In September 2014, additional complaints made it to Patel's desk. Local communities in the area surrounding all the pipelines had seen an uptick in hospitalizations...shortness of breath, headaches, a few people in one community in particular found an unusual increase in cancer diagnoses, both lung and stomach, in the short time since the pipeline went operational. Many of these people in the community work at one of the pipelines in the area, while others work as subsistence farmers or for smaller local businesses. Just as Patel was reading the summary of the hospital reports, he got a voicemail message from the local newspapers asking for an interview and a response to the increase in hospitalizations. The reporter left a message asking what happened with the pipeline since the repairs were done earlier in the summer, and what HFC was going to do about the current problems of hospitalizations and illnesses. At this point, Patel knew he needed to move quickly to respond. Just as he was debating his options, Patel's assistant came into his office and told him that the story had hit the local on-air media on tv. Patel cradled his face in his hands and took a deep breath. The phone rang again...this time it was the tv station asking for a meeting and a statement from the company. 2. What should be Patel's next move? How should Patel respond to the reporter and the tv station? by the end of 2013, the IPL port was operational and the naphtha was flowing to the HFC plant in Central India after being granted the port contract in Summer 2012. The plant was located in an industrial area that had several pipelines in the general geographic area including a crude oil pipeline leading to a refinery, and a pipeline carrying pesticides to be processed and redistributed to local farms in the area. In July 2014, Ajay Patel, the logistics general manager received notification that there were some minor leaks along the pipeline that were being fixed. Workers in the area had experienced sudden headaches and lightheadedness and the company immediately moved to investigate the leak and address faulty seams that had eroded and weakened. The flow of naphtha was temporarily stopped for 72 hours so two portions of the pipeline could be removed, and the eroded portions replaced. Patel put enormous pressure on the repair team to get the repair done quicker than the usual time frame of 5-7 days because of the cost to the company to have the pipeline inactive and the plant temporarily shuttered during repairs.