According to The Associated Press, safety regulators have placed two more conditions in the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline of TransCanada Corp quietly. The move was reportedly done after learning that the building of the oil project, especially in the southern leg of the Canada-to-Texas part of the pipeline, has construction defects that were potentially dangerous.
Although the said defects, which were the high rates of bad welds, dented pipe and damaged pipeline coating, have been fixed, AP said that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration wanted to be sure that the problems will not occur in the construction of the pipeline's northern segment. The northern segment is currently on hold awaiting a decision by the Obama administration.
AP said one of the two conditions requires the company to hire an outside contractor as recommended by the pipeline safety agency to monitor the construction and generate reports to the federal government on whether the work done is sound according to standards. The second condition entails the adoption of TransCanada a quality management program to ensure that the pipeline has been built to the highest standards by both Keystone people and its various contractors.
The news wire agency said that the two new additions are currently buried near the end of the 26-appendix environmental impact statement on Keystone XL hat was released by the State Department on January 31.
Energy analyst Kevin Book said that the addition of the conditions without a public announcement was odd. He said, "Everybody looked at that appendix and said, 'Oh, 57 conditions. Move on.' Well, there are a couple more there. They just added them without saying anything."
The pipeline safety agency is playing down the additional conditions, and through its spokesman Damon Hill, said that they were merely the end-product of field observations coupled with the agency's experience and general knowledge of the matter. Spokesman Davis Sheremata for TransCanada insisted that matters regarding the southern leg's problems are a different matter as with the northern leg.
