INSTITUTE, W.Va. — An update into the investigation of the chemical incident that claimed two lives at a Kanawha County plant site in April shows workers were not required to wear respirators or personal gas monitors during the decommissioning of the facility.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board released the update Thursday as part of its ongoing investigation into the April 22 incident at the Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute. The incident occurred during decommissioning of the plant which was supposed to wrap-up by early June.
The CSB update said workers were transferring chemicals using two smaller totes into a large storage tank when the chemical reaction occurred.
The “employees first pumped roughly 80 gallons of A-50 (a proprietary calcium chloride solution used as a coagulant) and 275 gallons of M-2000A (a proprietary sodium trithiocarbonate solution used as a metal precipitant) from their storage containers into a wastewater receiving tank. The employees then began pumping diluted nitric acid (the third chemical) from a tote into the same tank.”
That’s when they noticed a problem, the report said. There was a chemical reaction that created a cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas. One worker went outside to get some fresh air and passed out. A second worker passed out near the tank. The report said two other workers came from another area to help. One of those workers pulled the worker near the tank away from the cloud but was also overcome by the chemical reaction. The second worker who came to help was also overcome. It was those two workers who died. The worker initially near the tank was in critical condition but survived.
The CSB said its investigators found respirators on site but they weren’t being used. Workers told them Ames Goldsmith didn’t require them to be used during decommissioning. The company also did not provide or require workers to have personal gas monitors.
MORE Read full investigation update here
CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said what investigators have learned is concerning.
“This tragic incident underscores the need to have clear procedures and safely manage the serious chemical hazards that can arise during facility decommissioning,” Owens said. “Although the CSB’s investigation is still ongoing, we are concerned that Catalyst Refiners did not require employees to wear respirators during decommissioning and also never provided or required workers to use personal gas monitors that might have alerted them to the presence of the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.”
Kanawha Putnam Emergency Planning Committee Administrator Tom Keefer told MetroNews that tragically some don’t take decommissioning as seriously as they should.
“A lot of times, as they (CSB) point out, when folks are getting into the decommissioning of the facility, we get into a hurry, we take some shortcuts, we are not doing the usual activity,” Keefer said Thursday after reviewing the CSB update.
The update also said the four full-face respirators CSB investigators found at the site in various locations had filters which would have not provided protection from hydrogen sulfide.
The CSB said it’s ongoing investigation will focus on five areas including:
–Chemical hazards and incompatibilities
–Decommissioning hazard analysis;
–Chemical disposal procedures;
–Personal protective equipment and atmospheric monitoring; and
–Corporate governance and oversight
Keefer said CSB will try to determine if the interaction of the chemicals A-50, M-2000A and nitric acid was ever considered.
“Was the interaction of chemicals ever looked at to know that these three chemicals should have never been mixed together in the state they were,” Keefer said.
The CSB update said there were four workers seriously injured in addition to the two workers who died.
The CSB also said, “Following the incident, 22 personnel were decontaminated at the site, including four responders, and 18 of those were transported to local medical facilities for further evaluation.”
The names of the victims have not been released by authorities or the company.