Court Approves Settlement, Bayer CropScience to Enhance Safeguards at Chemical Facilities for Violations at Bayer’s facility in Institute, W. Va., where a 2008 explosion killed two people.
08/12/2016
Contact Information:
Bonnie Smith (smith.bonnie@epa.gov)
215-814-5543
PHILADELPHIA, PA (August 12, 2016) – The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia approved the settlement that requires Bayer CropScience LP to pay $5.6 million for a penalty and safety improvements to resolve violations of federal chemical accident prevention laws, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice announced today. The violations occurred at Bayer’s facility in Institute, W. Va., where a 2008 explosion killed two people.
In the Court’s memorandum opinion and order, Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr., stated, “the evidence indicates that the 2008 explosion was the result of numerous, grave safety deficiencies at the plant.” He further comments, “the proposed consent decree would minimize the risk of reoccurrence through its extensive reporting, approved self-assessment, and standard operating procedure revision requirements applicable not only at the Institute facility but at other Bayer plants in the United States and any others that are built or purchased by Bayer during the next ten years ...”
“We are very pleased with the Court’s decision,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “This settlement supports the need for stronger worker safety and environmental protection measures involving the handling and storage of hazardous chemicals at Bayer’s facility in Institute and their other plants around the country. It will also fund 15 protective community-based projects including hazardous chemical cleanouts at 17 area high schools and provide response equipment for responders in eight communities and two police departments.”
Under the settlement, Bayer CropScience will spend $4.23 million to improve emergency preparedness and response in the Institute, W.Va. area, pay a $975,000 penalty, and spend approximately $452,000 to implement a series of measures to improve safety at their chemical storage facilities across the United States.
For a copy of the Court’s decision, visit: https://semspub.epa.gov/src/document/03/2232996
For a copy of the proposed Consent Decree, visit: https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/21b8983ffa5d0e4685257dd4006b85e2/fb43a837cdbe194085257ec7006d9f46!OpnDocument
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Jan 20, 2011
CSB Issues Report on 2008 Bayer CropScience Explosion: Finds Multiple Deficiencies Led to Runaway Chemical Reaction; Recommends State Create Chemical Plant Oversight Regulation
Institute, West Virginia, January 20, 2011 – The U.S. Chemical Safety
Board (CSB) today released its final report on the August 28, 2008,
Bayer CropScience pesticide manufacturing unit explosion that killed two
workers and injured eight others. In a report scheduled for Board
consideration at a public meeting this evening in Institute, the CSB
found multiple deficiencies during a lengthy startup process that
resulted in a runaway chemical reaction inside a residue treater
pressure vessel. The vessel ultimately over pressurized and
exploded. The vessel careened into the methomyl pesticide manufacturing
unit leaving a huge fireball in its wake.
The report found that had the trajectory of the exploding vessel taken
it in a different direction, pieces of it could have impinged upon and
possibly caused a release from piping at the top of a tank of highly
toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC).
The accident occurred during the startup of the methomyl unit,
following a lengthy period of maintenance. The CSB found the startup was
begun prematurely, a result of pressures to resume production of the
pesticides methomyl and Larvin, and took place before valve lineups,
equipment checkouts, a pre-startup safety review, and computer
calibration were complete. CSB investigators also found the company
failed to perform a thorough Process Hazard Analysis, or PHA, as
required by regulation.
This resulted in numerous critical omissions, including an overly
complex Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that was not reviewed and
approved, incomplete operator training on a new computer control system,
and inadequate control of process safeguards. A principal cause of the
accident, the report states, was the intentional overriding of an
interlock system that was designed to prevent adding methomyl process
residue into the residue treater vessel before filling the vessel with
clean solvent and heating it to the minimum safe operating temperature.
Furthermore, the investigation found that critical operating equipment
and instruments were not installed before the restart, and were
discovered to be missing after the startup began. Bayer’s
Methomyl-Larvin unit MIC gas monitoring system was not in service as the
startup ensued, yet Bayer emergency personnel presumed it was
functioning and claimed no MIC was released during the incident.
CSB Chairperson Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso said, “The deaths of the workers
as a result of this accident were all the more tragic because it could
have been prevented had Bayer CropScience provided adequate training,
and required a comprehensive pre-startup equipment checkout and strict
conformance with appropriate startup procedures. This would have
revealed multiple dangerous conditions and procedures that were
occurring at a time when the company wanted to restart production of a
key pesticide product. Startups are always a potentially hazardous
operation, but to begin with computer control systems that have not been
checked, while bypassing safety interlocks, is unacceptable.”
The investigation report makes recommendations to the company and its
Institute plant, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and several West
Virginia agencies. Citing a highly successful county program to ensure
refinery and chemical plant safety in Contra Costa County, California,
the CSB report recommends the West Virginia Department of Health and
Human Resources establish a “Hazardous Chemical Release Prevention
Program” that would have the authority to inspect and regulate such
plants, and make public its ongoing findings.
Dr. Moure-Eraso said, “I believe a state and county-run program like
this would go a long way to making chemical operations safer in places
like the Kanawha Valley. OSHA and EPA, have limited resources and cannot
be everywhere at once. However, local jurisdictions can put together
highly effective and targeted inspection and enforcement programs,
funded by levies on the plants themselves. The accident rate in Contra
Costa County has dropped dramatically, and last year in fact they had no
significant accidents, thanks, in my view, to this program.”
CSB Investigations Manager John Vorderbrueggen noted that a major
contributing factor to the accident was a series of equipment
malfunctions that continually distracted operators. “Human factors
played a big part in this accident, and the absence of enforced,
workable standard operating procedures and adequate safety systems meant
that mistakes could prove fatal. For example, operators were
troubleshooting several equipment problems and during the startup,
inadvertently failed to prefill the residue treater vessel with
solvent. A safety interlock was designed to stop workers from
introducing highly-reactive methomyl, but it was bypassed as had been
done in previous operations with managers’ knowledge. Once the chemical
reaction of the highly concentrated methomyl started, it could not be
stopped, and the temperature and pressure inside rose rapidly, finally
causing an explosion.”
Board Member John Bresland, who was CSB chairman at the time of the
Bayer accident, noted the confusion that resulted in the community’s
emergency response following the explosion at 10:33 p.m. “The Bayer fire
brigade was at the scene in minutes, but Bayer management withheld
information from the county emergency response agencies that were
desperate for information about what happened, what chemicals were
possibly involved,” Mr. Bresland said. “The Bayer incident commander,
inside the plant, recommended a shelter in place; but this was never
communicated to 911 operators. After an hour of being refused critical
information, local authorities ordered a shelter-in-place, as a
precaution.”
“Proper communication between companies and emergency responders during
an accident is critical,” said Mr. Bresland, adding, “The community
deserved better, especially considering the amounts of hazardous
chemicals, in use and being stored at various chemical facilities in the
Kanawha River valley.
The CSB report notes that two workers and four volunteer firefighters
required examination for possible exposure to toxic chemicals.
The investigation examined the potential consequences of a hypothetical
trajectory of the careening residue treater vessel that would result in
its hitting the heavy steel mesh ballistic shield surrounding the
above-ground MIC tank. The analysis – using blast pressure and impact
energy calculations – concluded that the shield would have protected the
MIC tank from a residue treater vessel hit. However, the CSB found, had
the residue treater struck the shield structure near the top of the
frame, the displaced frame could have contacted an MIC pipe, which might
have resulted in an MIC release into the atmosphere.
Chairperson Moure-Eraso said, “Any significant MIC release into the
atmosphere along the Kanawha valley could have proven deadly, and that
concern has been legitimately expressed for decades in the
community. This potential was reduced when Bayer announced last year it
would no longer store MIC above ground; it will be reduced to zero in
approximately 18 months when the company has announced it will end MIC
production and use at the Institute facility – the only place in the
country still storing large quantities of MIC.”
Dr. Moure-Eraso continued, “Bayer’s decision to end pesticide
production using MIC was, I understand, done for its own business
reasons. But for whatever reasons, the eventual elimination of this
chemical will enhance safety in the Kanawha Valley, for workers and
residents alike, and is a positive development in my view.”
The CSB public meeting is
scheduled for 6:30 p.m. this evening at the West Virginia State
University, Sullivan Hall, Wilson University Union, Multipurpose Room
103, in Institute. The Board will hear a full report on the
investigation, and then will invite seven panelists including industry
experts, community activists, and county government representatives to
testify. Following a public comment period, the Board will vote on the
report conclusions and recommendations.
The CSB is an
independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial
chemical accidents. The agency's board members are appointed by the
president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all
aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as
equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry
standards, and safety management systems.
The Board does not
issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants,
industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as
OSHA and EPA. Visit our website, www.csb.gov.
For more
information, contact Acting Director of Public Affairs Hillary Cohen at
202.261.3601 cell 202.446.8094; or Sandy Gilmour, 202.261.7614, cell
202.251.5496.
The safety video animation and photos can be downloaded at ftp://12.200.22.14/csbbayerrelease. Username: csbbayerrelease; Password: Sendus9$
The safety video animation and photos can be downloaded at ftp://12.200.22.14/csbbayerrelease. Username: csbbayerrelease; Password: Sendus9$