Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
In April 2010, a 40-year-old heat exchanger at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, Washington, failed catastrophically. The incident resulted in an explosion and fire that killed seven workers. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) investigation of the incident, completed in 2014, found that the failure was caused by damage to the heat exchanger, a mechanism […]
In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court of Washington State upheld a ruling by a lower court that found that the state’s Department of Ecology (Ecology) exceeded its statutory authority by promulgating a regulation that imposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards on indirect emitters of those gases. According to the majority, the “plain language” of […]
In 2014, OSHA extended the deadline for crane operator certification for three years, to November 10, 2017. Until then, OSHA says it will “consider addressing operator qualifications through additional rulemaking.” Meanwhile, employees continue to suffer when employers fail to provide adequate protection. Learn more here.
The Pebble Mine—like the Keystone XL Pipeline and North Dakota Access Pipeline, another mega project rejected by the Obama administration—may also get a second look under President Trump. That, in any case, is the expressed hope of Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. In a letter to […]
State regulators say a Seattle hotel owner who knew his building contained asbestos cut corners to save money by using untrained workers to remove it. As a result, the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I), which runs the Washington state OSHA program, cited the business for multiple egregious safety and health violations and issued $355,000 […]
When you think of RCRA, you think of manifests, “cradle to grave” hazardous waste management, transportation, container management, and endless hours of recordkeeping. However, one important aspect of RCRA for EHS managers is training. There are specific training requirements for personnel at hazardous waste TSDFs and large quantity generators (LQGs). Small quantity generators (SQGs) are […]
In an analysis released before publication on February 13, Dr. David Michaels, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) longest-serving administrator (from 2009 to 2017), suggested that using injury data from OSHA and other sources can help reduce the risk of work-related injuries. Michaels is now a professor of environmental and occupational health at George […]
To placard, or not to placard, that is the question. While it’s a general truth that each person who offers for transportation or transports any hazardous material must comply with applicable placarding requirements, fortunately there are many instances when placarding a shipment of hazardous materials is not required by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) […]
OSHA will hold a public meeting July 17 in Washington, D.C., to solicit ideas for strengthening its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP). The agency is “seeking to reshape VPP so that it continues to represent safety and health excellence, leverages partner resources, further recognizes the successes of long-term participants, and supports smart program growth.”
A legal challenge to a project to extend an underground gas pipeline 30 miles in Pennsylvania and New Jersey involved the intersection of three federal statutes as well as state authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).