The company was cited for allegedly failing to conduct drills or exercises to help prepare for a potential spill from its oil storage facility in Woxall, Pa. Under the Clean Water Act, owners of oil storage facilities must have a plan to minimize the risk of spills, including periodic exercises.
OSHA's fines against U.S. Minerals LLC for the alleged violations at its Baldwin, Ill., plant total $158,200, mostly for having no fall protection on elevated platforms. Don't miss Wednesday's OH&S fall protection webinar.
According to the Department of Justice, the amount of the civil penalty is “precedent-setting” yet “appropriate in light of the unacceptable risk” created by the underground storage tanks at the defendants’ 17 gas stations in Maryland and Delaware.
"The fines and penalties reflect the gravity and severity of the deadly conditions created by the companies managing the work at the site," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. "No operation and no deadline is worth cutting common sense safety procedures. Workers should not sacrifice their lives for their livelihoods."
The purpose of the SPCC rule, which was finalized in 1973, is to establish requirements for facilities to prevent a discharge of oil into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.
Among the wide range of dangers inspectors listed were the risk of laceration, amputation, or crushing injuries; electrical hazards; fire and explosion hazards stemming from combustible dust; improper storage of flammable liquids; and insufficient monitoring of exmployees’ exposure to hexavalent chromium.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall Monday by Miami Breaker Inc. of Miami, Fla. They were sold by electrical product distributors and wholesalers nationwide from March 2005 through July 2006.
The agency’s latest action, with penalties of $420,000 against the mail facility in White River Junction, Vt., follows its citations against five individual postal facilities in June in various parts of the country -- all centering around insufficient electrical safety practices -- with fines adding up to more than $1.3 million for the month, plus DOL's filing on July 6 against USPS for enterprise-wide relief.
The 33 serious violations OSHA found in its inspection include improper machine guarding, inadequate PPE, a deficient hazard communication program, electrical hazards, and deficient use of lockout/tagout devices for energy sources that prevent the inadvertent start-up of machines.
Two workers were burned while applying primer inside a tanker trailer. One worker died and another remains hospitalized with burns to more than 90 percent of his body. A third worker, the attendant monitoring the confined space in the event of an emergency, was blown off the tank when the vapors ignited.
OSHA found that the company had not cleaned the vessel thoroughly enough to ensure the absence of flammable materials or vapors, and had not vented it prior to allowing welding to be performed.
A maintenance worker was seriously hurt in May 2008 when he entered a robotic work cell, even though the fully automated robot had not been switched to manual mode, because he wanted to watch its operating cycle. That had become common practice at the plant, according to HSE.
Willful violations were issued for failing to develop specific procedures to protect workers from the unexpected release of electrical energy, and for failing to provide adequate machine guarding for employees working around rotating shafts.
An investigation found workers were exposed to potential fire and explosion hazards from combustible dust collected in an inadequately designed dust collection system and several electrical safety deficiencies, including unguarded or ungrounded live electrical parts and equipment, and workers not trained in electrical safety-related work practices, among other things.
The company was cited for 43 safety and health violations for hazards ranging from inadequate PPE and machine guarding to failing to determine employee exposure levels to hexavalent chromium.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on July 15 announced more than $1.8 billion in Fiscal Year 2010 Federal Emergency Management Agency preparedness grants designed to help states, urban areas, tribal governments, and non-profit organizations enhance their protection, prevention, response and recovery capabilities for risks associated with potential terrorist attacks and other hazards.
Proposed fines total $43,000 for violations including the company's failure to properly inspect piping used to transfer phosgene, perform a thorough process hazard analysis for its phosgene operation, train workers on hazards associated with phosgene, thoroughly inspect all high-risk sections of piping used to transfer oleum, and properly install energized electrical conductors.
According to EPA, the Wichita, Kan.-based plant generates significant quantities of hazardous waste, including industrial wastewater treatment filter sludge, primer residue waste containing chromium and cadmium, tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene waste from degreasers, and hazardous waste oil.
The investigation that followed the incident resulted in one willful, one repeat, and six serious citations. The willful charge, which alone has a proposed penalty of $70,000, is for failing to provide proper guarding on the mechanical power presses to prevent an amputation.
The agency has proposed $279,000 in fines after finding that the company failed to conduct an incident investigation of a January 2001 anhydrous ammonia leak, certify or evaluate its process safety management program every three years as required, establish and implement procedures to maintain changes in the process, and provide and document employee training, among other citations.