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General News    H2'ed 8/26/10

Alyeska, Federal Regulators Probing Employee's "Cover-Up" Claims Related to May Oil Spill

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Drawings

Another serious allegation the employee raised in the concern letter says Alyeska does not have updated "as-built" drawings for its fire and gas system and the Strategic Reconfiguration Plan.

As ProPublica reported, "final design drawings, called 'as-built' drawings, are considered an essential safety component. They prove that a piece of equipment ... was built the way it was supposed to be. Those drawings are thus the final checks to make sure the equipment operates properly. They also serve as instruction manuals for emergencies."

But according to the employee's concern letter, Alyeska "put [pump station 9] online without [as-built] drawings being complete" and although the company is "gradually" updating the drawings the fact that they have been unavailable for at least three years put the pipeline at risk and led to an untold number of close calls.

Moreover, "hundreds if not thousands of these [Strategic Reconfiguration Plan] drawings have been stamped 'poor quality' for a brand new installation," the employee's concern letter alleges. "We complain and complain but the atmosphere is so bad that we can only push so hard."

The fire and gas as-built drawings are in an even worse "state of affairs."

"We do not know how the [fire and gas systems] are supposed to work," the letter says. "The fire systems engineers do not engage Operations enough with their fire procedures and obviously do not understand consequences of their actions."

The employee's email also claims that some of the critical as-built drawings are also unavailable for pump station 1, and likely missing for pump stations 3 and 4.

"A privileged few have the drawings on their thumbdrives," the concern letter says.

New CEO

Separately, the email sent to Alyeska employees Wednesday by the company's senior vice presidents said, "TAPS owners have engaged an executive search firm to assist in selecting a new CEO and President" to replace Hostler. "It's very possible that our next CEO will be an Alyeska employee, instead of an executive from an Owner or Owner affiliated company, which has been the standard practice."

Alyeska's past presidents were BP executives.

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Jason Leopold is Deputy Managing Editor of Truthout.org and the founding editor of the online investigative news magazine The Public Record, http://www.pubrecord.org. He is the author of the National Bestseller, "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit (more...)
 
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