Some articles blame the company, others blame Lonestar pipe, the manufacturer of the pipe, and others just lay out the known sequence of events. In the Olympic Pipeline situation, we have a highly complex and tightly coupled system. There is a computer system that controls operations of the pipeline based in Renton, WA controlling the pipes in Western Washington. These computers crashed 59 times over the course of seven months. There are also reports of valves closing without commands from operators.
Some articles written about the accident blame the company for lack of training.
It is quite possible that the operators are making decisions based on past experience and in this case there were other factors taking place after the computers crashed and operators were essentially blind. The operators did not know that the pumps were still trying to feed the pipeline after the valve closed, because the computers were down. It is not possible to fix a problem when you have no idea that it is happening. Certainly Olympic should have recognized the pattern of 59 crashes over seven months and taken action to correct the problem. They also should have known about the valves closing without command and taken action.