WATCHING GOVERNMENT: Plant safety under review

April 2, 2007
More than 2 years later, shock waves from the Mar. 23, 2005, blast and fire that killed 15 people and injured 180 at BP America’s Texas City installation are increasingly being felt in plant safety.

More than 2 years later, shock waves from the Mar. 23, 2005, blast and fire that killed 15 people and injured 180 at BP America’s Texas City installation are increasingly being felt in plant safety. Everyone agrees that improvements are needed.

The most likely results include stronger enforcement of existing rules and enactment of additional regulations. Witnesses at the US House Education and Labor Committee’s Mar. 22 hearing criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for not conducting more planned process safety management (PSM) inspections at the Texas City refinery and other refineries and chemical plants. OSHA announced the same day that it is hiring more inspectors and doing more inspections.

Proper inspections take time and money. When the federal PSM standard was created in the 1990s, OSHA envisioned a highly technical, complex, and lengthy process called a program quality verification inspection for regulated facilities, according to US Chemical Safety Board Chairwoman Carolyn W. Merritt.“The inspections would take weeks or months at each facility and would be conducted by a select, well-trained, and experienced team. Indeed, thoroughly inspecting a 1,200-acre complex with 30 major process units, such as the Texas City refinery, is no small undertaking and requires at least that level of effort,” she said.

Near misses

Several witnesses want more. Kim Nibarger, a health and safety specialist with United Steelworkers, estimated that 98% of all releases of hazardous substances, especially hydrocarbons, never result in ignition. “Any number of these releases, had they found an ignition source, could have resulted in consequences as tragic as Texas City,” Nibarger said.

Such “near-misses” troubled committee members because they are not always formally reported. They may be discussed in oil industry forums such as the American Petroleum Institute’s standards and practices committees. But the procedures that emerge are recommendations, not requirements. API Pres. Red Cavaney told the committee that the existing program works because it is voluntary.

Other initiatives

Cavaney said API is part of the OSHA Alliance, which has brought stakeholders together to examine process safety issues. He also said the industry will join the steelworkers union in studying worker fatigue, which CSB said contributed to the Texas City accident. “Safety is a continuous improvement process,” he observed. Committee members want more enforcement. “A terrific case has been made this morning about why we need mandatory oversight from OSHA and how we should give it the necessary resources,” said Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-Md.).

President George W. Bush has requested from Congress an increase to $490.3 million for OSHA in fiscal 2008 from the agency’s $472.4 million budget under the 2007 continuing resolution. The enforcement budget would increase to $183 million from $172.6 million.