The emergency valve did not cause the pipe leak. That was the result of a worker
error. Oil and natural gas sprayed from a tiny hole, coating machinery black and
filling the building with gas.
As operators struggled to isolate the leak, they discovered the emergency valve
didn't seal off the pipe, allowing more oil and gas to seep into a gathering
center building.
It was a situation that could have hurt workers and caused environmental
damage, Kovac said.
An internal investigation in 1998 recommended BP repair or fix the valve.
The company didn't do so, citing a later review that found the valve worked
fine.
The matter was dropped until last year, when workers publicly criticized BP for
not keeping up with maintenance at Prudhoe as production has fallen. Production
at the 24-year-old Prudhoe -- North America's largest oil field -- peaked 13
years ago.
BP has wanted to run the same equipment until the field runs dry, but we need
this stuff in top shape for the life of the field. Otherwise, we're going to
have problems, Kovac said.
Last fall, BP released a report that faulted the company for Prudhoe staff cuts,
maintenance backlogs, concerns with leaking valves and fire detection, and other
problems that could threaten operation of the field and employee safety.
The bottom line: Workers believe management's top priority is controlling costs
and achieving short-term budget targets, not safety and regulatory compliance,
the audit said.
BP leaders pledged last fall to do a better job. One of the company's first acts
was to begin testing hundreds of emergency valves, and at the top of the list
was the emergency valve involved in the 1998 oil spill, BP said.
Company spokesman Ronnie Chappell and another BP official said a few weeks ago
the valve worked when it was retested and called the 1998 incident old news.
But some gathering center workers didn't believe the results, Kovac said. They
questioned the test, which relied on thermal imaging to see whether oil and gas
seeped through when the valve was closed.
About two weeks ago, some workers collaborated with a supervisor to perform a
definitive test.
This time the closed valve leaked as the workers had warned.
That triggered another test Monday, Chappell said. Oil and gas again seeped past
the valve, so much that the company shut down the related oil well upstream of
the valve.
The well -- one of more than 1,400 wells at Prudhoe -- produces 700 barrels a
day. The company hopes to replace the valve in about a week at a cost of up to
$10,000, he said.
Although nearly four years have passed since workers first suggested the valve
be replaced, Chappell said the company's most recent action shows BP is
committed to responding to employee concerns.
BP will check hundreds of valves over the coming months. It also plans to refine
its testing method and decide how tightly a valve must close before it is
considered a problem, he said.
Chappell describes the program as a huge undertaking, one the company has yet
to put a price on.
We've said (last fall) that we need to do a better job and that's what we have
started to do, he said.
Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at hopfinger@adn.com
or 907 257-4344.
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Anchorage Daily News
December 20, 2001
http://www.adn.com/business/story/740158p-787949c.html
DEC regulators pulled off oil-spill
jobs
OVERSIGHT: Critics say they were removed to appease companies.
By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: December 20, 2001)
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has stripped authority from
two regulators overseeing North Slope oil spill cleanup, in part because they
allegedly
nitpicked in their industry reviews, the agency's commissioner said.
The news last week that Susan Harvey and Robert Watkins were ousted from their
spill-cleanup oversight has angered some environmentalists, who believe these
regulators have raised DEC's oversight of the oil companies.
The timing didn't help, either.
A DEC manager informed Harvey and Watkins about the same time Gov. Tony Knowles
unveiled his $4.8 million proposal to beef up oil oversight but also streamline
the permitting for everything from well drilling to spill cleanup plans.
The streamlining portion sparked some watchdogs to speculate DEC was clamping
down on two of its top regulators to appease an industry that finds itself under
increasing criticism for poorly maintaining the Slope's aging pipelines, safety
valves and other machinery.
DEC Commissioner Michele Brown denied the claims. "Nobody from above exerted
pressure to remove these individuals," she said.
Harvey oversaw the agency's spill prevention and response program. She no longer
can approve spill-cleanup plans for the oil companies. She will continue to
regulate other aspects of the industry, such as the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil
pipeline.
Watkins worked for Harvey, managing field inspectors who evaluate oil companies'
spill plans. He said he was reassigned to an administrative job.
"We both did the best jobs we could," Watkins said.
Jeff Mach, who has headed the agency's oil and gas activities, now will take on
oversight of North Slope oil spill prevention and response. Brown appointed him
recently for this assignment.
Brown wouldn't name individuals but said some regulators were "nitpicky" in
their reviews, and that caused some spill plans to be held up unnecessarily.
For instance, she said, her regulators delayed plans until minor paperwork and
clerical items were resolved.
"We're talking about (companies) getting ready to drill this winter and not
knowing whether they would have their plans approved until a couple weeks before
they were set to go," she said.
In other cases, she said, "staff were changing the rules because they thought
they had a better way to do things. You can't make up the rules as you go
along."
Harvey said she was puzzled and upset with Brown's allegations.
After all, she said, DEC last year awarded her for uncovering serious
deficiencies in the oil industry's spill-response plans. And last August, DEC
gave her an "outstanding"
performance review, she said.
"I welcome anybody to come look at the state records and decide for themselves
whether our reviews are substantial," Harvey said.
Watkins said that if spill plans were held up, it is because of large,
controversial issues, like what time of year oil companies should be allowed to
drill on the Slope.
He is talking to his union, the Alaska Public Employees Association, and plans
to appeal his job change.
Dennis Geary, the union's assistant business manager, confirmed he is looking
into the matter.
Reporter Tony Hopfinger can be reached at thopfinger@adn.com
or 907 257-4344.
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KTUU Television
December 20, 2001
http://www.msnbc.com/local/ktuu/M129146.asp
Harvey
speaks out about recent DEC shifting of authority
DEC manager defends her division's efficiency
Susan Harvey discusses her recent loss of authority in the Department of
Environmental Conservation.
Susan Harvey is one of the managers of the Department of Environmental
Conservation who lost oversight authority on the North Slope spill reponse
plans. Thursday, she spoke out about recent events. She said the record shows
her division has been prompt in dealing with permit reviews. Her
authority was reassigned to a political appointee within the DEC. more...
Jason Moore
Anchorage, Alaska, Dec. 20 - One of the Department of Environmental Conservation
workers who lost their oversight of North Slope oil spill plans spoke out
Thursday. Susan Harvey and Robert Watkins were
reassigned last week-on the same day Gov. Tony Knowles announced he wanted a
swifter permitting process.
Some wonder if the workers doing their job too well and taking too much time
renewing permits for North Slope oil fields, such as permits for BP Exploration
(Alaska) Inc. and its contentious Northstar field.
Harvey said her job reviews show she was doing her job well and she claims there
were no delays in renewing permits. She said the record shows
her division has been prompt in dealing with permit reviews.
"The notification to me on Dec. 11 was a surprise," Harvey said.
Harvey said in the two years overseeing the North Slope's spill response plans,
her division has dramatically increased the number of response
drills and inspections with no permit delays.
I think the records will show over the last two years that there has been no
degradation in the time that it takes to approve a permit," Harvey said.
"In fact, we've approved several of the permits faster than record."
Harvey was relieved of her North Slope authority last week, on the same day the
governor announced he wanted to streamline the permitting process.
Sources said the oil companies did not like Harvey or Robert Watkins, the other
DEC worker who lost oversight authority.
Thursday, Larry Dietrick, the director of the Division of Spill Prevention and
Response, said recent renewals of BP permits were taking too long.
"The processing times, for example, for some of them are still six plus months.
In many cases it still takes longer to process the renewal for an existing
facility than it does, in many cases, to cleanup a medium-size
oil spill," said Dietrick.
DEC commissioner Michele Brown was quoted in Thursday's "Anchorage Daily News"
as saying some workers were nitpicking on the permits and causing delays.
Harvey said she followed state law, making sure the oil companies were prepared
for the worst-case spill.
"I think everybody is concerned right now," said Harvey. "We all received awards
from the management here. We've also received accolades from
Coast Guard, boroughs and other members of the community for the work that we've
done identifying oil spills' efficiencies on the North Slope and we're concerned
that much of the good work that's been done over the last couple of years may be
lost."
The person given the authority Harvey had is Jeff Mach, a political appointee
within the department.
Larry Dietrick said Mach is also the man heading a department reviewto look at
how DEC can speed up its review process.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wall Street Journal
December 17, 2001
Alaska Shifts
Spill-Prevention Authority Amid Growing Strife With Oil Industry
By JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Amid continuing frictions between the oil industry and some state regulators,
Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation shuffled authority for
oil-spill prevention to a political appointee.
The shift in duties quietly took place last week at the same time that
Democratic Governor Tony Knowles announced an initiative to beef up spending on
industry oversight following a spate of publicized safety problems.
The moves also follow frictions between the oil industry and the regulators,
according to two people familiar with the situation. For example, they said,
Phillips Petroleum Co. officials who operate Alaskan fields along with BP
PLC had expressed concern over the regulators' efforts to make the company end
winter exploration activities weeks earlier than they felt necessary. State
regulators wanted an April 1 cutoff date to avoid possible spill impacts to the
tundra or nearby bodies of water as the winter ice thaws.
A Phillips spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter, while top officials of
the agency denied the shakeup was tied to any industry pressure.
"The governor had one of his staffers call and let me know that we should do
what we need to do to be good stewards of the environment," said agency
Commissioner Michele Brown, an appointee of Gov. Knowles. She added that She
instituted the changes as part of a broader policy review into the way the
agency oversees spill-contingency permits it issues. In particular, she said the
months-long review will examine the need to clarify rules governing the end of
seasonal drilling operations.
The issue of state oversight has become part of the national debate over whether
Congress should allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
which is located adjacent to the North Slope oil fields. "This just shows
how hollow their commitment to oversight really is," said Pam Miller, an
environmental activist in Anchorage.
As part of the shakeup, Susan Harvey, head of the agency's watchdog division
over spill prevention and response, lost authority to sign off on
spill-contingency plans that companies on the North Slope have to renew
periodically. She had been able to attach conditions to the permits, such as
ending drilling in advance of the spring thaw. That authority now goes to Jeff
Mach, an appointee of Ms. Brown who oversees oil and gas activities for the
agency. Another regulator, Robert Watkins, who oversaw field inspectors in
charge of monitoring the spill-contingency plans, was reassigned to an
administrative job with no
authority over the permits.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
KTUUTelevision News
December 17, 2001
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/M127699.asp
Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Michele
Brown will not comment on the reason for the change.
Two DEC
employees stripped of power
Anchorage, Alaska, Dec. 17 - Two state environmental workers have been
stripped of their authority to oversee spill-response plans on the North Slope.
The move came last Tuesday, the same day the governor announced he would speed
the industry permitting process.
Jason Moore
Department of Environmental Conservation managers Susan Harvey and
Robert Watkins lost their authority to sign off on spill-response permits.
The two were industry watchdogs who mandated oil companies meet certain
requirements.
Last year, Harvey criticized spill response plans that BP Exploration (Alaska)
Inc. had for its Northstar field.
"The report will specifically show that they weren't prepared to effectively
mobilize or deploy their offshore oil response equipment," Harvey said.
She was an aggressive environmental watchdog working for the state, but she was,
perhaps, too aggressive.
Last week, Harvey and Watkins were both stripped of their authority to approve
North Slope permits and enforcement actions. DEC Commissioner Michele Brown will
not comment on the reason for the change.
The change happened on the very day that Gov. Tony Knowles promised to
streamline the state's permitting process.
"If you cut permit time, if you can get more wells drilled. That's good news for
the economy," said Knowles.
It is also good news for Phillips Petroleum and BP. They are waiting for
approval on a number of key permits.
Sources said both companies were critical of Watkins and Harvey. They reportedly
complained to the governor that Watkins and Harvey were too tough.
Commissioner Brown gave the authority Watkins and Harvey once held to Jeff Mach,
a political appointee. Last Friday, Mach reportedly signed off on his first
permit. Neither Brown nor the governor's office would comment on why the change
was made or if Watkins or Harvey did something wrong.
In fact, Watkins told Channel 2 he has not been given a reason for his change in
status. He said he plans to appeal it.
Reportedly, Harvey and Watkins clashed with the industry in two areas. One was
with BP over the spill response at Northstar.
Harvey and Watkins were critical of BP's ability to respond to a spill in
broken-ice conditions. Sources said Harvey and Watkins felt BP needed more
equipment on the site.
The other issue of dispute was seasonal drilling. They reportedly could not
agree with the companies when drilling had to stop so the tundra would not be
damaged.
Channel 2 was told Phillips Alaska Chief Executive Kevin Meyers was among those
who complained to the governor. Officials with Phillips would not comment on the
issue.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wall Street Journal
December 13, 2001
Alaska Will Increase
State Funding For Oversight of Local Oil Industry
By JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles announced plans to increase state funding for
oversight of the state's oil industry by $4.8 million in the wake of disclosures
by
some workers of widespread safety problems in drilling operations.
The Democratic governor said he is including the funds in his budget for the
coming fiscal year, which the Republican-dominated Legislature will be set to
review when they reconvene in Juneau next month. Money in the budget, to be
introduced Friday, would help reverse a decade-long trend of legislators'
reductions in budgets of state agencies overseeing the industry.
For example, the Alaska Oil and Conservation Commission in charge of
monitoring wells on the Alaskan North Slope would get an average 3.5 more
staff positions, augmenting a group that now has five field inspectors. The
state
Department of Environmental Conservation would get 13 additional staff
positions and money to hire nine more contractors to work on oil and gas
issues. The agency would get a permanent office on the North Slope
instead of having to operate out of temporary facilities.
"I think this is critical for sustaining Alaska's natural resources and our
economy," said Michele Brown, commissioner of the Department of
Environmental Conservation.
The staffing is needed, according to some oil-field workers, to help
improve what they contend has been a dearth of state oversight in
recent years.They note that unresolved problems include faulty
safety-valves on wells in BP PLC's giant Prudhoe Bay drilling facility.
Those problems in the western part of the field were documented
in a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal on April 13.
Another page-one article in the Journal on July 10 documented how
Alaskan legislators had slashed funding for the state's oil regulatory
agencies over the past decade, even as the aging North Slope
facilities warranted closer review. The number of Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission field inspectors has remained roughly the same since
the 1980s, even though the number of wells it oversees has nearly
tripled over the same period. And funding for the Department of
Environmental Conservation, the state's pollution watchdog, has
been reduced 55% since 1991.
"This initiative will improve the capacity of state agencies to do their jobs
more
proactively, more efficiently and more effectively," Gov. Knowles said in a
statement.
However, critics of the industry question whether the added oversight will help
much. They say Alaska receives so much of its revenue from the industry that it
has little incentive to undertake a vigorous safety crackdown, and they want
federal officials to take a greater role. "The state is adding more bodies, but
it's
a smokescreen because they're not calling for more enforcement," said Chuck
Hamel, a spokesman for a group of BP employees who first disclosed the
safety problems.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fairbanks News Miner
December 12, 2001
Oil field spending to drop in 2002
By SEAN COCKERHAM
Staff Writer
Both BP (Exploration) Alaska and Phillips Petroleum plan to spend less on projects for the Alaska oil patch next year.
Phillips on Tuesday released a 2002 capital budget that contains $807 million for Alaska operations. The amount is $18 million less than the company earmarked for such ventures in the current year.
BP has not finalized its capital budget. But Steve Marshall, the company's Alaska president, has indicated
it will invest approximately $700 million in Alaska endeavors next year.
Company spokesman Ronnie Chappell said that BP allocated around $800 million in Alaska this year.
"The big difference is that (the Northstar field) has been completed," Chappell said. "That was a very large project which created a significant amount of activity."
The Northstar field, located six miles offshore in the Beaufort Sea, is the first oil development in the Alaska Arctic with a subsea pipeline. It came on-line in late October and is expected to account for much of
BP's projected 10 percent increase in net production from Alaska next year.
BP and Phillips Petroleum are the two largest producers of crude oil on the North Slope.
The slight drop in Phillips' Alaska spending next year can be traced to the company's reduced--but still ambitious--number of planned exploratory wells on the North Slope.
Through the end of this year the company will have drilled 15 exploratory wells in Alaska with a $68 million exploration budget.
"This was an exceptional year," said Dawn Patience, spokeswoman for Phillips in Anchorage.
For next year, Phillips plans to spend $41 million drilling 10 exploratory wells in the state. "It's still an aggressive schedule," Patience said.
She noted that in 1999 Arco Alaska, which later became Phillips' Alaska operation, drilled just six exploratory wells.
Phillips is the most aggressive of the major companies in searching for new oil on the North Slope, particularly more speculative wells in locations that are not adjacent to existing oil fields.
For example, Phillips plans next year to continue its exploration of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Last May the company announced it had struck oil in three places from the six wells it had drilled there.
Phillips is hoping those pools contain as much oil as its Alpine oil field, which lies near NPR-A. Alpine was the largest onshore oil discovery in North America in the past decade.
BP drilled a costly well in the NPR-A last year and has no immediate plans to return for additional exploration there, Chappell said.
"We're still studying the results of last year's drilling program, evaluating other prospects in NPR-A, and evaluating how to proceed," he said.
Next year BP plans to drill "two or three exploratory wells near existing infrastructure" on the North Slope, Chappell said.
In addition to exploration, both Phillips and BP will be spending money next year for ongoing construction of double-hulled tankers. BP also plans to invest in existing fields, satellite field development and on
upgrades to facilities.
Phillips will expand the capacity of its Alpine field, which is producing more oil than expected, and develop smaller fields in the vicinity of the oil-rich Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay areas.
The companies could also allocate additional money for Alaska if they determine there is an opportunity to bring North Slope natural gas reserves to market.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wall Street Journal
December 4, 2001
Safety Concerns Rise at Alaska Drill Pads
After Report Finds Excessive Failure Rates
By JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A new report by state regulators investigating drilling pads on Alaska's North
Slope has documented more safety issues, broadening the scope of a problem
uncovered by workers at BP PLC's western Prudhoe Bay field last spring.
The report found that nearly a quarter of the 109 oil-drilling pads tested on the
entire North Slope oil operation experienced failure rates of safety-valve
components higher than 10%, a failure rate considered excessive by the
industry.
The findings, part of the continuing safety review of the Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission, come as Republican efforts to allow oil exploration
in Alaska's Arctic National Wilderness Refuge collapsed on the Senate floor.
The commission compiled results of its tests on so-called surface-safety valves
across all the North Slope fields from January 2000 to April 30, 2001.
The commission found that 13 of 44, or 30% of the pads tested at the Kuparuk
field, which is operated by Phillips Petroleum Co., suffered failure rates above
the state-mandated threshold of 10%. By comparison, seven of 22, or 32% of the
pads at BP's western Prudhoe Bay facility experienced the above-10% failure
rate. Five more pads at smaller BP fields suffered similar breakdown rates.
Those included the Badami, Milne Point and Lisburne fields.
"The bottom line is we are concerned whenever we see any failures," said
Cammy Taylor, chairwoman of the Anchorage-based commission, which is
looking into ways to improve its oversight of the industry. "We want the system
to work at any given time."
Ms. Taylor added that the oil companies promptly repaired most of the faulty
valves. She also pointed out that some of the results represent inspections of
only a small number of wells, meaning that a failure of one valve could push it
above the 10% figure. At Kuparuk, for example, only eight wells were tested,
and since one of them failed, the field had a 12.5% failure rate. Stepped-up
testing is ordered by the state agency on pads that exceed a 10% valve-failure
rate.
Industry critics say the findings support their call for more oversight of Alaskan
oil operations, which they believe gets too little scrutiny from a state government
heavily dependent on oil revenue. Democratic Congressman George Miller of
California, for example, recently tried to include a provision for more Alaskan
oversight funding in the House energy bill, but didn't prevail in the
Republican-controlled body.
"The industry is isolated and virtually unregulated up there, and that allows them
to defer the maintenance needed to prevent these failures," said Chuck Hamel
Monday. Mr. Hamel is a former oil and tanker broker in Alexandria, Va., and
is the spokesman for a group of BP workers who first aired their concerns of
unsafe valves in a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal April 13.
Both BP and Phillips operate the North Slope fields on behalf of a consortium
that also includes Exxon Mobil Corp. London-based BP recently completed
an internal review that substantiated many of the complaints of safety problems
brought forward by the BP workers. BP officials say they plan to act on 78
recommendations that came out of that review, including adding maintenance
staff. BP officials say they also have moved to address valve issues elsewhere
on the North Slope.
"We are taking the lessons learned at Prudhoe Bay and moving them to our
other operations," said Ronnie Chappell, spokesman for BP's BP Exploration
unit in Anchorage.
Officials of Phillips, Bartlesville, Okla., say they have corrected the valve
problems at the Kuparuk field, and now report a field-wide valve-failure rate of
less than 5%. Phillips acquired the Kuparuk operation as part of a divestiture
related to BP's purchase of Atlantic Richfield Co. last year. "We've remedied
the situation, and are doing the right thing," said Dawn Patience, spokeswoman
for the company's Phillips Alaska Inc. unit in Anchorage.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com3
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wall Street Journal
November 9, 2001
BP Issues Report Detailing Problems That Plague Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
By JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
As the Senate debates the patriotic merits of drilling for oil in Alaska's
Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, a new report by BP PLC documents widespread
operational problems at its giant oil field in neighboring Prudhoe Bay.
In its seven-week review over the summer, a BP team of employees and
consultants found deficiencies ranging from lack of maintenance on safety
equipment to reports of chronic valve leaks.
The findings underscore concerns of critics of President Bush's proposal to
drill in the refuge that practices by the oil industry practices are too
slipshod
for it to be trusted to go into such a pristine wilderness area. Both industry
and administration officials have emphasized they would exercise great care
if allowed into the refuge.
"The report makes clear the need to continue to improve both the operation
and maintenance of the field to keep it safe in the future," said Steve
Marshall, president of BP's BP Exploration unit in Alaska. BP operates the
Prudhoe Bay field on behalf of a consortium that includes Exxon Mobil
Corp. and Phillips Petroleum Co.
In their report, the BP investigators discovered "large and growing"
maintenance backlogs on fire and gas-detection systems and pressure-safety
valves. "The [fire and gas] systems are old, portions of them pre-date
current code and replacement parts are difficult to obtain," the report said,
noting that some of the deficiencies were identified by a BP contractor in
1999 without being evaluated or corrected.
It also found that internal "leak-through" of oil-isolation valves, including
those designed to shut down or divert oil and gas in the pipeline, "is a
significant problem and under certain circumstances may pose a potential
hazard to workers and equipment."
The report was ordered following disclosure of safety-valve failures and
other problems at the facility in an April 13 front-page article in The
Wall Street Journal.
The report found that the company's testing of its automatic safety valves
doesn't always follow BP's written procedure, which is to make sure
normal flow pressure stays in the pipeline by leaving a nearby manual valve
open. The safety valves are designed to automatically close a well in event
of an emergency. About 10% of those valves in BP's entire drilling
operation on western Prudhoe Bay failed to pass state tests during the first
quarter, company officials said this year, in a finding that broadened the
scope of a problem publicized by a group of workers there.
Instead, the BP tests mostly have entailed closing that manual "wing" valve,
so pressure can build to see if it closes properly or not. BP officials say this
is done in accord with both industry and state guidelines. However, some
workers complain the safety valves also should be tested with the wing valve
open, to determine how the safety valve would work when the pipeline is
under actual pressure. The BP team recommended the company work with
state and industry officials to review procedures to ensure the tests are
rigorous enough.
The report was based largely on interviews with about 300 BP workers and
contractors, on the western side of Prudhoe Bay where the workers
documented problems as well as on the eastern side where they had not.
While most workers told the investigators they felt safe, they "consider that
certain critical safety systems are in need of urgent maintenance or significant
upgrades," according to the report, which was completed in September but
is now being circulated to employees and members of Congress.
BP officials said they plan to act on 78 recommendations made by the
review team, including that maintenance staffing be quickly beefed up, that
they quickly find out which isolation valves are leaking and that the company
continue a program already started to make sure fire and gas systems are
working. Company officials say they already were working to address about
half the concerns.
A group of workers who first aired the safety problems were cautiously
optimistic. "Until we see real changes, we remain skeptical" BP will remedy
the problems, the anonymous workers said in a statement relayed through
their spokesman, Chuck Hamel, a well-known activist who has successfully
taken on the oil industry over flaws at the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
In June, the company said it ordered the review, after Michigan Democrat
John Dingell, longtime member of the House energy and commerce
committee, and other members of Congress asked the company to explain
the safety problems disclosed by the workers in the Journal article. Although
representatives of Mr. Dingell's office hadn't yet received a copy of the
report, they expressed confidence that BP was being candid about the
problems and its willingness to remedy them.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com