Whistleblower Reveals Flawed Construction at North Dakota Gas Plants Where Massive Spill Was Downplayed

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Two North Dakota gas processing plants in the heart of the Bakken oil fields have shown signs of an eroded safety culture and startling construction problems, according to Paul Lehto, a 54-year-old former gas plant operator who has come out as a whistleblower. He described worrisome conditions at the Lonesome Creek plant, in Alexander, and the Garden Creek plant, in Watford City, whereย DeSmog recently revealed one of the largest oil and gas industry spills in U.S. history had occurred. Both plants process natural gas brought via pipeline from Bakken wells and are run by the Oklahoma-based oil and gas service company, ONEOKย Partners.

โ€œThe safety culture is embarrassing,โ€ said Lehto, who has described to DeSmog the discovery of dozens of loose bolts along critical sections of piping, and other improperly set equipment, deficiencies he attributes to the frenzied rush of the oil boom that has dominated the stateโ€™s landscape and economy. โ€œNorth Dakota is basically a Petrostate,โ€ said Lehto, who worked at the two plants between 2015 and 2016. โ€œThere is regulatory capture, and sure that happens in other areas, but nowhere is it more extreme than in Northย Dakota.โ€

โ€œThe reason I am coming forward is that while I didnโ€™t think ONEOK was doing their job, I still trusted the state to regulate and do its job,โ€ said Lehto. โ€œBut in reading what the stateโ€™s response was to the condensate spill, I have lost all confidence that the state is acting as a legitimateย regulator.โ€

Furthermore, a trove of documents received by DeSmog from the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under a public records request has revealed that despite state regulators listing the Garden Creek spill as just 10 gallons from 2015 to 2019, an intense multi-year cleanup operation was underway to remove the spilled natural gas condensate from the grounds of the plant. According to a cleanup document, the ground well beneath the plant became saturated with condensate, so much so that even 18 feet down, a โ€œpure gasoline-like odorโ€ wasย detected.

Also, groundwater at one monitoring well registered the carcinogen benzene at levels nearly 2,000 times that required by the state healthย department.

DeSmog has also received new information to indicate that the Garden Creek spill, whose size continues to be downplayed in statements to the media by DEQ officials, was indeed officially estimated at 11 million gallons. This puts the release, in terms of gallons spilled, on par with the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and secures Garden Creek a spot as one of the largest industry spills in U.S. history. ONEOK has not received any fines from North Dakota regulators for theย spill.

โ€œEleven million gallons just barely underground but steadily evaporating, and lots of benzene which is really nasty stuff,โ€ said Lehto, who says ONEOK never officially informed him about the spill. โ€œItโ€™s like working on a health time bomb, we are the guinea pigs for the largest condensate spill in U.S. history. I am glad I got out but feel sorry for workers stillย there.โ€

ONEOK spokesperson Brad Borror rejected the idea that workers are at risk. โ€œWe have performed assessments and sampling for our employees and contractors, including soil vapor analysis and indoor and outdoor air monitoring at the facility,โ€ heย said.

Ripples in the Wake of DeSmogโ€™s Spillย Reporting

The spill, initially reported by DeSmog on August 19, has since been reported in papers across the nation and in every major North Dakota city, and the incident has jostled the stateโ€™s typically pro-industry politics. โ€œOil patch spills and leaks need thorough investigations and timely inspections,โ€ stated an editorial in the Bismarck Tribune in September. โ€œOur present course is to moralย bankruptcy.โ€

A spokesperson for Republican Governor Doug Burgum told DeSmog, โ€œThe Governor supports ongoing effortsโ€ฆto provide unified spill reporting with an increased frequency of report updates in an easily accessible format online.โ€ The spokesperson said the governor also supported โ€œcurrent efforts by the DEQ to review all open spill cases to ensure they are updated with the latest availableย information.โ€

Map of U.S. natural gas processing capacity and processing throughput, 2017
U.S. natural gas processing plant capacity and throughput have increased in recent years. Credit: U.S. Energy Informationย Administration

But for many North Dakotans, rattled by the runaway industry, these efforts are not nearly enough. โ€œThe citizens of North Dakota have a right to accurate information on spills,โ€ Sarah Vogel, a former North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner and assistant attorney general, told DeSmog. โ€œWe need to know why workers at the Garden Creek plant reported that only 10 gallons had spilled, and why did the state publish that number and keep publishing thatย number?โ€

โ€œIt is against the law in North Dakota to knowingly report false information to the state, and to make false state records,โ€ Vogel added. โ€œWeak and vague promises by the Governor, the Attorney General, the Health Department, or the Mineral Resource Division of the Industrial Commission that they will now seek further โ€˜transparencyโ€™ will no longer suffice. We need state and federal law enforcement authorities to do theirย jobs.โ€

When asked if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyโ€™s (EPA) Criminal Enforcement division is investigating the spill, an EPA spokesperson told DeSmog, โ€œEPA does not comment on ongoing or potential criminalย investigations.โ€

Working at Garden Creek, โ€˜Just Like Homerย Simpsonโ€™

Paul Lehto traveled to western North Dakota from Michigan in 2014 looking for work and says within hours of arriving in boomtown Watford City he had found a job working as a shift manager at Cash Wise Foods, a local grocery. In April 2015, ONEOK hired him to train as an operator at the Garden Creek Plant. The gas condensate spill was discovered in July thatย year.

Lehto says working as an operator at Garden Creek was โ€œjust like Homer Simpson running a nuclear power plantโ€ฆyou are sitting in front of a bank of computers being able to optimize the amount of propane, ethane, and butane you are getting out as product.โ€ These fossil fuels are used as feedstocks to produce plastics and petrochemicals, among otherย things.

Paul Lehto in 2019
Pictured in September 2019, Paul Lehto resigned from ONEOK, citingย safety concerns, in July 2016.ย Credit: Ashley Braun,ย DeSmog

One of Lehtoโ€™s tasks was to inspect the grounds twice a shift, often with an instrument called a โ€œsnifferโ€ that detects volatile organic compounds, which the EPA says are โ€œof concernโ€ as air pollutants, and other hydrocarbonย emissions.

โ€œEverywhere I looked I would get readings, sometimes so hot the equipment would actually shut down,โ€ said Lehto, whose Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, included a fire-resistant uniform, hard hat, steel toe boots, safety glasses, and earplugs but no mask or respirator. โ€œThe Garden Creek facility was literally sitting on a lake of spilledย condensate.โ€

Borror with ONEOK put it differently. โ€œThe air monitoring assessments have not indicated a need for our plant-based employees and contractors to wear additional PPE, such as respiratory equipment,โ€ he said. โ€œThe condensate release occurred in the subsurface soil and remains in the subsurface until itโ€™s recovered using a robust combination ofย systems.โ€

How Big Was the Spill,ย Really?

Just how big that lake of spilled condensate was has been an issue of contention. In August, ONEOK told the Associated Press the numbers quoted in a document DeSmog received from a different whistleblower were โ€œhypothetical assumptionsโ€ and pointed out the report was done by a consultant. This statement was repeated in papers across the country, acting to question the validity of the 11-million-gallon spillย figure.

But Lehto pointed out to DeSmog thatย โ€œ11,000,000 is a ONEOK number, not a contractor pulling figures out of thin air.โ€ He cited the document DeSmog initially revealed, which reads, โ€œan ORM estimate of approximately 11 million gallonsย released.โ€

โ€œORM is not a term of art but rather a direct reference to the legal name ONEOK operates under in the Bakken,โ€ Lehto told DeSmog. The acronym, in fact, stands for ONEOK Rockies Midstream. โ€œORM is one of the ways we referred to ONEOK, and ONEOK Rockies Midstream was the name on my paychecks,โ€ saidย Lehto.

Information about ONEOK Rockies Midstream operations from the ONEOK website
ONEOK Rockies Midstream (ORM) operates in the Williston Basin, which includes the Bakken Shale. Credit: ONEOKย website

Furthermore, Lehto says that computers at the Garden Creek plant constantly record pressure on incoming and outgoing pipes and should have recorded data that would enable the operators, or investigators, to figure out exactly how big the spillย was.

โ€œThe whole idea that they canโ€™t come up with a scientific number is just bullshit, an estimate is usually what you have to deal with in situations like this,โ€ said Lehto. โ€œI mean this is their income, it is in their business interest to know how much wasย spilled.โ€

When asked if the discrepancies in spill reporting were grounds for criminal action, Chicago-based energy attorney Paul Neilan told DeSmog, โ€œIf you have records at this site that show you are cleaning up hundreds of thousands of gallons and at the same time you are reporting only 10 gallons, that kind of imbalance shows somebody knew something and didnโ€™t want to tell someone else aboutย it.โ€

ONEOK headquarters in Tulsa, OK
ONEOK is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Credit:ย Joseph Wingenfeld,ย CC BYย 2.0

Borror, the ONEOK spokesperson, contested that the spill could be measured or even reasonably estimated. โ€œWhen a liquid is released underground, there are limits to how precisely anyone can estimate the quantity released,โ€ he said. โ€œThe estimating challenge is even greater when the release is more a result of seepage rather than a rupture, occurring at too slow of a rate to be detected. Additionally, we donโ€™t know when the releaseย began.โ€

On September 4, DeSmog informed the North Dakota DEQ that the publication was writing a follow-up on the Garden Creek spill, but the agency has not responded to a new set ofย questions.

The publicly available DEQ report for the Garden Creek spill received only one update between September 2015 and July 2019, but has been updated 12 times since DeSmog published itsย August 19 article on the spill. On September 6, a state inspector visited the site and noted that, โ€œAs of August 30, 2019, the amount of condensate recovered is estimated at 862,735ย gallons.โ€

Working at Lonesome Creek, a Plague of Looseย Bolts

At the Lonesome Creek plant, Lehto began as an operator in the fall of 2015. On April 27, 2016 he was using a sniffer to check for leaks along a series of tanks called slug catchers that are used to draw water and other liquids out of the gas stream when he noticed a leak. The cause, upon inspection, was a set of loose bolts. When Lehto checked other bolts on piping in this area he realized that all of them were loose, dozens inย total.

โ€œEvery single bolt that I looked at was loose and some could be moved with fingers, which is astonishing since a light bump could trigger a catastrophic pressurized release,โ€ saidย Lehto.

Loose bolts on the slug catcher off the condensate tanks at Lonesome Creek gas processing plant in North Dakota.
After finding a leak at ONEOK‘s Lonesome Creek gas processing plant in 2016, Paul Lehto discovered looseย bolts on this slug catcher, which pulls liquids out of the gas stream. During normal operations, theseย units, adjacent to the condensate tanks, areย covered by theย gray insulation. Credit: Paulย Lehto

Many pipes at gas processing plants in North Dakota are covered with insulation to protect against cold during the harsh winters. Typically, when a plant is being constructed, pipes are put in and bolts are set; then, what is known as a โ€œtorque teamโ€ comes in to firmly tighten down all bolts before the insulation is installed. Lehto suspects that in the rush to get the plant online and product flowing, the critical stage of tightening the bolts wasย missed.

When asked if loose bolts could have been the cause of the โ€œhairline crackโ€ that ONEOK says triggered the Garden Creek spill, Lehto replied, โ€œYes, a hairline crack would be one thing that could happen when bolts are not torqued down properly, so it is a goodย hypothesis.โ€

Visible air gap between pipe and support beam at ONEOK's Lonesome Creek gas processing plant in Alexander, North Dakota.
While working at ONEOK‘s Lonesome Creek gas processing plant in Alexander, North Dakota, Paul Lehto found this visible air gap between a pipe and its support beam, leaving room for vibration.ย Typically, the pipe rests on another material in order to secure it with the U bolt. Credit: Paulย Lehto

Lehto conveyed the loose bolt problem to various ONEOK managers, and filed an internal form meant to convey safety problems on this issue, called a โ€œnear missโ€ form. But he says the general response was dismissive, and the beginning of a trend in which safety issues he spotted were ignored. Eventually he quit, notifying employers in a July 23, 2016ย email.

โ€œONEOK makes remarkably strong statements and claims about safety,โ€ wrote Lehto. โ€œAll Iโ€™ve attempted to do is follow that, butโ€ฆI have the unmistakable impression these efforts were quite annoying or bothersome to some others, even as everyone of course says safety is a goodย thing.โ€

โ€œEvery ONEOK employee is expected to report safety concerns to their supervisor so that issues can be appropriately addressed,โ€ ONEOK spokesperson Borror told DeSmog. โ€œWe have a robust system for reporting safety concerns as outlined in ONEOKโ€™s Environmental, Safety and Health Commitment, Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and Whistleblowerย Policy.โ€

Lehto said ONEOK policies may look good on paper but are not closely followed. In the resignation letter, he stated that ONEOK employees โ€œscoldedโ€ him for finding leaks, something he believed as plant operator it was his job to do. โ€œI always assumed ONEOK wanted to know,โ€ he wrote, โ€œso I worked hard to find issues.โ€ He says that in the time period he was at the plant, other than the series of loose bolts associated with the leak he found by the slug catchers, the dozens of other loose bolts he discovered were neverย tightened.

โ€œI quit,โ€ Lehto explained to DeSmog, โ€œbecause I couldnโ€™t work at ONEOK and beย honest.โ€

Main image: Paul Lehto, a ONEOK gas plant employee from 2015 to 2016, in 2019.ย Credit: Ashley Braun,ย DeSmog

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Justin Nobel writes on issues of science and the environment for Rolling Stone. His first book,ย PETROLEUM-238: Big Oilโ€™s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It, tells the story of a seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis.

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