O & G most dangerous industry
WV Gov. Tomblin forms group to study worker safety in gas boom
From an Article by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, July 9, 2015
Seven months after calling for a study of worker health and safety issues related to West Virginia’s natural gas drilling industry, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has named a panel that will conduct that study.
Tomlin issued an executive order to form the West Virginia Commission on Oil and Gas Industry Safety, a 19-member group that includes four non-voting members from the Legislature, four voting members who are cabinet secretaries from the departments of Environmental Protection, Commerce, Transportation and Military Affairs and Public Safety, and a representative of the state Public Service Commission.
“As we continue to explore opportunities to diversify our state’s energy portfolio, we must ensure the safety of hardworking West Virginians at drilling sites, production facilities and pipelines across the state,” Tomblin said in a press release. “This Commission will help us determine how to best protect workers at natural gas operations while ensuring our workers have the proper training and skills to do their jobs in the safest, most effective way possible.”
The commission’s nine non-governmental members include seven industry representatives from companies including EQT, Antero Resources and Columbia Pipeline, and two labor representatives from the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Parkersburg-Marietta Construction Trades Education and Development Fund.
Chris Stadelman, communications director for Tomblin, said the administration is “comfortable with the makeup of the commission,” adding that the group’s industry representatives are from several different areas of expertise.“ Gov. Tomblin selected experts in a variety of fields including exploration, drilling, pipelines, safety, transportation and labor,” Stadelman said.
Stadeleman said the governor’s representative on the commission is expected to be Larry Malone, Tomblin’s director of policy and a former executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. In mid-January, Tomblin called for a study of oil and gas industry worker safety as part of his State of the State address.“Workforce safety must be the expectation for businesses operating in West Virginia, not an afterthought,” the governor said at the time.
Between 2009 and 2013,as the industry boomed in the Marcellus region, 15 natural gas workers died on the job in West Virginia, according to the data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the previous five-year period, from 2004 to 2008, three workers died in West Virginia’s oil and gas industry, according to the bureau. “In view of this increasing number and severity of personal injuries, it is appropriate to review and assess the effectiveness of the federal and state laws and regulations associated with workplace safety in the oil and gas industry in West Virginia,” the governor said in his executive order.
The commission was charged with reviewing existing rules from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and the West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas within DEP.
It was also charged with examining industry “best practices”. Recommendations in a final report due by November 17th are to consider whether current requirements and programs are sufficient, if trade association “self-policing and regulating” is adequate, what sort of safety training should be implemented, and whether additional state oversight is necessary.
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Newspaper Wonders if Gas Explosion Deaths Will Be in Vain or if Changes Can Be Made
By Christopher Regan of Bordas and Bordas Attorneys, PLLC posted in Gas Pipeline Explosions on Monday, March 31, 2014.
Scott Kraus of the Morning Call newspaper operating in Lehigh Valley raised a question that comes up time-and-time again when gas explosions cause wrongful deaths and devastation to lives, homes, and businesses. As Mr. Kraus remarks in his article, “[e]ach time, gas-safety advocates hope the carnage sparks action on safety reforms.”
Mr. Kraus is referencing the disturbingly-common nature of fatal gas explosions. Something happens in Allentown, and then something happens in New York, then something happens in New Jersey. We have explosions happening here in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and yet, as Kraus observes, “Making dramatic changes in a multibillion-dollar industry regulated differently by every state won’t be easy.” Too true.
I live in Doddridge County. .on Indian Fork …
We have a 36 inch pipeline going in on the ridge across the road from us
and a 42 in. line supposed to go in behind us not far from us…
Plus the Well pad across the hill is right over the hill…
With every thing going on… How safe is this to us and my family…
and our water wells…
I find it interesting that the commission’s nine non-governmental members will include SEVEN industry representatives from EQT, Antero Resources and Columbia Pipeline, but only TWO labor representatives from the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Parkersburg-Marietta Construction Trades Education and Development Fund.
I wonder also whether all fatalities affected Union members only?
But I found the article’s last paragraph of particular interest, that the commission would also be “charged with examining industry ‘best practices’. Recommendations in a final report due by November 17th are to consider whether current requirements and programs are sufficient, if trade association ‘SELF-POLICING AND REGULATING’ is adequate, what sort of safety training should be implemented, and whether additional state oversight is necessary.”