Hazardous Materials

On April 15, 2014, Employee #1, a maintenance technician employed by Solarworld Industries America Inc., and Coworker #1, a tool operator in the plant’s fabrication area, were working at the employer’s solar cell manufacturing facility. Coworker #1 had submitted a work order to repair a leak of liquid hydrofluoric acid (HF). HF is used in…...

Anyone who has taken one of my HAZMAT or Process Safety training courses has heard about and seen video of the Atlas Foundry LPG BLEVE that occurred back in 2007.  But in a recent process safety course, several students (volunteer FF’s outside of their full time job at this PSM facility) debated on the facts…...

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been made aware of concerns regarding newly adopted requirements in Section 180.209(e) of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Prior to a January 21, 2016 Final Rule [Docket No. PHMSA-2013-0042 (HM-233F)], the requalification period corresponding to volumetric expansion testing…...

At approximately 10:15 a.m. on May 30, 2012 a 46-year-old truck driver was making a routine delivery of sanitation chemicals to a milk packaging plant.   The plant purchases their sanitation chemicals through a nationally recognized clean-in-place chemical provider and the chemicals are delivered by a local chemical trucking company. Employee #1 (truck driver) delivered…...

This is a 24,000-gallon fuel tank that floated out of the ground due to extremely high ground water levels and low fuel level inside the tank.  Laws of physics will win every time!  I do wonder what would have happened had a car been parked over the tank when it broke free and floated to the…...

PHMSA 36-16 Thursday, December 15, 2016 PHMSA Issues Safety Advisory on Use of DOT-39 Cylinders for Liquefied Flammable Compressed Gas. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a safety advisory informing offerors or anyone using a DOT Specification 39 (DOT-39) cylinder that cylinders with an internal volume…...

I have written several times about “vehicle impact protection” for our hazardous materials processes and systems and these articles have garnered a lot of attention, as it seems a lot of folks were not aware there was an actual design basis for these protective members.  Here is a video (WARNING!  MUTE the sound!!) that shows us…...

The 2015 IFC section 312.3 now provides performance criteria for vehicle barriers instead of prescriptive design that was missing an impact velocity…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Yesterday morning around 3:30 am, hazmat crews detonated explosives and ignited the flammable contents of two tank cars, one was propane and one was butane, involved in a train derailment in MN. The explosions were designed to pierce the hulls of two cars, one carrying propane, the other butane.  Incident Command determined that the “vent…...

This article is intended to walk us through the DOT requirements for UNLOADING LPG and NH3 tanker trucks.  In the DOT requirements covered in this article, we will see items that mirror OSHA’s PSM and EPA’s RMP requirements for DOCUMENTING Safety Systems and their intended functions.  The material covered here should be incorporated into all…...