We keep hearing how the tragedy in WA state at the Papermill was some type of tank implosion and then explosion. I have serious doubts about that theory. I think this was just a simple seam/weld failure, possibly caused by Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC), but I am sure the CSB will get to the bottom…...
An odor incident at the Gallipolis Water Treatment Plant was triggered by the accidental mixing of two treatment chemicals during a delivery. The incident was isolated entirely to the plant, and officials confirmed there was no threat to the public water supply or drinking water. Incident Breakdown… Membership Required You must be a member to...
So I was curious as to how a 900,000-gallon white liquor tank could catastrophically fail. I am certain we will learn how this specific failure occurred, but I am not convinced the learnings will be shared broadly if the CSB does not get involved. With this much damage to people and property, there will be…...
In the context of a Safety Management System (SMS), auditing is the systematic, independent, and documented process for obtaining objective evidence and evaluating it against established criteria to determine the extent to which requirements are fulfilled. I recently had a lengthy discussion with the executive team regarding my PSM/RMP audits over the years. These men…...
A ship’s engineer sustained cold burns to 10–13% of his body surface after liquid propane was released without warning in the early hours of 1 November 2018 during loading operations. A flammable gas cloud could have resulted in a catastrophic explosion if ignited. The worker was treated at the hospital and subsequently repatriated to Russia,…...
We get so much slack when we push Hydrostatic Pressure/Leak Testing vs. Pneumatic testing. So many think that pneumatic is easier and cheaper, when in reality it is NOT. In fact, the B31 series makes it clear that HYDROSTATIC is the first choice for pressure and leak testing. The code makes it clear that pneumatic…...
Prayers to all involved, but things at the WA State Paper Mill are looking far more serious than what the media is saying. This is looking like a “white liquor tank” event based on the images I have seen (SAFTENG members can see them below). Emergency responders have confirmed: 10 individuals were transported to area…...
OSHA, IFC, and NFPA have “separation distance” requirements for flammable liquid storage tanks. These requirements have been around longer than I have been dealing with hazardous materials and process safety, and yet we always come across some wildly out of “compliance” arrangements of these flammable liquid tanks. using OSHA’s Flammable Liquid Standard 1910.106 we can…...
The Fire Chief was talking about the phase change occurring inside the MMA tank. These are the critical temps for that to happen…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
The tragic fatal explosion that claimed a Firefighter’s life last week has a lot of folks claiming this was a COM DUST event. But after close examination of scene photos, I am confident this event was a syn-gas explosion with possibly some “fines” igniting during the event. These events are not all that rare and…...
Storing Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) requires a delicate engineering balance. Because it is both a Class IB Flammable Liquid and a Class 2 Unstable Reactive, the storage design must simultaneously mitigate the vapor-fire hazard while actively feeding the chemical inhibitor to prevent thermal runaway. When evaluating bulk storage tanks from a Process Safety Management (PSM) perspective,…...
The simple answer is yes, we can use ACGIH TLVs or NIOSH RELs to calculate the Maximum Use Concentration (MUC), but with one ABSOLUTE regulatory caveat: The resulting limit must be more protective (stricter) than what the OSHA standard dictates, or be applied to a chemical that OSHA does not currently regulate. Under 1910.134(b), OSHA…...
