Hundreds of pages of internal Alyeska documents and emails obtained by Truthout and interviews with more than a dozen senior employees show Hostler and senior Alyeska executives ignored dozens of warnings from employees over the past year that deferring critical maintenance projects and implementing budget cuts could expose the aging pipeline to further vulnerability.
According to one of several emails sent to BP's Office of the Ombudsman since last December, "the budget cuts over the last couple of years is creating a large 'bow wave' of deferred projects and program work ... The oversight of the integrity of the system is at risk."
"Reductions in the budgets for the Aboveground [pipeline] program; fuel gas line; and mainline pipe can place the integrity of the system at risk," the email says. "There is a risk ranking exercise that is used and the concern that the risk ranking is being used primarily for budget reductions and although work is shown as lower risk it still should be done to protect the environment."
The employee who wrote the email alleged that Alyeska's 2010 budget was cut from $680 million to $600 million on orders from BP.
But the move that led several Alyeska managers to reach out to BP's Office of the Ombudsman was a controversial plan Hostler initiated last November, now close to being fully implemented, to relocate 30 integrity management, safety and environmental employees to Anchorage from Fairbanks, despite the findings of a 39-page internal analysis prepared by Alyeska managers that said, "the best location for the Integrity Management teams from a business efficiency, regulatory compliance, and Integrity/Safety risk standpoint is the Fairbanks location."
Essentially, what Hostler has done is reverse a decision made in 1997 by then-Alyeska President Bob Malone to move employees from Anchorage to Fairbanks to be closer to the pipeline so they could easily access it in the event of a spill or to perform monitoring and maintenance functions.
"You put your employees on the pipeline and in Valdez, it will improve safety because you're right there," Malone said at the time. "It's clear communication; it's clear lines of authority; it's clear accountability, which is most important to me."
The relocation affects about 30 engineers, scientists and technicians who are directly responsible for the monitoring and maintenance of the integrity, safety and environmental compliance of TAPS. About 10 contractors are also included in the plan.
"The job functions of these Alyeska personnel and their support contractors requires frequent interface with TAPS facilities and personnel operating these facilities," states a confidential email sent February 18 to BP's ombudsman's office and Rep. David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks), who has been the lone voice in state political circles trying to get federal and state officials and owner representatives of the pipeline from ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil to take action.
"Their current Fairbanks offices are centrally located to the TAPS right-of-way which is a recognized logistical advantage in performing their work activities," the email said. "[This in fact is why these personnel are still located in Fairbanks]. If these personnel are required to operate from an Anchorage office, there will be a significant increase in annual travel costs and time to reach TAPS facilities and an associated decrease in work efficiency. This increase travel time will also have a direct impact on worker safety due to increased air and road travel exposure."
If integrity management employees need to immediately respond to an incident on the pipeline, they will now have to travel by airplane to Fairbanks then drive to the area of the pipeline that requires attention. The pipeline does not run through Anchorage.
An email sent to senior Alyeska executives last November by Greg Jones, the company's senior VP of technical support, said, "the goal is to complete the centralization of functions and have as much back office staff as possible based out of [headquarters] to achieve the efficiencies that this model presents."
"All support groups should be looking at Valdez in addition to Fairbanks and asking what the business purpose is for staff to be based in either of these locations," Jones wrote. "The bias needs to be in favor of them working in Anchorage unless there is a compelling business case to the contrary."
Employees familiar with the chain of events that unraveled over the last nine months have indicated to Truthout that Tom Webb, Alyeska's manager of integrity management urged Brian Tuminello, the director of engineering, and senior Vice Presidents Mike Joynor and Jones to support the relocation review. These senior managers and executives agreed with the analysis, but were afraid to openly defend it against Hostler for fear of losing their jobs, employees knowledgeable about their discussions said.
An internal Alyeska email sent to employees in February said the company expects to save about $4 million by reducing its "real-estate footprint" in Fairbanks.
Michelle Egan, a spokeswoman for Alyeska, said, "staff were transferred to Anchorage because of the efficiency and synergy that is gained when they are co-located with the rest of their departments."
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