Bechtel Whistleblower Warns Against Keystone XL; Witnessed Shoddy Work on TransCanada’s Keystone I

Back in August, DeSmogBlog’s own Emma Pullman co-produced a startling infographic about how the first section of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline system was “Built to Spill,” with a dozen spills recorded in the pipeline’s first year of operation.

According to a must-read bombshell Op-Ed in the Lincoln Journal Star, these spills came as no big surprise to the workers closest to the project. The piece, published on New Years Eve by a former Bechtel engineer who worked on that original stretch of pipeline, tells the story of gross safety negligence and lax oversight in constuction of that first Keystone line, and warns against letting TransCanada again bring that threat to American soil.

Mike Klink was an inspector for the project, and claims he was fired by the company after repeatedly raising concerns about the substandard materials and poor construction of the pipeline. Klink warns that the company's missteps and shortcuts that already resulted in 12 spills in one year should serve as fair warning against TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Klink writes:

He goes on to describe chronic negligence in Bechtel's operations while building the Keystone I pipeline, including "cheap foreign steel that cracked when workers tried to weld it, foundations for pump stations that you would never consider using in your own home, fudged safety tests, Bechtel staffers explaining away leaks during pressure tests as "not too bad," shortcuts on the steel and rebar that are essential for safe pipeline operation and siting of facilities on completely inappropriate spots like wetlands.

Klink worries that his experiences working on Keystone I -- as well as the multiple spills that have plagued that project from the outset -- should be a warning for the proposed Keystone XL. 

And he's no treehugging environmentalist railing against all oil pipelines. He concludes:

Here again is the infographic co-produced by Emma Pullman and Heather Libby: