Monday, October 05, 2009

Pipeline to court

Here are some stories on the charges that have been laid in the 2007 North Burnaby pipeline spill:

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Old news. The lawyers will be paid, and the contractor will be out a lot of money.

The City is being sued, but who is to blame will be decided by the courts.

Don't expect Corrigan to be pasted with this personally, as the problem with the maps came from the
Engineering Department, not the Mayor's Office.

But those who paste Corrigan with it, should be more concerned about the mess they left Team Burnaby in.

10/05/2009 11:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Team Bby is dead but I'm not quite sure what part they played in the oilspill

10/06/2009 1:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They played a big part.

A big yell fest and nothing more.

Anywho, the lawyers and their law firms will be making bucks off this one.

10/06/2009 3:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

City of Burnaby supplies the contractor with the engineering map of where to locate the new pipe, and where the existing pipes are located. That map was wrong, so it's not the contractor's fault, they get to blame the city. Then the city gets to blame the people who provided them the information to sketch the map, which is Kinder Morgan. Kinder Morgan says that the info they provided on the location is correct and that the City didnt incorporate that information correctly into the engineering map. Dizzy yet?

Now its all about lawyers and insurance companies.

10/07/2009 2:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"City of Burnaby supplies the contractor with the engineering map of where to locate the new pipe, and where the existing pipes are located."

Partly correct. But the maps have stamped on them in bold print "Location of pipes may vary. Do not rely on these maps for exact location."

"That map was wrong, so it's not the contractor's fault," Wrong.

"Kinder Morgan says that the info they provided on the location is correct" Wrong again. KM has never said it knew exactly where a sixty year old pipe is buried. That's why they stamped the maps as they did.

"the City didnt incorporate that information correctly into the engineering map" Npw you are getting somewhere. Except that the city contract specifically states that the contractor is to hand dig or hydrovac to locate the pipeline before using heavy equipment.

KM is included only on the deep pockets theory of remedial justice.
I would bet on the contractor being at fault and not being able to fully cover the costs. That leaves the City's insurance policy on the hook fot the balance.

10/07/2009 10:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The above post is contrary to what Mayor Corrigan has said:

"It's up to the Kinder Morgan to mark the location of the oil pipeline before a construction crew starts working" Corrigan said. -CTV

As said by Mayor Corrigan, Kinder Morgan owns the pipe so it is their responsibility to know where it is, and according to the Transport Safety Board the map they supplied was "out by several meters".

The map needs to correctly mark where the pipe is so the contractor knows where to excavate and where to hand dig. You can't hand dig the entire highway.

10/08/2009 8:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The map needs to correctly mark where the pipe is so the contractor knows where to excavate and where to hand dig. You can't hand dig the entire highway."

No it doesn't. There are no maps of this kind that ever mark exactly where something is buried. Hence the disclaimers.

As for hand digging the entire highway, this was never expected - only that the pipeline would be specifically located by hand digging/hydovac clearance or ultra high frequency sonar devices.

It was never expected that location of the pipeline would be done with a backhoe. You will perhaps remember that the operator hit and nicked the pipeline three times before he eventually ripped it out.

One might also ask why the operator didn't lower the bucket into the hole before he fled. This alone would have staunched some of the oil flow and prevented the appearance of a wildcat oilwell.

Finally, Mayor Corrigan's comments are posturing, nothing more. The city is not adequately insured to covered the bill in the event Cusano can't pay and MK is not found liable. What else do think he would say?

10/08/2009 1:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pity the Burnaby taxpayer.

10/08/2009 6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pity the readers who get into this silly debate being "experts" at piplelines, construction and sounding equipment.

10/08/2009 6:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kinder Morgan cannot rely on disclaimers when they own the pipe! They have an obligation to know where it is. That's why the City calls them before they dig. Think of it logically- if it's the City's job to find it and Kinder Morgan can rely on a disclaimer, then why should the City even bother calling Kinder Morgan to mark the pipe in first place? The reason is, as said by the Mayor, "It's up to the Kinder Morgan to mark the location of the oil pipeline before a construction crew starts working".

"One might also ask why the operator didn't lower the bucket into the hole before he fled. This alone would have staunched some of the oil flow and prevented the appearance of a wildcat oilwell."

I thought the same when I watched it on the news and agree with the comment. There would have been less damage if he mitigated the spill by putting the bucket on top. However, maybe he saw oil and was worried about fire or explosion so he just bolted out without further thinking.

10/08/2009 7:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you were operating a machine that had an internal combustion engine, and there was a possiblity of sparks when steel meets steel trust me, you'd be running faster than shit to get the hell out of there once the oil started. Plus there's the fumes from the petrol coming out.

10/08/2009 8:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just read the report. Then you might learn why KM did not have the pipeline marked out. Its all in the report.

10/08/2009 10:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The armchair contractors armchair lawyers and armchair experts in this dumb blog would never read the report.

They figure they have everthing figured out for themselves.

10/09/2009 4:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In fact if one of those bloggers did live over there where the oil spill was, he'd see the oil on his grass and think he was
now an oil tycoon, and phone up
Chevron saying he's got oil in the ground to sell Chevron.

Next thing you'd know he'd load up
the belongings in the truck, get the kids in, and put Granny in a chair on top and drive off to the mansion in Whistler.

10/09/2009 6:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You'll like this one.

I first noticed it while watching the Stanley Cup playoffs last season.
Apparently, they know the power of advertising!

http://www.corriganoil.com/

10/16/2009 10:01 AM  

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