Per Pittsburgh Post – Gazette reporter Torsten Ove a former pipeline technician and current Scottsdale, Pennsylvania resident Joshua Ringer has pled guilty to one charge of falsifying government documents between May 2017 and June 2018.
The charge, originally brought one year ago, came courtesy of prosecutor Lee Karl and leaves Springer facing a $250,000 fine and / or five years in prison.
Per Ove, “His job was to take X-rays of welds and interpret the data to make sure the welds were good, then record the findings in reports sent to Energy Transfer, a Texas-based energy company.
“Energy Transfer had previously said that the company’s outside auditors discovered the falsified records in 2018, before the pipeline was put into service. The company said it immediately reported the fraud to regulatory authorities and Mr. Springer was fired by his employer.
Energy Transfer said it had reinspected all welds in the section where Mr. Springer had worked and found all in compliance.”
This is an example of the process working. The pipeline developer identified a problem, fired the employee, notified the regulator, and dug up the already installed pipeline to inspect the wells.