Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit by Steffy Loren C

Author:Steffy, Loren C. [Steffy, Loren C.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2010-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

Not only had disaster not been avoided on March 23, 2005, but death had continued to stalk the refinery in the ensuing years. A contractor, Ronnie Graves, was crushed to death in 2006. Richard Leining, an electrician and the cousin of David Leining, who was pulled from the wreckage of the trailer in the 2005 explosion, was electrocuted in 2007. Just three weeks before the hearing, in January 2008, William Joseph Gracia, a veteran BP supervisor, was working in an ultracracker unit, used to make raw materials for processing gasoline, when a metal lid bolted on the water filtration system blew off as the unit was being restarted, spewing gray water heated to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The 500-pound lid struck Gracia in the head, killing him.

BP’s refining unit had paid $20 million in OSHA fines and had spent more than $1 billion improving the facility, yet workers were still dying with disturbing regularity inside the refinery’s fence. A contractor, Ramon SiFuentes, would die in October 2008, after being crushed by a backhoe. Three years after the explosion, the refinery remained the most lethal in the United States. Two workers also died at BP’s refinery in Cherry Point, Washington, during that time, making BP’s refineries the deadliest in the country. The 146 other U.S. refineries had only nine fatalities combined during the same period.3 Not only had the deaths at BP’s plants continued, but they were occurring at a faster rate than in the years leading up to the explosion. Less than a year after it issued its final report in the 2005 explosion, the CSB opened a new investigation into BP’s refining operations.

Joe Gracia and his wife, Robbie, were high school sweethearts, and together they’d raised two children during their 35 years of marriage. Gracia had begun making plans to retire in about two years. Robbie was too upset to tell the judge the story, so her daughter read a prepared statement that included the heart-wrenching description of how they’d covered Joe’s head with a baseball cap at his funeral to hide the massive head injuries that the morticians couldn’t repair.

“He was loyal. BP repaid his loyalty by failing to ensure the safety of their workers,” Robbie’s statement said. “I am mad that my husband died and how he died. BP will not do what is needed unless the court forces it to do so. BP sucked every penny of profit out of that plant to the point it was an unsafe place to work. Now, BP claims it has made major safety changes at the plant. Joe’s death proves that BP has not done nearly enough.”

OSHA levied a $28,000 fine related to Gracia’s death as part of a settlement with BP Products North America, the unit that ran the refinery. OSHA found that the company had used sub-standard bolts to secure the lid, which gave way as pressure built in the water system during the start-up. It also found that BP didn’t document safe operating limits and start-up procedures for the ultracracker unit.

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