The House Appropriations Committee has approved language blocking OSHA’s efforts to cover Anhydrous Ammonia bulk processes located at “fertilizer businesses”. The legislation now awaits consideration on the House floor. The bill prevents OSHA from revising a previous enforcement position relating to the “retail exemption” (1910.119(a)(2)(i) that would pull around 4,800 anhydrous ammonia fertilizer facilities into PSM.
CLICK HERE (pdf) to see the Letter sent to the committee by 41 Congressmen seeking to block OSHA. A couple of notes about this political wrangling:
- I have been told that the SAFTENG PSM/RMP Audit team is very expensive, but even we do not charge $18,000 for a 3-year audit at these facilities/businesses so I am not sure where they got this figure from. I am guessing they are adding up the hourly rates of all the people who would participate in the audit???
- The $70,000 to replace a single vessel is about right and here is why that statement is included in the letter… many of these “businesses” are using rail cars built in the 1930’s (or earlier) as their storage vessel(s). These rail cars were literally cut from their carriages, modified by uncoded welders with welds that have earned the nickname (bird droppings), and placed on questionable saddles. To top it off, many of these vessels have never been inspected and yet hold around 100,000+ pounds of anhydrous ammonia.
You can read the letter and come to your own conclusion as to how Congress should respond.