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A firefighter at the 2009 Catano oil refinery fire in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico adjusts his equipment. Officials from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board determined that a faulty gauge had caused the fire. United Steelworkers representatives have expressed safety concerns over the state of refineries throughout the U.S. (FEMA)
It took two days for the fire to cool down enough to allow inspection following a devastating explosion at the Phillips Petroleum Company’s chemical plant in Houston in 1999.
When industry officials entered they were met with a shocking sight: embedded in a cooling tower across the burnt processing unit, was a propeller half the size of a house.
“It was a devastating explosion,” said Jim Lefton, a Texas based United Steelworkers (USW) representative who has serviced most of the big oil companies over the years. Changes in the processing system and the wrong sized relief valve were identified as contributors to that explosion, which killed two contractors and three workers.
The Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) followed up with an inquiry, allocated a fine to the company of a little over $200,000 and contributed to a report recommending specific safety improvements.
The company “flat out rejected” the recommendations, Lefton said.
One year later another devastating explosion occurred in the same Houston company—same chemical complex, same issues. This time one person died, and 71 were injured.
“One of the people who was injured was on our Health and Safety Committee,” said Lefton. “He was burned to over 75 percent of his body.” To this day that man is unable to bear sunlight on his skin.
It has been 11 years since that fatal accident but the USW says the same cowboy attitude to safety in the petrochemical industry remains. This time, however, the stakes are higher.
Speaking at a congressional briefing last month, Lefton and USW Health and Safety Inspector Kim Nibarger said failure to address the “mechanical integrity” of America’s petrochemical plants and refineries, some of which are now more than 60 years old, is particularly concerning, as companies seek to increase margins while cutting costs.
Nibarger outlined a litany of oil industry accidents since 2000, including an explosion at the Texas City plant in 2005, which killed 15 people and injured 170, and the Tesoro’s Anacortes plant in Washington state in 2010, which killed seven workers.
Prior to the BP Deepwater Horizon accident, the BP Texas City plant was considered the worst industrial accident in the United States since the 1990s.
In each case there were failures in process safety management standards, which include stopgap fixes. Clamps being placed on pipes when there are leaks instead of whole pipe replacement, and “extending time” between maintenance shutdowns illustrate the point.
“When there is a shutdown they’re not always repairing or replacing critical equipment,” he told attendees at the Senate briefing, “When they do repair equipment they’re not bringing it up to current RAGAGEP (Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices) standards.”
The USW, which represents over 30,000 workers in petrochemical facilities nationwide, is not alone in its concerns.
The U.S. Chemical and Safety Board (CSB) is the independent Federal agency tasked with investigating industrial accidents. CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso says of the 18 current investigations, 9 involve mishaps in the [oil] refining industry that can cause fatalities.
Speaking on a USW documentary produced to highlight safety concerns in the industry, the chairman said the situation had become so grave he feared devastating consequences. “We have decreasing safety levels, disinvestment in safety, lack of training, accidents or near misses—indications of catastrophe being ignored,” he complained.
Refining a Dangerous Process
Crude oil, while largely comprised of energy producing hydrocarbons, contains thousands of different molecules. Refining it into gasoline and other related petroleum products is a complex process involving both chemical reactions and physical separations, according to petrostrategies.org.
It is our hope that we will be successful. If not, we are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our members from death and injury at the hands of this industry.
—Jim Lefton, representative, United Steelworkers
When crude oil is heated, the various compounds within it boil at different temperatures, producing different products. Gasoline for example boils between 90 Fand 400 F, while home heating oil requires a higher temperature, between 500 F and 650 F, Petrostrategies says. The boiled compounds change to gases, which are later recondensed to liquid to form the different products.
USW Director Gary Beevers believes there would be greater concern in the community if the public were more aware of what was involved in refining oil.
“People forget that the role of refineries is to boil oil under extreme heat and pressure,” he said, adding that if something goes wrong in a refinery, it can go really wrong.
“We are not talking about a leak like the faucet of a tap … [In an oil refinery] it’s a gusher, it’s a spray and it is hydrocarbons going everywhere.”
Failure to implement thorough inspections and training, to report leaks, and address maintenance issues effectively are major concerns.
Industries used to shut down units for a thorough maintenance check every three years, then it went to four, then five, “Now it is every six years,” Beevers said in the USW video.
While hydrocarbons are recognized as toxic, many oil refineries still use hydrofluoric acid, or HF, as part of the processing chain. Highly dangerous as a gas or fluid, HF is insidiously lethal in its ability to penetrate and contaminate layers of tissue without immediate surface pain.
“If you get a pinhole leak in a hydrofluoro alkinator you take out a whole community,” Beevers said.
Concerned environmental lobby groups have been lobbying federal authorities about HF for a number of years.
The CPI maintains regular reports of leaks from petrochemical facilities around the United States, and released a report mid-2011 warning of the potential for disaster in regard to HF.
Of the roughly 130 refineries across the United States, 50 still use HF, the report says.
“At least 16 million Americans … live in the potential path of HF if it were to be released in an accident or a terrorist attack, according to refinery owners’ worst case scenario reports” the CPI said.
Next … More Oversight Needed
