Water Bill Changes Welcomed

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Water Bill Changes Welcomed

Just one thing that bothers me in that piece, the last point in the article about fracking companies having the resources to pay for a clean up should an accident happen. does that mean they are expecting one?

I don't know much about fracking and i don't want to start that debate again but shouldn't the government be making sure accidents don't happen?

Clean ups are all very well but are reactive and some damage done could last for years, having money would not solve that problem.

Still at least the group have got the government to add the environment to the bill, should have been there in the first place though.

I don't think anyone can make sure accidents don't happen - that's why they're called accidents (in this scenario something unforeseen due to mechanical/human error? - after all any company is only as good as their worst employee). They can only ensure that every aspect of involvement is well assessed to minimise the chance before any works are commenced and also ensure that an adequate fund is available to cover any unforeseen incident.

barbelboi said:

I don't think anyone can make sure accidents don't happen - that's why they're called accidents (in this scenario something unforeseen due to mechanical/human error? - after all any company is only as good as their worst employee). They can only ensure that every aspect of involvement is well assessed to minimise the chance before any works are commenced and also ensure that an adequate fund is available to cover any unforeseen incident.

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I understand what you are saying, health & safety was a big part of my job as I worked in a chemical plant, perhaps I should have put it better.

As in all aspects of drilling/production we undertake not only risk analyses on each activity but also a JSA (Job Safety Analysis) at each and every step along the way.

In addition we hold pre-shift safety tool box talks on every shift.

Safety is a way of life on drilling rigs and production facilities, on one job we expended over 22,000,000 man hours of work before a single LTA ( Lost Time Incident) was encountered.

In spite of all of these safeguards and practices there can still be an equipment malfunction or a human intervention error.

I truly doubt if there is any industry on this planet that exercises more safety related caution and training than the oil and gas business.