Canadian Occupational Safety

24 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com Keystone Project The Keystone Pipeline System is a four-phase project designed to transport oil from Alberta, as well as some northern U.S. states, to the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast. It is designed to transport both crude and diluted bitumen oil. Two of the phases — one pipeline that stretches from Alberta to Illinois, the other from Nebraska to Oklahoma — are fully operational. The third phase, stretching from Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, is currently under construction. The fourth phase — stretching from Alberta to Nebraska — is still awaiting approval from U.S. President Barack Obama. A decision is expected in 2013, and the entire project, if approved, will be operational in 2015. When all is said and done, the Keystone XL pipeline will feature 529 kilometres of pipeline in Canada, 1,369 kilometres in the U.S. and have the capacity to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day. The cost of the entire project is estimated to be US$5.3 billion. "We found that… the National Energy Board needs to improve their oversight of regulated companies and organizations," he said in a press conference about the report. "Where defi ciencies have been identifi ed, they have done little follow-up to ensure that corrective measures have been taken." According to Vaughan's report, in 2011-2012, each NEB employee was responsible for 1,000 kilometres of pipeline — too much for one person. Employees weren't able to fully examine all the regulatory compliance reports and emergency procedure manuals that were coming across their desks. ose documents that were examined, and where infractions were found, weren't being followed up. A variety of major "defi ciencies" were just being ignored, including "no iden- tifi cation of the hazards posed by the operation of the facilities; no assess- ment of the risks posed by the hazards identifi ed; no list of residents in a potential accident zone; no map of the nearby residences or evacuation routes; no description or location of emergency response equipment; no description of any environmentally sensitive areas potentially aff ected by an incident; and no explanation of governmental roles in an emergency response." Since that report, things have changed. The federal government has made pipeline safety a part of its Economic Action Plan, and has since: increased the number of NEB pipeline inspections by 50 per cent; doubled the number of safety audits; authorized penalties between $25,000 and $100,000 for each day a company doesn't comply with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Nuclear Safety and Control Act and the National Energy Board Act; and ensured all pipeline companies have access to at least $1 billion dollars in case of a spill. Companies are also required to have transparent and publicly-accessible emergency and environmental plans. When a company puts in a bid to build a federally regulated pipeline — one that will cross provincial or U.S. borders — the NEB assigns a project working group to that bid. e group will determine how the company plans to meet regulations. "If a pipeline is approved, we moni- tor the construction cycle," says Patrick Smyth, business leader for operations at the NEB. "We send out inspectors that focus on safety, security, integrity management, emergency management, the environment and a host of other things. ey'll audit the company's plan, and make sure they're meeting all the regulations." Once the pipeline is operational, the NEB will periodically go into the fi eld with the intention of either taking a look at a "snapshot in time" — by send- ing an inspector over, unannounced — or audit the company's entire system. TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL bid, is currently undergo- ing an NEB audit. Top-down safety culture e new Canadian regulations have also strengthened the emphasis on worker safety by ensuring sound safety man- agement systems are in place before an application is even approved. For a company to get the go-ahead to start pipeline construction, they have to prove to the NEB that they have man- agement systems in place for safety, emergency management and security management, among other things. Poli- cies and procedures must be in place to address all hazards that might come up in reference to safety — whether it be the safety of pipeline workers or people who live or work near pipelines. As part of this emphasis on manage- ment systems, the NEB also requires companies to have internal reporting policies in place that allow employees to freely come forward — without the risk of being fi red — should they identify safety hazards in the workplace. Proper training is also an element of a sound safety management system. Once these policies are written and approved by the NEB, they're also prone to enforcement. Like all operational aspects of a pipeline, management sys- tems are also regularly inspected and audited. In fact, the NEB will spend eight months inspecting TransCanada's safety management system as part of the company's recent audit. e emphasis on company safety is just part of a greater evolution that has occurred in the oil and gas industry over the last 20 years, but more so in the last four, says Smyth. "Regulators and operators are coming to terms with the fact that there needs to be greater focus on not only management systems but safety cul- ture — where the two are essentially intertwined," he says. " at's one of the conversations that the NEB is having right now with its regulated companies." e regulator recently hosted Safety Forum 2013 to talk about the issues surrounding company safety and the importance of creating a top-down culture that prioritizes it. He says the industry is very much on board, with many CEOs contributing to the discus- sion at the recent forum. "Our expectation is that a company has a robust safety culture in place and that it starts at the top and permeates right through the organization to the individual who delivers the mail," says Smyth. "I think that's probably one of the big- gest changes we've seen in the industry, and it's come out of the recent disasters in the last four years or so." Vanessa Chris is a freelance writer based in Toronto. You can contact her at vachris@rogers.com. Source: TransCanada OIL AND GAS RIH\HLQMXULHVDUHDYRLGDEOH²EXWKRZ" )26DIHW\(\HZHDULVDOHDGLQJSURYLGHURI3UHVFULSWLRQDQG1RQ3UHVFULSWLRQ VDIHW\H\HZHDUIRUDIHZYHU\NH\UHDVRQV Full selection of quality sealed, close fitting and goggle prescription safety eyewear- proven to significantly reduce eye incidents. Traditional styles also available. Highly trained staff performing fittings to maximize the success of your program Wholly owned state of the art digital manufacturing lab—providing you high quality control and superior optics for maximum safety. Over 30 dispensing and retail locations AND the ability to come direct to your sites for program implementation and maintenance An unmatched commitment to ensuring our programs are quantifiably successful at reducing eye incidents and increasing employee compliance Cost savings to all—whether the program is employee or employer funded www.fosafetyeyewear.ca ³&RQWDFWXVWRGD\WREHJLQUHGXFLQJH\HLQFLGHQWVRQ\RXUMREVWRPRUURZ

• Cover