Feb. 27, 2009
Bayer Plant Cited for 13 Serious Violations Including Safety Issues
What Impact on MIC Unit?
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – The Bayer CropScience plant at Institute has been cited for multiple “serious” violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An explosion at the plant in August 2008 resulted in the deaths of two employees and brought concerns regarding the safety of Kanawha County populace since the facility contains an MIC unit.
The serious violations are mostly related to the Methonyl process unit where the explosion occurred; however, the unit is less than 100 yards from the MIC unit. An MIC chemical leak in India in the 1984 killed thousands. Bayer’s Institute plant uses MIC in the Methomyl manufacturing process which eventually produces the insecticide Larvin.
In citing health hazard violations for the Methomyl process included are a citation that the “operating parameters for High MIC Feed Tank Temperature, Pressure and Venting were not current and accurate.”
Violation 11 b states that “the written initial break pressure did not require the use of air sampling equipment on all initial breaks into equipment that may have contained MIC. Failure to use air sampling equipment while wearing a supplied air respirator would not alert employees to the presence of toxic and flammable MIC vapors when breaking into air process equipment. An employee failed to utilize air sampling equipment while operating a vent on the MDC Dump Tank to check for the presence of MIC on or about September 29, 2008.”
The document proposed fines for 15 violations issued by a federal safety inspector. Thirteen of those were “serious” violations and two repeated violations.
One repeated violation suggests that the Methomy unit in 2004 had received a Process Hazard Analysis that apparently the facility had neither then or now “considered factors resulting from heat, pressure, waves, overloading, chemical effects and violations due to powered equipment , soft subsoil and climatic effects such as freezing, earthquakes and wind.”
According to a published article, John Bresland, the chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, was to participate in a March 2009 public forum cancelled after Bayer attorneys cited the invoked the post 9/11 Maritime Transportation Security Act. Bresland, had asked Bayer about safety devices to protect the workers and populace considering the relatively urban location of the plant.
Bresland in February asked, "Should it be in that location or more remote from where there would be a potential explosion,” the Gazette article stated.
The 40,000 pound MIC tank (based on Environmental Protection Authority documents) is 50 to 75 feet from the methomyl tank that exploded August 28, 2008.
Many of the February 26, 2009 OSHA proposed citations and notifications of penalties invoked safety issues, whether related to equipment, employees or the plant’s location.
Ironically, the safety hazard information become a matter of public record without the public forum by the chemical safety organization. It is unknown whether the U.S. Coast Guard will give them clearance to hold their planned public seminar, or, as would follow precedent from the 9/11 litigation, simply impose restrictions on specific data that could be national security sensitive.
Of course, a further issue now surfaces: Balancing the so-called national security issues of the plant to terrorism are the public’s right to know the life threatening chemicals that based on the citations may not be stored properly.
Plant officials are reviewing the report . The Methomyl Unit has not been in operation since the August explosion.
People Concern About MIC, which includes residents worried about the plant and its storage of MIC scheduled Thursday evening meeting on the West Virginia State University campus, which is near the Bayer plant, according to a member of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Following the meeting, Maya Nye, spokeswoman for PCMIC, told HNN that “these violations indicate serious negligence,” adding that “the company communicates with their employees about as well as the community.” Ultimately, though, Ms. Nye felt the penalties which total around $150,000 would not prevent future incidents. “They are no where nearly harsh enough and don’t seem preventive of future incidents of the one in August which claimed the lives of two employees.”
The West Virginia Legislature has introduced legislation that pertains to the reporting of chemical emergencies that stems from the August 28, 2008 incident.
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Bayer Plant Cited for 13 Serious Violations Including Safety Issues
What Impact on MIC Unit?
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – The Bayer CropScience plant at Institute has been cited for multiple “serious” violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An explosion at the plant in August 2008 resulted in the deaths of two employees and brought concerns regarding the safety of Kanawha County populace since the facility contains an MIC unit.
The serious violations are mostly related to the Methonyl process unit where the explosion occurred; however, the unit is less than 100 yards from the MIC unit. An MIC chemical leak in India in the 1984 killed thousands. Bayer’s Institute plant uses MIC in the Methomyl manufacturing process which eventually produces the insecticide Larvin.
In citing health hazard violations for the Methomyl process included are a citation that the “operating parameters for High MIC Feed Tank Temperature, Pressure and Venting were not current and accurate.”
Violation 11 b states that “the written initial break pressure did not require the use of air sampling equipment on all initial breaks into equipment that may have contained MIC. Failure to use air sampling equipment while wearing a supplied air respirator would not alert employees to the presence of toxic and flammable MIC vapors when breaking into air process equipment. An employee failed to utilize air sampling equipment while operating a vent on the MDC Dump Tank to check for the presence of MIC on or about September 29, 2008.”
The document proposed fines for 15 violations issued by a federal safety inspector. Thirteen of those were “serious” violations and two repeated violations.
One repeated violation suggests that the Methomy unit in 2004 had received a Process Hazard Analysis that apparently the facility had neither then or now “considered factors resulting from heat, pressure, waves, overloading, chemical effects and violations due to powered equipment , soft subsoil and climatic effects such as freezing, earthquakes and wind.”
According to a published article, John Bresland, the chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, was to participate in a March 2009 public forum cancelled after Bayer attorneys cited the invoked the post 9/11 Maritime Transportation Security Act. Bresland, had asked Bayer about safety devices to protect the workers and populace considering the relatively urban location of the plant.
Bresland in February asked, "Should it be in that location or more remote from where there would be a potential explosion,” the Gazette article stated.
The 40,000 pound MIC tank (based on Environmental Protection Authority documents) is 50 to 75 feet from the methomyl tank that exploded August 28, 2008.
Many of the February 26, 2009 OSHA proposed citations and notifications of penalties invoked safety issues, whether related to equipment, employees or the plant’s location.
Ironically, the safety hazard information become a matter of public record without the public forum by the chemical safety organization. It is unknown whether the U.S. Coast Guard will give them clearance to hold their planned public seminar, or, as would follow precedent from the 9/11 litigation, simply impose restrictions on specific data that could be national security sensitive.
Of course, a further issue now surfaces: Balancing the so-called national security issues of the plant to terrorism are the public’s right to know the life threatening chemicals that based on the citations may not be stored properly.
Plant officials are reviewing the report . The Methomyl Unit has not been in operation since the August explosion.
People Concern About MIC, which includes residents worried about the plant and its storage of MIC scheduled Thursday evening meeting on the West Virginia State University campus, which is near the Bayer plant, according to a member of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Following the meeting, Maya Nye, spokeswoman for PCMIC, told HNN that “these violations indicate serious negligence,” adding that “the company communicates with their employees about as well as the community.” Ultimately, though, Ms. Nye felt the penalties which total around $150,000 would not prevent future incidents. “They are no where nearly harsh enough and don’t seem preventive of future incidents of the one in August which claimed the lives of two employees.”
The West Virginia Legislature has introduced legislation that pertains to the reporting of chemical emergencies that stems from the August 28, 2008 incident.
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