Here's the article ------------
by Tom Beyerlein
from the Denver Post www.denverpost.com
DAYTON, Ohio — A contractor on the 1,679-mile Rockies Express natural-gas pipeline is under federal investigation amid allegations by former project inspectors that crews from Georgia-based Latex Construction Co. failed to install required equipment designed to prevent breaches that could trigger explosions.
The owners of the Rockies Express, or REX, had negotiated with Latex of Conyers, Ga., near Atlanta, to work on the upcoming eastern leg of the pipeline, but now don't plan to use the company, said REX spokesman Allen Fore. He declined to discuss the reason.
The pipeline, which will bring gas from Wyoming to the Midwest and East, is complete from Colorado to Kansas and will soon be operational to central Missouri. Federal approval is expected soon for the eastern phase through Ohio.
Officials of the Transportation Department's pipeline safety office confirmed allegations that Latex crews in Kansas didn't properly install concrete river weights that fit over the 42-inch pipeline at water crossings to keep it from floating. The officials said they made Latex install missing weights in a couple of areas.
Officials are still investigating claims that Latex didn't wrap pipeline in a coating to protect it from rock damage.
The federal investigation confirmed inspectors' assertions that Latex crews dug a trench and buried some river weights that were delivered to the job site, Fore said. Latex owner William Honey said they were extras that weren't needed.
"It doesn't affect the integrity of the pipeline," Honey said, but "we made a mistake. We did the wrong thing. Are we responsible? Yes we are, and we'll take our lumps."
Pipeline safety officials said river weights and rock coatings help prevent breaks in the pipe and, in a worst-case scenario, explosions. An explosion on the REX project in Wyoming killed a worker for another contractor with a fireball that reached 3,000 degrees.
"God help the people in Kansas, because you can write this down and quote me: There will be a catastrophic failure," said Matthew Burns of Columbus, Ohio, one of the former REX inspectors who complained about Latex's work on a 105-mile section.
The allegations were raised by former Latex safety coordinator Don Stewart of Green Bay, Wis., who said he resigned in September after three months because of Latex's "careless, wanton, reckless unconcern for human safety."
Stewart, Burns and another former REX inspector said they quit because Latex crews pressured them not to report shoddy work and accidents, even issuing threats and offering bribes. Stewart said REX's owners brushed him off when he reported problems with Latex last fall.
Fore said the owners took the allegations seriously.
"It's in no one's interests to construct a pipeline that's not completely safe," he said.
Latex still could join the project next year, Honey said. A spokesman for the owners of the Rockies Express, or REX, agreed that's possible.
"I'm not ashamed of the job we did" on a 105-mile construction spread near Hiawatha, Kan., Honey said. "It's just not a perfect world, it's not a perfect environment. This work is done by people, and people do things they shouldn't do."
The former safety inspectors, who worked for three separate companies, said Latex crews were more concerned about meeting REX's ambitious construction deadlines than ensuring safety for workers and the public. They said workers hid infractions from them and tried to intimidate them so they wouldn't report problems.
"I've never come across any kind of contractor that would just blatantly threaten you, flatten your tires. Just unbelievable," Burns said.
Former REX assistant chief inspector Cecil Mashburn said he became suspicious that workers were illicitly burying river weights designed to anchor pipeline at water crossings when he learned that workers were digging at 2 a.m. one day.
Transportation Department investigators later confirmed that Latex buried river weights.
Stewart, the former Latex safety coordinator, first brought a litany of allegations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in October. Stewart said workers nearly struck an existing pipeline with heavy equipment, "narrowly avoiding a catastrophic explosion." He also accused Honey of ordering him to rewrite a report critical of the foreman and the equipment operator, but he refused.
"I have no recollection of that," Honey said.
Stewart said workers collapsed a bridge by ignoring weight limits, had a near-collision with a freight train when they improperly crossed a railroad track with earth movers, clipped power lines and flipped two earth movers "while working without supervision in the dark." There were also many injuries of workers, he said.
After Stewart resigned, on Oct. 25, Latex worker Brian Hawkins was partially crushed and critically injured when three pipe sections fell on him.
Stewart said he reported the problems with Latex to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, REX's majority owner. Company officials investigated, he said, but took no action.
REX spokesman Fore said the pipeline wasn't compromised.
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