ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Burst pipeline mystery: Who's to blame for grounded flights?

Author
Northern Advocate,
Publish Date
Fri, 2 Feb 2018, 12:08PM
An investigation could not find out who to blame. (Photo / NZ Herald)
An investigation could not find out who to blame. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Burst pipeline mystery: Who's to blame for grounded flights?

Author
Northern Advocate,
Publish Date
Fri, 2 Feb 2018, 12:08PM

There will be no prosecution of the person who sparked a major fuel shortage last year when Refining NZ's Auckland fuel products pipeline was ruptured by a digger at Ruakaka, mainly because it cannot be established who did it.

Northland Regional Council said today a lengthy investigation has found it cannot prosecute anyone for last year's mid-September fuel leak from the pipeline.

NRC Group Manager – Regulatory Services Colin Dall said while the discharge itself – estimated at 124 cubic metres – was a breach of the Resource Management Act, the council "does not have a case for prosecution of any party".Mr Dall said investigations found an unknown digger illegally searching for swamp kauri "may have" operated around the pipeline at the Ruakaka property.

While gouges apparently caused by a digger were believed to have triggered the mid-September failure of the pressurised pipeline, the actual date of the damage and its specific cause were not known.

Essentially, the damage could have occurred any time after the pipeline's last inspection with a "magnetic flux leakage intelligent and sizing calliper pig" in July 2014, he said.

Aerial imagery from late 2014 appeared to show lightly disturbed earth at the rupture site but "it is only with the benefit of hindsight that the image can be taken to indicate that there may have been deeper digging for swap kauri that has subsequently been covered up".

The site owner told the council that in late 2014 he had been approached by a contractor speculating for a kauri wood company asking for permission to "scratch around and see if there were any logs".

The pipe that caused all the chaos back in September. (Photo / NZ Herald)

The owner said he had given the contractor – whose name and contact details he did not know – "limited permission", pointing out an easement indicated with white posts and telling him there was a pipeline there.

The owner says his "clear intention" was that the contractor should not be digging within the easement area and Mr Dall said legally, the owner could establish that in the circumstances he had taken "all reasonable steps" to prevent an offence. There were also warning signs at the site.

Mr Dall said the council had located invoices provided by a transport company for delivery and pick up of a digger at the site in August and October 2014.

Two digger drivers were subsequently interviewed; one who said he could not recall doing any work in Ruakaka, the other who said he had driven a digger at the front of the site for one day – but not around the pipeline.

Mr Dall said for evidential purposes, authorities had no legally credible evidence the digger involved had operated around the pipeline itself, or that either of the two digger drivers had worked that pipeline area.

Legal advice obtained by the council was that the information it had obtained about the site owner, the digger drivers and the digger owner fell well-short of 'beyond reasonable doubt' - the standard of proof required to prosecute.

Mr Dall said the council's investigation had also determined neither Refining NZ (which owns the Auckland fuel products pipeline) nor First Gas (which monitors and inspects the pipeline on the refinery's behalf) had any causative role in the discharge.

''In a nutshell, the discharge was beyond the control of either party or their employees, both of which had a suite of very extensive protective measures, checks and other precautions to prevent damage to the pipeline.''

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you