Way back in 2017, the state of California (CA) revised it’s Accidental Release Prevention program by adding a Program Level 4 for the state’s refineries. In addition to the expanded prevention program requirements, the refineries are required to submit investigation reports, including root cause analysis after any major incident. But the one aspect of the Program 4 changes I found interesting is that it also requires annual process safety performance indicators to be submitted. These indicators include:
- Past due inspections for piping and pressure vessels
- Past due PHA corrective actions and seismic corrective actions
- Past due Incident Investigation corrective actions
- Major incidents
- The number of temporary piping and equipment repairs that are installed on hydrocarbon and high energy utility systems that are past their date of replacement with a permanent repair and the total number of temporary piping and equipment repairs installed on hydrocarbon and high energy utility systems
- Past due item is an item that is not completed by the end of the month during the month that is due
When we see one of these reports, we get a great look at what “process safety performance indicators” look like! Like it or not, it passed in CA and now we can all get a lesson in PSM…
Looking at the reports from four (4) refineries located in Contra Costa County we see that most have no PAST DUE corrective actions. But more interesting is they can actually report the number of “Pipe Circuits” they have in their MI/PM program.
