Sooner, not later: A team approach to emergency preparedness in the Sooner State
Stories from the 2017 Enbridge Safety Report to the Community (Part 1 of 2)
Sooner, not later: A team approach to emergency preparedness in the Sooner State
Published: June 12, 2018
Stories from the 2017 Enbridge Safety Report to the Community (Part 1 of 2)
Safety is a team sport.
Nowhere is this mindset more evident than in Cushing, Oklahoma, a major North American hub for the energy industry, with dozens of crude oil pipelines flowing into and out of the area and nearly 85 million barrels of storage.
Enbridge is the largest player in the area, with more than 20 million barrels of crude oil storage. We’re also a safety leader, having helped establish the Safety Alliance of Cushing (SAC) nearly two decades ago. This partnership between Enbridge, other members of the pipeline industry and first responders allows us to collaborate on training, share specialized emergency response equipment and advance best practices to keep everyone safer.
John Henkel, Enbridge’s field safety advisor in Cushing and past chief of the city’s fire department, says the success of the alliance is built on the relationships it has helped to forge between everyone who has a role to play in safety.
“The biggest advantage of the SAC is the fact that people know each other. We can deploy quickly and everybody’s on the same plan,” says Henkel. “When I first started this (alliance), nobody really knew who anybody was. Everyone was siloed or compartmentalized.”
Now, 20 years on, the alliance is a model for safety collaboration between industry and first-response agencies. “The resources of the alliance are a phone call away and you can pretty much get whatever equipment or assistance you need any day, any time,” says Landon Link, Enbridge’s senior safety advisor in the region.
Safety. First.
Safety is not just a core value at Enbridge—it’s the foundation of everything we do.
In addition to millions of dollars invested in specialized emergency response equipment, personnel from participating companies, as well as Cushing police and fire departments, and regional, state and federal agencies meet every month, and hold frequent tabletop exercises and equipment deployments to fine tune emergency response skills.
The alliance also stages a major incident response exercise annually.
Chris Pixler, Cushing’s current fire chief, says the alliance has boosted safety for the community and the critical energy infrastructure that makes Cushing the pipeline crossroads of the world.
“The industry has stepped up to make sure that not only their operations are safe but that our community is safer too,” says Pixler. “It’s come full circle. Their efforts have helped protect the community, and at the same time the program has been able to greatly increase our capabilities to protect the terminals and the pipeline infrastructure as well. It’s a unique group effort and we’re really proud of it.”
Henkel, who witnessed the birth of the alliance during his time as Cushing’s fire chief, notes that Enbridge has been a mainstay of the program right from Day 1.
“SAC is as strong as it is today because of Enbridge’s commitment,” he says, noting that Enbridge made the first investment in the industrial firefighting equipment shared by the alliance. “I look at Enbridge as a cornerstone in the alliance.”
