SeaWorld fined $75,000 after death of animal trainer

CNN, August 23rd, 2010

SeaWorld has been fined $75,000 by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three safety violations, including one classified as willful, after the death of one of its animal trainers in February.

The agency's investigation "revealed that SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities, including its location in Orlando," said an OSHA statement Monday. "Despite this record, management failed to make meaningful changes to improve the safety of the work environment for its employees."

There was no immediate response from SeaWorld to the announcement.

– From CNN's Dugald McConnell

Former SeaWorld safety chief Linda Simons claims she was fired for talking too much to federal investigators following the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau (r.). (Connell/AP)

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Indonesian Lawmaker’s Death in Shipwreck Raises Questions

Jakarta globe, Anita Rachman | August 08, 2010

Jakarta. House Commission III overseeing legal affairs plans to discuss lawmaker safety following a maritime mishap that left a legislator and the wife of another dead in North Sulawesi over the weekend.

“We will seriously discuss the issue that state officials, including members of the House, should also get protection at sea,” Achmad Dimyati, a lawmaker from the United Development Party (PPP), said on Sunday.

Dimyati himself had been on board the boat that overturned in Manado. Some 20 lawmakers, some with their families, were aboard.

Setia Permana, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and Wahyu Nurani, wife of Democratic lawmaker Sutjipto, drowned in the accident.

Dimyati said there should be more rigid standards at sea, “not only for state officials, but for all the people. And not only in North Sulawesi, but also across the archipelago.”

He said the doomed ship was not seaworthy, and didn’t receive adequate rescue assistance.

“The boat was not in proper condition,” he said.

“We are sorry that the captain is being held by the police, but there should be someone held responsible for this, so that this same kind of thing won’t happen in the future.”

North Sulawesi Police spokesman Benny Bella told the Jakarta Globe by telephone that the captain, Alex Lahengko, 34, was being detained by the police.

“We aren’t detaining people just because the victims were lawmakers or their families, this is the normal treatment,” he said.

However, Commission III member Nudirman Munir, who was also on the boat when it capsized, said that it was unfair to blame the incident on the captain.

He said the local government should be held responsible because it did not strictly apply and check the safety standards of all boats in the area.

“The municipality of Manado should be held responsible for this,” he said. “The captain is just a regular worker. [The accident happened at] a recreational area. Many people, including foreign tourists, come there. How come they don’t have first aid or lifeguards on the beach?”

Nudirman said that the commission would ask local governments to do a better job of managing their territorial waters.

“Not only in Manado, but in all places, in Maluku and Irian Jaya [Papua], there should be water police patrols and beach guards.

“The police should add to their teams covering the water,” the lawmaker said, adding that local governments should also prohibit people from operating old boats.

Nudirman also took the opportunity to say that lawmakers were not given enough money on working visits to far-off regions. “Rupiah 15 million ($1,700) for a working visit, including the flight and the transportation and the protocols, that’s not enough,” he said.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, from the PDI-P, said that she also got about Rp 15 million for the three- day working visit.

She said the sailing trip had been optional, and several lawmakers, including Ruhut Sitompul, from the Democratic Party, skipped it.

“It was a tragedy,” she said. “If there was really a mistake, it was with the operational standards.

“Without a standardized operational system, people will become victims,” she said.

“Don’t take notice just because the victims were lawmakers. The same treatment should be given to everyone,” she said.

Pertamina Says Oil Spill All Mopped Up as Police Probe Negligence Angle

Jakarta Globe, July 09, 2010, Candra Malik,Arientha Primanita& Fidelis E Satriastanti

State oil and gas company Pertamina has succeeded in siphoning almost all of the crude oil that spilled into a river in Blora, Central Java, following a leak at its local fuel depot, an executive said on Thursday.

The leak, which police say might have been caused by negligence on the part of an officer on duty at the depot, on Wednesday sent thousands of liters of crude into the nearby Ledok River, covering it for kilometers in a thick layer of oil.

Fires, the causes of which were not yet known, also broke out on the surface, but the main blazes have already been extinguished, officials say.

Basuki Trikora Putra, Pertamina vice president of corporate communications, confirmed the oil spill and said that the company had carried out the necessary cleanup actions.

“We’ve managed to extract almost 95 percent of the spilled oil using a pump,” Basuki said.

“There were fires [at the site] for a while but we’ve managed to douse most of them.

“We’ll conduct an audit to see whether there are any external and internal causes for the accident, besides technical issues,” he said, adding the company had not yet calculated its losses.

On Thursday, some areas of the river still spewed thick smoke, a local policeman said, but the smoke did not prevent several residents from nearby settlements from trying to scoop the oil from the surface for use at home.

Some residents told reporters there that they planned to use the oil as fuel for cooking.

Blora Police Chief Adj. Comr. Isnaini Ujiarto told the Jakarta Globe that police were helping Pertamina officials from the depot to “localize this incident.”

“Fortunately, the depot is in the middle of a teak forest, far from any settlement, so to date there have been no reports of casualties,” Isnaini said.

Pertamina has contained the spill on the surface of the river and used oil pumps to siphon the crude into tankers, he said.

He added that an inspection of the storage facilities in the depot showed that although the fuel tanks were old and rusted, dating back to the Dutch colonial era, there was no sign of a leak.

Police, he said, suspect negligence on the part of an employee at the depot, who might have forgotten to close down a valve on time, causing the crude oil to flow into the river.

Police are questioning workers at the depot but have yet to name a suspect, he said.

As a precaution, police have closed access to the river from the three villages closest to the location of the spill — Ledok, Gagahan and Pojok Watu — to prevent people from scooping up the fuel, Isnaini said.

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), urged the directors of Pertamina to evaluate their management and technology, pointing out that similar accidents had hit the company in the past.

“This is not the first time that there’s been a leak, so there should be a thorough investigation of the officials, and the directors of Pertamina should take full responsibility,” Berry said, adding that the incident showed how safety issues in the oil and gas industry were often ignored.

Pertamina should also be responsible for all costs stemming from the incident, including cleaning up the river, repairing other environmental damage and compensating villagers affected by the oil spill, he said.

Under the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law, heavy penalties can be imposed on corporations or institutions found to have caused environmental pollution.

Imam Hendargo, a senior official at the State Ministry for the Environment, said a team from the district environmental office had been dispatched to the site to investigate the leak and assess the damage.

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