Burden for oil spill falls on BP; history shows pattern of disregard

The recent tragic oil spoil has been the top story on the news for two months and it will undoubtedly be the story for not months but years to come based on its devastation. One needs to take a look at who is at fault and their history of ignoring, disregarding environmental, safety and health rules and regulations.

My opinion, the fault needs to be placed on BP Products North American Inc. Who else would you place fault on? They were in charge, controlled all activity, secured all necessary licensing and controlled the drilling site. The responsibility lies directly on them. With that burden of responsibility, all environmental, safety and health responsibilities are and should be accepted. That is a major part of doing business here in the United States of America. When those rules and regulations are ignored or disregarded, tragic results can happen, as so sadly noted in this recent environmental disaster.

But this isn’t the first time BP has made the news for its blatant disregard of government precautions, mandated precautions. They have a history, and not a good history.

On March 23, 2005, an explosion and fire at the BP Texas City Refinery (BPTCR) resulted in the death of 15 contractor employees and injury of at least 170 other BP employees and contractors.

An OSHA inspection into the March 2005 incident resulted in the issuance of citations and fines totaling over $21 million, the highest penalty that OSHA had ever issued, at that time.

That inspection identified a number of systemic process safety issues at BP refineries in the U.S.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released its report on that explosion and I quote: “The Texas City disaster was caused by organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation.”

But that wasn’t the first time OSHA had to visit BP. OSHA has conducted 17 separate inspections at the refinery in the last four years.

Prior to the 2005 incident, two employees of BPTCR died due to a breakdown of the company’s lockout and tagout program.

Since the 2005 incident, four more fatal incidents have occurred at the facility, involving one BPTCR employee and contractors.

Not over yet. On May 4, 2010 OSHA conducted a follow up inspection to ensure that BP had complied with the agreement resulting in the 2005 explosion. What did they find? BP failed to comply.

Four hundred and thirty nine “willful violations” were found during the 2010 inspection, along with new violations of the required PSM (Process Safety Management) requirement. A willful violation exists under the Act (OSHA) where an employer has demonstrated either an intentional disregard for the requirements of the Act or plain indifference to employee safety and health.

A Notification of Failure to Abate for violation of two provisions of the 2005 settlement agreement was also issued as a result of 270 separate violations. The total penalty issued to this employer is $87,430,000; count the zeros, that’s million.

And now this disaster. How many chances, how many warnings do you need? What stands out in all of these cases are the findings and violations which are referred to as, “intention disregard”, “willful”, “knowingly abused” “plain indifference”.

One cannot and should not attempt to lay the blame anywhere but directly on BP.

All the cost, all the lost lives, the loss of jobs, the loss of income for the families and communities, the environmental devastation which were the result of BP actions falls directly on BP. They (BP) need to step up, admit they are to blame and open their checkbook. Let’s pay close attention and see if BPs’ CEO gets a raise this year.

John P. Leseganich, Canfield

The writer is a safety and health consultant.