re: Large explosion in Westlake

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All I know is if Citgo in Sulphur ever blows up Lake Charles will be vaporized

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My Pops worked for and retired from a well known chemical and film plant. All my life I heard about how bad it could be if an uncontrolled explosion happened. The literature they sent out every year to
employee families and people in the area was borderline terrifying. People around me always talk about the chances of a problem at the nuclear plant. Pops always said they had more to worry about with the chemical plants. Their shite isn't contained. Bad shite is stored above ground in tankers with above ground transfer pipelines. The perfect set of frickups or accidents could be very bad. Their plant (and others in that area) have had a few explosions/leaks over the years, some deadly, but nothing on a huge scale.

Pops really, really didn't want me going to work at that plant. I did work there for a Summer right out of high school in an employee child job program deal. That was enough.

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You shouldn’t be able to obtain a permit to weld on an EDC vessel unless it’s recovered, all lines are blinded, and a sniff test has occurred.

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That's what I was thinking.

I know shite happens though. Once was on a site where guys cut into a line that was supposedly out of service and four guys got burned really bad. All permits, approvals, etc had been followed to the letter.

Dear God in heavean please, please let there not be any casualties.

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operators make as much and more than engineers

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Not without a lot of overtime. Combine that with nights or weekend shifts and I wouldn’t want to do it

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Yea with 2000 hours of ot

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Now your just being silly. So how much does a 10 yr engineer make per hr compared to an operator at your plant?

Operators top out quickly. Engineers can keep going.

In all seriosness, It would take about 1k hours of ot for a 10 year operator to make what a 10 year engineer makes at most plants. That's if you don't include bonuses.

Then you factor in shift work, weekends etc and it's a lot of hard work for that money.

Operator is a great job, great one. But it's not nearly as good of a job as engineering.

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and it's a lot of hard work for that money.

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That’s subjective

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Yea with 2000 hours of ot Check per hour pay. Not clo

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Show me a run plant engineer that is hourly. Orrr take their salary, and really try to convert it into an hourly rate, and you would see how far off you are in many cases. I have seen engineers with managers who demand that they work over a lot. Hell, I’ve witnessed one give his engineers book reports to do in their off time.

Right and they work insane hours during turnarounds/startups and don't get paid extra for it.

There are a few operators in my close circle of friends and a couple engineers. The operators are making more than the reliability/ project engineers. The engineer that moved up into a higher position makes the most, but he works more hours than the operators.