The energy industries are forced to look into the mirror after a spate of tragedies that leave almost 50 workers dead.
Your major job site accidents took place in April, claiming the lives of 49 laborers. The impact of these disasters has spread beyond the communities affected to reach the nation as a whole. Three of the cases have brought to light many failures in enforcing safety regulations in coal mines and oil refineries. The sinking of a rig and the subsequent largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in decades has called into question federal offshore oil and gas policies.
Oil Rig Spill
An oil rig sunk in the Gulf of Mexico April 22 after an explosion onboard two days earlier. Eleven crew members of the Deepwater Horizon are missing and presumed dead, while the remaining 115 people were able to evacuate the rig.
An underwater well, owned by BP, broke open when the rig blew up and then sank. The well is leaking 210,000 gallons of oil a day, which is five times more than what was originally believed, according to the Coast Guard. The 120-mile wide oil slick currently threatens the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The spill was just a few miles shy of the mouth of the Mississippi River despite many attempts to impede its advance and to shut off the well.
The Coast Guard made controlled attempts to burn off part of the spill in May. Since then, roughly 1,200 personnel have responded to the spill, the Department of Homeland Security said. Nearly 100,000 gallons of dispersant and 175,000 feet of floating booms have been deployed to try to break up and contain the oil.
Since then, BP has attempted to contain the spill in a variety of ways – including a “top hat” sealing process and dome expected to offload the oil to barges – but nothing has worked.
President Obama’s administration has sent Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to Louisiana to inspect the containment efforts.
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on May 6 to review federal offshore oil and gas policies in response to the effects of this spill. On May 13, BP announced that the spill already has cost the company approximately $450 million.
Oil Refinery Explosion
Seven workers perished in an oil refinery explosion near Seattle. The blast occurred at the Tesoro refinery on April 2. It was the deadliest event at a U.S. refinery since 2005, when 15 people died at a BP facility in Texas. Tesoro was fined last year by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries for a series of safety and health violations. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board dispatched a team to investigate the accident.
Mine Explosion
An explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers April 5. It was the worst U.S. mining disaster since the 1972 fire that claimed the lives of 91 miners in Kellogg, Idaho.
West Virginia’s governor appointed former head of the federal Mine and Safety Health Administration (MSHA) Davitt McAteer to lead a state investigation of the explosion.
Both McAteer and President Obama were critical of the mine’s owner, Massey Energy Co. This was in light of a backlog of safety violations issued to the Upper Big Branch mine prior to the explosion.
To prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future, Obama ordered a review of mines with poor safety records on April 15.
Joe Main, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, told a Senate committee this week that MSHA will start using its authority to immediately shut down mines engaging in unsafe practices. Main said the existing laws and regulations have not been properly enforced for decades.
Mine Collapse
Two miners were killed in an underground collapse at a western Kentucky mine on Wednesday evening. The miners were 24,000 feet inside the mine shaft when the roof gave way.
Rescue teams found the miner’s bodies more than 10 hours after the collapse at Alliance Coal’s Dotiki mine, MSHA said. Workers weren’t able to retrieve the bodies, however, until later that afternoon due to falling rock.
The Dotiki mine has been issued 44 state and 840 federal safety violations since January 2009. Eleven of the state violations cited roof control problems.
The accident occurred the same day the Kentucky governor announced that state-provided mine safety inspections and rescue teams would cease to exist if the legislature fails to pass the state budget by July 1.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
