On July 6, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released its final report on a fatal incident on December 8, 2020, at Optima Belle LLC in Belle, West Virginia. The board also recently closed two other investigations.
During Optima Belle’s production of a sanitizing compound for Clearon Corporation, a dryer at the facility that was removing water from the compound exploded, resulting in an employee’s death and leading to significant property damage and a shelter-in-place order for the neighboring community.
Safety issues identified during the investigation included process knowledge management, thermal hazard assessment, equipment selection and design, and arrangements for outsourcing chemical processes. The board’s final report contains 15 recommendations for Optima Belle and Clearon.
The report also reiterated a recommendation for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from the board’s 2002 Reactive Hazard Study. The CSB recommended that the EPA revise its accidental release prevention requirements to explicitly cover catastrophic reactive hazards.
CSB issues report on tank farm fire
The CSB also released its final investigation report on the 2019 tank farm fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Company, LLC (ITC), bulk liquid storage terminal in Deer Park, Texas. A massive fire caused substantial property damage, significantly impacted the environment, and led to the issuance of several shelter-in-place orders that seriously disrupted a local community.
The ITC Deer Park terminal housed over 240 aboveground storage tanks used to store petrochemical liquids and gases, fuel oil, bunker oil, and distillates for oil and chemical companies that leased the tanks from ITC.
Safety issues identified in the tank farm fire included pump mechanical integrity, flammable gas detection systems, remotely operated emergency isolation valves, and tank farm design.
Board investigators found that ITC didn’t apply a formal process safety management (PSM) program because neither the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) PSM standard nor the EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule applied to the tank and associated equipment due to exemptions in the regulations. The CSB recommended that OSHA eliminate the atmospheric storage tank exemption in the PSM standard and that the EPA expand coverage of its RMP rule to include all flammable liquids, including mixtures, with a flammability rating of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)-3 or higher.
CSB issues report on fatal propylene release and explosion
The CSB released its final investigation report on the 2020 propylene release and explosion at the Watson Grinding facility in Houston, Texas, that fatally injured two.
The board highlighted two key safety issues in its report: the lack of a comprehensive PSM program to manage the risks of its thermal spray coating operations and an ineffective emergency response plan.
The CSB determined that the cause of the accidental release of propylene was a degraded and poorly crimped rubber welding hose that disconnected from its fitting inside a coating booth. The board also found that a manual shutoff valve at the propylene storage tank wasn’t closed at the conclusion of production operations the previous workday and found an inoperative automated gas detection alarm, exhaust fan startup system, and gas shutoff system.
Last month, the board issued a report on a hydrogen chloride (HCl) release at the Wacker Polysilicon North American facility in Charleston, Tennessee. The board found that contract workers from different firms were conducting different work and wearing different levels of personal protective equipment (PPE).
In May, the CSB issued a final report on the fatal acetic acid release on July 27, 2021, at the LyondellBasell La Porte Complex in La Porte, Texas. Inadvertent removal of the pressure-retaining components of a valve caused the release of 164,000 pounds of an acetic acid mixture, killing 2 contract workers.
This spring, the CSB released plans for closing several investigations this year, including its investigation of the nitrogen release at Foundation Food Group in Gainesville, Georgia. OSHA proposed nearly $1 million in penalties for four employers at the poultry processing facility, where six workers suffered fatal injuries.