Environment, Safety & Health
Operating in a safe, reliable and environmentally responsible manner remains a commitment and will help us achieve our vision.
Environment, safety and health (ESH) issues continue to be a primary focus for us, and our increased emphasis on ESH initiatives has led to measurable progress in many of the key indicators we track – but there is still room for improvement.
ONEOK’s Environment Safety and Health Leadership Committee drives many of our ESH initiatives and works with managers companywide to determine benchmarks and set goals for the future.
Our Three-year Vision
By 2013, we will work to:
- Achieve a 50-percent rate reduction from our 2009 performance for lagging indicators, including our Total Recordable Incident Rate, Preventable Vehicle Incident Rate, agency reportable events and pipeline hits;
- Achieve business-segment ESH performance in the top 25 percent of our peer companies;
- Add an additional environmental component to our company ESH metrics;
- Complete and implement an ESH management system companywide;
- Establish a behavior-based safety program companywide;
- Review company resource use, such as water, electricity and fuel;
- Develop initiatives to achieve environmental footprint reductions from our prior year’s performance on a per-unit basis;
- Expand companywide ESH policies, procedures and training programs;
- Establish formal ESH audit and risk-assessment programs; and
- Establish an interdependent ESH culture, in which employees not only do their part as individuals, but also work together with fellow employees and contractors to strengthen and sustain company ESH initiatives.
Pipeline Safety Action Team
Public, regulatory and news media scrutiny surrounding pipeline safety increased in the wake of the September 2010 explosion of another company’s natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, California. This tragic event also sharpened our ongoing focus on ensuring the safe operation of our pipelines.
The newly formed Pipeline Safety Action Team proactively monitors proposed pipeline-safety legislation and regulations to determine the potential impact on ONEOK’s operations and assets. The team, made up of ESH Leadership Committee members and pipeline integrity, compliance, legal and government relations employees, works with pipeline-industry trade associations as they address these issues. The team also reviews current company pipeline-integrity programs to identify and share our company’s best practices.
The Pipeline Safety Action Team meets monthly to review current company pipeline-integrity programs and discuss comprehensive programs that will help us identify potential risks to our assets.