Order MP-002-2019 to Trans Northern Pipelines Inc. pursuant to Section 109 of the Canadian Energy Regulator Act

INSPECTION OFFICER ORDER NO. MP-002-2019

IN THE MATTER OF THE CANADIAN ENERGY REGULATOR ACTFootnote 1,
AN ORDER UNDER SECTION 109

NAME OF PERSON(S)/COMPANY TO WHOM THIS ORDER IS DIRECTED

Information not available, Manager, Regulatory and External Affairs, Trans-Northern Pipelines Inc. (TNPI)

is a person/Company conducting work associated with a: regulated facility; abandoned facility; or ground disturbance on or near a facility located at Richmond Hill, Ontario.

On or about 31 July 2019 at 10:00 the undersigned Inspection Officer, conducted a compliance verification activity of/at Trans-Northern Pipelines Inc. head office in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

RELEVANT FACTS

  • On 30-31 July 2019, National Energy Board (NEB) Inspection Officers conducted an Implementation Assessment (IA) meeting of TNPI’s Environmental-Contaminated Sites Management Program at TNPI’s head offices at Richmond Hill, Ontario.
  • NEB Inspection Officers requested to see TNPI’s contaminated site Inventory, which TNPI produced and demonstrated to the officers using an ESRI ArcGIS portal which was developed so TNPI could prioritize and analyze their known contaminated and potentially contaminated sites. The ESRI GIS portal included the following information (i.e layers): approximate locations of the contaminated sites which had been plotted on a map (and reasonably believed by the Inspection Officer to be converted into GPS coordinates), distance from contaminated site to key receptors; and other available information on incidents, spills, and/or contamination present.
  • On 12 August 2019, the NEB requested that TNPI provide the contaminated site inventory which had been demonstrated to NEB staff during the IA meeting on 30-31 July 2019 at the Richmond Hill head office.
  • On 13 August 2019, TNPI indicated that they would not provide the requested information, along with their justification. TNPI’s position was that the contaminated sites inventory had not been internally vetted, was in draft form, and would be at risk of becoming available to landowners and the general public via the Access to Information and Privacy Act (ATIP).
  • On 14 August 2019, the NEB Inspection Officers responded to TNPI, reminding them of their responsibilities to provide reasonable assistance to officers (Section 51 of the NEB Act), and Inspection Officers’ authority to direct a company to provide information (Section 49 of the NEB Act).
  • After some discussion, on 20 August 2019 the NEB requested the information be submitted in tabular form, specifying the information which would be included, based on what had been provided and demonstrated to NEB Inspection Officers at the IA meeting and therefore known to the NEB to be available within the mapping tool layers. In other words, a table summarizing the output information from the mapping tool was requested.
  • On 23 August 2019, TNPI submitted via fax a simplified version of the contaminated site inventory with a request for confidentiality pursuant to Section 16 of the NEB Act. The simplified information filed consisted of the basic input information which would have been fed into the base layer of the mapping tool, and was lacking in the specified detail requested by the NEB and known to be within the possession of TNPI. No prioritization or analysis of the potentially contaminated sites can be done by the then NEB, now CER with the simplified information filed.
  • TNPI’s reasons for not providing the requested information which were communicated by way phone call to NEB staff and in TNPI’s letter dated 23 August 2019, include:
    • Locations of sites were estimated thus TNPI will not provide them; e.g. estimated GPS coordinates for potentially contaminated sites which were derived from visually-mapped incident and spill locations.
    • Some information TNPI obtained conditional and limited permission to use pursuant to agreement entered with area conservation authorities.
    • Information present in the mapping tool layers, e.g. distance to sensitive receptors and is available for TNPI’s licensed use only.
  • The information provided is not reflective of the information provided and demonstrated at the IA meeting, nor what the NEB requested in the Information Request.

Based on the facts referenced herein, the Inspection Officer has reasonable grounds to believe that there is or is likely to be a contravention of Parts 2 to 5 or section 335 of the Canadian Energy Regulator Act (CER Act), or for a purpose referred to in subsection 102(2) CER Act, the Inspection Officer may, by order, direct a person to

  1. stop doing something that is in contravention of Parts 2 to 5 or section 335 or cause it to be stopped;
  2. take any measure that is necessary in order to comply with Parts 2 to 5 or section 335 or mitigate the effects of non-compliance;
  3. stop doing something that may cause a hazard to the safety or security of persons, or damage to property or the environment or cause it to be stopped; or
  4. take any measure that is necessary to prevent or mitigate the hazard to the safety or security of persons or damage to property or the environment.

MEASURES TO BE TAKEN

Trans-Northern Pipelines Inc. is ORDERED pursuant to subsections 109(1) and 109(2) of the CER Act to:

 X take measures specified as per (b) and (d) above
   Stop doing something as per (a) and (c) above
   Suspend work associated with a facility, including a regulated facility, abandoned facility or ground disturbance until the hazardous or detrimental situation has been remedied to the satisfaction of an inspection officer or the order is stayed or rescinded

Specified MeasuresFootnote 2:

TNPI shall provide to the Inspection Officer, before 9 October 2019, full access to the GIS portal demonstrated at the 30-31 July 2019 meeting.

Or

TNPI shall provide, before 9 October 2019, a digital output of the demonstrated database that include for each sites:

  1. Site location, as accurately as possible, in Latitude/Longitude format, e.g.
    43.678595, 0-73.654367
    1. Approximate error associated with location information (meters)
      1. Site name or identifier that TNPI will be using, if applicable
    2. Date of incident (dd/mm/yyyy)
    3. Volume of release (m³)
    4. All other available information on the release from the records
    5. Receptors of concern ‘layers’ from the mapping tool. As discussed in the 30-31 July meeting, some receptor information has been included which will help in risk assessing and risk ranking:
      1. distance to the closest water course/waterbody (meters)
      2. distance to the nearest0 residence (meters)
      3. distance to closest drinking water well (meters)
    6. NEB REM# if available

EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE ORDER

This inspection officer order takes effect immediately on 1 October 2019 at the time of delivery of the Order to the person/company to whom it is directed. Nothing in this Order shall be construed as reducing, increasing, or otherwise affecting what may be required of the person/company to whom it directed to comply with all applicable legislative or legal requirements.

COMPLIANCE WITH THIS INSPECTION OFFICER ORDER IS MANDATORY

Failure to comply with an inspection officer order issued under section 109 of the CER Act, and/or to provide reasonable assistance to an inspection officer under subsection 103(4) are offences under section 112 of the CER Act. Alternatively, failure to comply with an inspection officer order could result in the issuance of an administrative monetary penalty.

Inspection Officer
Inspection Officer Information not available Original signed by

__________________________________
Signature

Information not available
__________________________________
Name (printed)
IO Designation #
02 October 2019
Date
210-517 10 Ave SW, Calgary AB  T2R 0A8

Please note that in compliance with the CER’s Enforcement Policy, this Order will be posted on the CER’s website.

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