BISMARCK -- To monitor crude oil stored on well sites, workers often must climb atop large tanks to open them.
"When you first crack open that tank, you're going to get a pretty heady plume," said Eric Brooks, the North Dakota area director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
During safety classes he teaches, Dennis Schmitz, chairman of MonDaks Safety Network, said about 30 percent of participants have recalled being affected by hydrocarbon fumes. Maybe their knees buckle. Others notice it when they get in their trucks to drive away.
Hydrogen sulfide has long been considered dangerous, but potentially fatal smaller carbons, such as butane and benzene, present in Bakken crude are now garnering attention.
When workers are performing tank gauging, they are at a higher risk of being exposed to these gases. Officials say new safety standards are needed to protect workers, and industry and government are partnering to address it.
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Earlier this month, the state of North Dakota, OSHA offices in North Dakota and Montana and MonDaks Safety Network formed an alliance to improve oil field safety. The group will take on hydrocarbon inhalation at its first meeting later this month.
"I'd love to get to the point where we don't get on top of tanks to monitor them," Schmitz said.
Electronic gauging technology is available and widely used in Canada, but manual gauging is considered more accurate by many producers, said Monte Besler, who owns the hydraulic fracturing consulting company The Fracn8r.
If the alliance can't eliminate manual gauging of tanks, another consensus will need to be reached, according to Schmitz, who said side gauges, better personal protective equipment or different types of venting might be options.
"Speaking for our operations, anytime you can use engineering controls, such as remote tank gauging, to eliminate employee exposure to hazards, they should be used," Brooks said. "Otherwise, employers will have to take extensive administrative and personal protective equipment measures."
Schmitz said H2S monitors already required are not enough.
One reason small carbons' relation to incidents may not have been identified previously is those gases dissipate quickly, Brooks said. By the time an inspector can get on site, there may not be much of the gas left in the air as evidence of what happened to a worker.
"That's what makes it so challenging," he said.
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Cause of death also can be harder to determine as breathing in gases emitted on oil well sites can share symptoms with "huffing" for recreational drug use, Brooks said.
"Business has grown tremendously. A lot of activity has come to the state," said North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance Director Bryan Klipfel, adding that the state could have done better to stay on top of safety measures.
WSI is taking action now. The agency represented the state at the forming of the alliance. Klipfel said WSI could help by providing incentives, such as premium discounts when employers have good safety records or through safety equipment grants.
Klipfel said, overall, insurance premiums for oil and gas companies have gone down because fewer accidents are already happening. From 2009 to 2014, there were 35 claims related to respiratory disorders, he said. Two were fatals.
Schmitz said, for change to occur, large oil producers will have to buy into the solution and urge subcontractors to make sure they follow proper safety protocol. He said the alliance will help with this by bringing all of the players to the table, something he said hasn't happened before.
Brooks said, more than anything, it is an employer's responsibility to maintain a safe workplace and mitigate employees' exposure to hazards.
"Changes directed at safety have always faced a hard struggle; it appears to unfortunately be ingrained in our culture," Brooks said. "Whether we are talking about windshield wipers, seat belts, wearing safety glasses or even drunk driving, it almost always seems to have to be associated with a loss of life. Simply put, safety changes will take place when each person - CEO on down to the newest employee - is willing to take responsibility for the person working with them."
