US Chemical Safety Board Chair and Chief Executive Vanessa Allen Sutherland announced she will resign next month. Board members will be required to vote on an interim executive, unless and until the White House nominates and the Senate confirms a new chair, the 20-year-old independent federal agency said on May 21.
“I am saddened to leave the wonderful mission and incredible work of the CSB,” said Sutherland, who been CSB chair since August 2015. “This mission is unique and critically important because we are the only agency conducting independent, comprehensive root-cause chemical incident investigations.”
Her announcement came as the agency deployed a team of investigators to the scene of a May 19 incident at the Kuraray America facility in Pasadena, Tex., which reportedly injured 21 workers. The plant manufactures ethylene vinyl-alcohol copolymers, which are sold as EVALTM. Kuraray America is a Tokyo-based specialty chemical manufacturer.
Before becoming CSB’s chair, Sutherland was chief counsel at the US Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration within the US Department of Transportation.
“As we continue to recognize the [CSB’s] 20th anniversary of operations, we still have much work to do to achieve our vision of a nation safe from chemical disasters,” Sutherland said. “I am absolutely certain that this team, and future hires, will both excel in execution and outshine our prior efforts.”
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