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The Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the Department of Interior (DOI), and U.S. Coast Guard reached an agreement on Nov. 14, allowing a forensic examination of BP's Deepwater Horizon's failed blowout preventer to begin the next day, Nov. 15, in a Louisiana warehouse.
The 11th-hour agreement wraps up several weeks of negotiations between the parties to determine the board's role in the investigation of the oil rig disaster and to ensure the board has access to evidence, such as the blowout preventer. CSB had threatened to go to court to block the investigation if its needs were not addressed.
Despite the agreement, a host of jurisdictional problems are likely to resurface in the months ahead, and none of the parties appear completely content with the deal.
In a statement, CSB says that although it signed off on the agreement, it continues to have significant concerns about the testing arrangements, and in a recent interview Michael Bromwich, director of DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation & Enforcement (BOEMRE), questioned CSB's authority to conduct an investigation of the April 20 rig accident, which killed 11 workers.
The investigation of the preventer and other evidence is being directed by BOEMRE and the Coast Guard through the federal Joint Investigation Team (JIT). CSB hesitated to initiate its own investigation at first, but after a request from members of Congress—because of CSB's experience with BP accidents—the board began its own investigation of the root cause of the accident. Since July, it has interviewed 30 to 40 people, collected "tens of thousands of pages of documents," hired technical experts, and began issuing subpoenas, says Donald Holmstrom, CSB investigations supervisor.
The board intends to have equal but shared access to evidence with JIT, Holmstrom says.
Under groundwork established by JIT, only six parties will be allowed to watch as the blowout preventer undergoes destructive forensic testing. The six observers are one each from Cameron, the preventer's manufacturer; well owner BP; rig operator Transocean; the Department of Justice (DOJ); and CSB; as well as a representative for plaintiffs who are litigating over the accident. Initially, JIT had excluded CSB from observer status, Holmstrom says.
Holmstrom notes that all the observers but CSB have a "preferred outcome" for the investigation and the team is heavily weighted toward industries with roots in the accident itself. The forensic tests were designed by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a Norwegian engineering firm, that advises oil drilling industries and provided a safety review of the Deepwater rig in 2007. Holmstrom says CSB has subpoenaed information from DNV to try to determine its relationship to the other prime parties in the accident.
CSB's objections and the subsequent negotiations have led to delays in the investigation, Bromwich said in a Nov. 5 interview on CSPAN. It has been two months since the blowout preventer was pulled from the deep Gulf of Mexico, and in the interview, Bromwich pressed to get the investigation under way while questioning CSB's authority and jurisdiction to investigate the accident.
"I find some of the things CSB has done both aggressive and somewhat puzzling since they have in the past acknowledged some doubt about their jurisdiction to conduct such an investigation," Bromwich said. "A disturbance and distraction" was how he referred to CSB's investigation. He added that "it was far from clear" if CSB has "a strong claim" to investigate the oil rig explosion.
The jurisdiction issue also has been voiced by several Transocean employees, whose lawyers have recently challenged CSB authority to issue subpoenas seeking their testimony. Daniel Horowitz, CSB managing director, said CSB will pursue enforcement of the subpoenas.
Eileen Angelico, JIT spokesperson, also stressed the need to move ahead with the investigation, adding that JIT is securing the evidence in accordance with standards developed in consultation with DOJ and the FBI.
For CSB, Horowitz says, the view ahead is mixed—the agreement cleared up some problems but uncertainties remain. Referring to the forensic exam, he points to "the lack of independent photography, lack of an appropriate dispute resolution mechanism among the federal agencies if disagreements arise during testing, and excessive restrictions on personnel in the testing area." CSB intends to use five subject experts to observe different parts of the forensic tests and rotate them into the testing area for various examinations.
Despite the objections, CSB notes it successfully negotiated a sixth slot on the technical working group and won the right to have one investigator or other expert of its own choosing present during the tests. In addition, CSB says, JIT restrictions in what CSB could make public during the investigation, such as why the blowout preventer failed, were removed, according to Horowitz.
But Holmstrom says the jurisdictional disputes and the potential limits in CSB authority have serious implications, which have yet to be completely ironed out.
"Our enabling legislation makes clear no other organization shall have the right to control CSB investigations," he says, adding that they were intended to address exactly the kind of situation CSB now faces. "The restrictions threaten this investigation and others in the future."
The JIT investigation is to be complete by next March; CSB's investigation will be finalized a year later, but the board usually issues preliminary report along the way.
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