On 5/22/15 1:20 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 5/22/2015 5:59 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 5/21/15 10:20 PM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
Califbill wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
On 5/21/15 7:58 PM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
On 5/21/15 5:42 PM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
On 5/21/15 2:35 PM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
...clean water?

Plains Pipeline, the large Texas-based company responsible
for the pipe
that ruptured in Santa Barbara County, has accumulated 175
safety and
maintenance infractions since 2006, according to federal
records.

A Times analysis of data from the Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration shows Plains' rate of incidents per mile of
pipe is more
than three times the national average. Among more than 1,700
pipeline
operators listed in a database maintained by the federal
agency, only
four companies reported more infractions than Plains Pipeline.

The company, which transports and stores crude oil, is part
of Plains All
American Pipeline, which owns and operates nearly 18,000
miles of pipe
networks in several states. It reported $43 billion in
revenue in 2014
and $878 million in profit.

The company's infractions involved pump failure, equipment
malfunction,
pipeline corrosion and operator error. None of the incidents
resulted in
injuries. According to federal records, since 2006 the
company's
incidents caused more than $23 million in property damage and
spilled
more than 688,000 gallons of hazardous liquid.

A Plains Pipeline spokesman did not immediately respond to a
request for
comment about its regulatory record.

The spill near Refugio State Beach occurred Tuesday on an
11-mile-long
pipeline that is part of a larger oil transport network
centered in Kern
County. Authorities say the accident may have released as
much as 105,000
gallons of crude oil.


The company said it inspected the pipeline's integrity two
weeks ago. But
the results had not come back before the rupture, Darren
Palmer, Plains'
district manager, said at a news conference.

Before that inspection, the last review of the line, which
can pump up to
6.3 million gallons of oil per day, was in 2012, according to
the company.

Workers manually shut down the pipeline Tuesday when they saw
"abnormalities" in the line, said company spokeswoman Karen
M. Rugaard.
The leak was confirmed two hours later.

For mo


http://www.latimes.com/local/califor...521-story.html



Pretty low profit margin. Maybe too much money going to union
pipe
workers, who are not doing a good job. What would you do if
you were
running the company?



Well, BillyBoy, we know polluting the environment is not an
important
issue to people like you, but perhaps...

1. We can dismiss those "low profit margins" as just another
example of
corporate book cooking.

2. We can insist, somehow, that the company's execs take fewer
trips to
Cabo for "meetings."

3. We can impose and enforce stiffer penalties, including
criminal
prosecution, for certain environmental disasters.

Here's a hint for you, BillyBoy: if the line workers are not
doing their
jobs properly, it is completely and entirely the fault of
management.

Not if a union strikes if you try to fire someone'



Nice try at distraction, but there is nothing in the news article
that
indicates "worker dissatisfaction" is the root cause of the
company in
question's mismanagement.

Further, I always smile at the attempts of you righties to
denigrate
union workers, especially since not one of you have or ever had
the skill
set to pass a journeyman's test in the skilled trades.

Never said anything about dissatisfaction by the workers. Maybe
dissatisfaction by management of bad workers.



Maybe your bias against unionized workers is just blinding you to
management failures at that company.

There most likely are management errors. But why are the union, and
they
most definitely are union workers and the union step up and point
out lack
of maintenance? I am biased against the union workers who are
incompetent
and are kept employed by union coercion.

You have no knowledge of what the workers there did or did not do in
terms
of communicating to management.

Neither do you'


That's right, but management is in charge of the company, and therefore
what happens is management's fault. The role of management is to manage.
Oh, and your bias is against workers exerting themselves collectively,
because when they do, they are more than chattel, eh?


Perhaps management's management should share some blame. This part of
the linked article was not included in your cut and paste:

"California's 6,000 miles of oil pipelines are regulated by the U.S.
Department of Transportation and the state fire marshal. Before 2013,
the fire marshal's office managed the 2,000 miles of interstate
pipelines for the federal department, monitoring, inspecting and
reviewing company records. Now, the federal government oversees those
pipelines, including the one that failed this week."





Neither the fire marshal nor the feds ever had or had the resources to
oversee the pipelines, something I am sure you know. We don't even have
enough inspectors at state and federal levels to watch over our food
chains.