Tough Safety Rules Planned for Petrochemical Plants

The Labor Department said Thursday that it will issue tough new safety rules for the petrochemical industry in the wake of last year’s explosion at a Phillips Petroleum refinery near Houston that killed 23 workers and injured 130.

“The catastrophe underscored the need for . . . good safety management systems in the petrochemical industry,” Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole said in a report to President Bush on the Oct. 23 explosion and fire.

The safety program, which the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to put into effect by the end of summer, would require each plant to prepare detailed plans for handling accidents and emergencies and to conduct testing and inspection programs for “critical equipment.”

Companies also would be required to prepare detailed written plans for the storage and handling of “highly hazardous materials.” New training programs for workers would be developed to emphasize the special handling needed for hazardous materials.

The guidelines would apply to more than 2,000 U.S. petrochemical manufacturing facilities. Because OSHA must accept and review public comment on the proposed rules, it might be a year before they actually take effect.

Meanwhile, OSHA would “employ all means at its disposal to ensure that every company and its contractors in the industry implement widely used and generally accepted technologies and work practices,” the Labor Department said.

The accident at the Phillips plant had the powerful explosive force of an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale, the report said. Its primary causes “were failures in the management of safety systems at the (Phillips) Houston Chemical Complex,” the report added. OSHA earlier proposed to fine Phillips $5.7 million for alleged “willful” safety violations at the plant.

The report referred to other major catastrophes in the petrochemical business, including the Bhopal, India, disaster in 1984, when a chemical release killed more than 2,000 people. The Labor Department said its report “reminded the White House of the catastrophic potential in the industry.” The dangerous materials with the gravest threat of fire, explosion, or catastrophic leaks include natural gas liquids, synthetic rubber, plastic materials and industrial organic chemicals. The process of petroleum refining also ranks high on the danger list, the report said.

At the Phillips plant near Houston, combustible gases escaped from an open valve, formed a cloud and exploded. Federal officials said there should have been extra protection to safeguard against the breakdown of a valve or its accidental or unplanned opening.

The Labor Department report said the major safety responsibility rests “specifically with each petrochemical producer, at each location or workplace.”

Phillips said it “is eager to review any recommendations OSHA can offer that will further improve the safety of our operations.”