DuPont now in ‘severe’ status

OSHA puts firm in program, adds more penalties

The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration announced Thursday that it has placed chemical giant DuPont in a program reserved for “severe violators” because of problems uncovered in inspections conducted after four workers were killed in a massive gas release at its La Porte plant last November.

The agency already had proposed in May to fine DuPont $99,000 for violations related to a leak of 23,000 pounds of the toxic methyl mercaptan that killed the workers inside a towering pesticide unit on one corner of its La Porte plant property.

On Thursday, OSHA proposed adding another $273,000 in penalties for violations uncovered in yet another inspection in January that delved into other units that process herbicide, acid and other toxics inside the same enormous complex along the Houston Ship Channel.

“DuPont promotes itself as having a ‘world-class safety’ culture and even markets its safety expertise to other employers, but these four preventable workplace deaths and the very serious hazards we uncovered at this facility are evidence of a failed safety program,” David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, said in a news release.

The decision to place a DuPont facility in what OSHA calls its “Severe Violator Enforcement Program” means OSHA will closely monitor DuPont

plants. In an interview, Michaels said OSHA wants to send a message that the agency has “seen evidence of a broken safety culture at this facility and we are concerned that, unless steps are taken, more workers could be hurt.”

In an emailed statement, DuPont spokesman Aaron Woods said: “Safety is a core value and a constant priority at DuPont. We first implemented safety rules in 1811 and have been engaged in a continuous process to improve ever since. Therefore, DuPont is disappointed with OSHA’s classification, and we will be working with the agency to understand its decision.”

The latest investigation is part of a national probe of DuPont facilities that OSHA is conducting in the aftermath of the November accident — the deadliest at any U.S. chemical plant in more than a decade. On Nov. 15, massive amounts of a toxic used to make pesticide leaked into a plant building, killing operator Crystle Wise and supervisor Wade Baker as well as brothers Gilbert Manuel “Gibby” and Robert Tisnado. The brothers perished in attempts to rescue the others, though Gilbert Tisnado managed to help another worker escape.

Michaels declined to say which other DuPont plants were being reviewed, aside from a facility in Deepwater, N.J., cited by OSHA in December 2014 after toxic chemicals leaked from a tanker truck.

“We have several open inspections and I can’t comment on those but I want to make sure we do everything we can to encourage DuPont to take every precaution necessary to protect the life and limbs of their workers,” he said.

Sells safety programs

DuPont, a publicly traded company based in Delaware, operates chemical plants worldwide and is considered a global leader in what is known as process safety management — often selling its safety programs to others. Its La Porte plant has historically been one of its largest U.S. chemical complexes and includes multiple manufacturing units, though DuPont has been downsizing operations there for a decade.

“DuPont Sustainable Solutions’ safety consulting business has worked with more than a thousand clients in 100 countries around the world to train their employees in best in class safety practices,” said Kate Bailey, DuPont’s spokesperson for that business via e-mail. “Many of our clients have achieved significant reductions in their safety incident and injury rates as a result of our safety consulting services,

and this is backed up by solid supporting data.”

The citations issued Thursday are for what inspectors describe as three willful, one repeat and four serious violations involving faulty procedures and equipment that they found in January. Those units make herbicide and hydrofluoric acid at the site on Strang Road, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Houston.

Woods said company officials separately have reviewed the plant’s herbicide and hydrofluoric acid (HF) units and are addressing “most if not all of OSHA’s significant findings.”

“Through the course of our work, we have shut down the herbicide unit in order to take corrective measures, and the unit will not restart until the work is complete,” he said. “The review of the HF unit confirmed that the unit is safe to operate.”

The November DuPont La Porte disaster occurred in a multistory tower that houses a large interconnected series of pipes and tanks that are used to brew a pesticide called Lannate.

The pesticide unit had been malfunctioning for years and its myriad design and safety flaws had regularly exposed DuPont workers to toxic fumes and endangered their lives even before the November catastrophe, according to preliminary findings of a separate ongoing investigation by the Chemical Safety Board, an independent government agency that probes only the nation’s worst industrial accidents.

Workers had little warning

Workers who died at the plant apparently had little or no advance warning that a massive leak was occurring because there were no gas detectors on the floor in the unit where the leak began. The fans atop the unit that helped to ventilate the building had been broken down for months, according to OSHA and CSB reports.

“Nothing can bring these workers back to their loved ones,” Michaels said. “I hope that our continued scrutiny into this facility and into working conditions at other DuPont plants will mean no family ever suffers this loss again. We here at OSHA want DuPont and the chemical industry as a whole to hear this message loud and clear.”

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the latest citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director in Houston, or contest findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

DuPont already is contesting OSHA’s May citation and $99,000 penalties related to the fatal accident review.

On June 29, DuPont named a new plant manager, James O’Connor, a 34-year DuPont veteran. O’Connor is the fifth plant manager to run the facility in the last six years.

The plant’s pesticide unit has remained idle since the November fatalities. Woods said DuPont has not set a restart date.

“The unit will not restart until all work is completed and is ready for safe operations,” he said.

The International Chemical Workers Union, which represents some DuPont employees, previously called on DuPont to pay the $99,000 OSHA fine, stop selling safety tools to others and “focus on safety in its own plants.”

John Morawetz, director of the union’s Center for Worker Health & Safety Education, said the further OSHA action demonstrates “continuous safety problems with handling highly hazardous substances in other units at the facility.”

“That being said, there’s a new plant manager and we hope improvements will be rapidly implemented,” he said.