This is an interesting turn of events! The ALJ upholds most of the citations and then OSHRC vacates them all. This after a 750-pound release of butylene oxide that occurred during a line break activity and was caused by an IMPROPER energy control plan. One worker was diagnosed with “chemical pneumonia” due to his exposure to the cloud and the two workers directly involved had to decon in a safety shower to stop the burning of their skin. The contractor fired their employee involved for not following SWPs and the facility fired the operator for the improper energy isolation. Yet the OSHRC vacated the citations on what I can only call “technicalities”. But wow… if lawyering up can get you to NO citations after an incident like this…just wow! Here’re the facts as presented in the OSHRC decision..
A contractor was engaged to perform maintenance at a chemical production plant in May 2010. Both the plant and the contractor were engaged in a process known as a “Test and Inspect turnaround” (“T&I”), which required the shutdown of certain equipment for maintenance purposes. As part of the T&I, a contractor crew was assigned to remove eight emergency shutdown devices (“ESDs”) on some chemical lines and replace them with new ESDs. This required that the ESDs first be isolated pursuant to the plant’s energy control procedures. During the isolation process, a gate valve on a butylene oxide line was found to be leaking and had to be replaced before the ESD work could continue. The plant did not assign this particular work to the contractor and indicated that plant personnel would perform the work. Nevertheless, after an operator mentioned the job task over the radio, a contractor employee offered to assist.