Companies point fingers at one another over Kleen Energy blast

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - The owners of the Middletown electric power plant where an explosion killed six people in 2010 say a Texas engineering company's faulty pipeline design led to the disaster, records from a federal lawsuit show.
It is among the claims made in documents submitted in response to the suit, filed in August by a New Jersey man injured in the February explosion. In those documents, companies involved in the construction of the plant and the process of cleaning its pipes lay blame on each other and on companies not previously cited by the federal government for safety violations.
The plant owner, Kleen Energy, contends that Texas company WorleyParsons "designed the main gas fuel supply line in such a way that it could not be properly cleaned with natural gas in order to meet the turbine manufacturer's specifications.''
WorleyParsons' engineering design created "the potentially dangerous condition that ultimately led to the explosion," Kleen energy charges.
The blast happened as natural gas was being forced through pipes to clean out debris.
Kleen Energy also blames Bluewater Energy Solutions, claiming that the Atlanta-based company hired by O&G Industries, the general contractor as well as part owner of the plant, to oversee the "gas blows" failed to properly supervise the operation, failed to protect workers and allowed the natural gas to escape and eventually explode.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a total of $16.6 million in fines against O&G Industries, Keystone Construction and Maintenance Services, a major subcontractor, as well as against Bluewater.
The federal investigation found 119 violations and concluded the companies cut corners to reach construction deadlines quicker, failed to prepare workers for the dangerous gas-blow procedure and created the deadly conditions that led to the massive explosion.

OSHA issues minimal fine in fatal Texas gas pipeline accident

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a Canadian, Texas, accidents, pipeline accidents, gas pipeline accidents construction firm $7,000, claiming the violations that resulted in the deaths of two employees were "serious."
OSHA levied two fines -$3,500 each - against Nick Thomas Inc. of Canadian for its role in a June 8 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed two people near Darrouzett, Texas, in Lipscomb County.
The agency cited Nick Thomas Inc. for not locating the underground pipeline before beginning excavation in a caliche pit, according to OSHA. The agency also cited the company for not notifying utility companies of its intentions to dig in the pit, or asking those utilities to locate underground infrastructure, OSHA said.
Johnnie Mike Renner, 44, and Steven Douglas Odell, 32, both of Pampa, Texas, were killed when a ripper on the back of a bulldozer they were using to dig caliche struck a 14-inch natural gas line about two miles outside of Darrouzett.
A ripper is a clawlike steel hook used to loosen rocks and soil, much like a plow would do, but at greater depth.

Hundreds of undocumented workers hired for Enbridge spill cleanup

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - An oil spill cleanup subcontractor from Texas hired to work on cleanup of the Line 6B spill in Michigan bused in hundreds of undocumented workers to Battle Creek until Enbridge and the master contractor fired the subcontractor.
The workers had been working 100-hour weeks in unsafe conditions, an investigation by the Michigan Messenger found.
The Texas company, Hallmark Industrial, brought hundreds of workers to Battle
Creek from the Gulf Coast, putting them up in hotels and putting them to work cleaning oil-soaked islands and shorelines along the Kalamazoo river. The workers were expected to work 12 to 14 hour shifts, seven days a week, for which they receive $800 a week - in cash - a hotel room, and food while on the job sites.
On Aug. 28, a reporter for the Michigan Messenger visited the site where the workers were picked up each morning. Half of them admitted to being undocumented workers. All asked not to be identified.
On Aug. 29, a busload of 150 new workers arrived by bus from Texas. The immigration status of the new workers was unknown, but the conditions under which they were to work was confirmed by Hallmark workers and by multiple photographs of the worksite.
Workers were kept on the river for 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and photographs show what appears to be a number of violations of safety standards. In those photos, undocumented workers are seen covered in oil and mud getting food and water. In one photo, a worker covered in oil is seen sitting on the white cooler from which workers get their water.

OSHA cites three companies in fatal Midcontinent Express accident

JACKSON, Miss. - Three companies are being cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for exposing workers to hazards during the construction of gas pipeline meter stations in Mississippi.
Mustang Engineering L.P., Grand Bluff Construction LLC and Priority Energy Services received citations for failing to protect their workers after one died and three others were critically injured.
OSHA began its investigation after a July 2009 explosion at a meter station construction site in Raleigh, Miss., killed one worker. A second Priority Energy Services worker was critically injured, along with two Grand Bluff Construction workers.
"This tragedy could have been avoided if the companies involved had followed government and industry standards when conducting their
pressure tests," said Clyde Payne, director of OSHA's Jackson Area
Office.