U.S. CSB Chairman John Bresland, shown during an April 2009 public hearing in Institute, W.Va.

Kanawha Valley residents found out last year how an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board can shine new light on a chemical plant accident. Were it not for CSB’s dedicated investigators, would any of us know that the August 2008 explosion and fire at Bayer CropScience’s Institute plant could have eclipsed the Bhopal disaster?

But the CSB has so far not deployed anyone to Belle, W.Va., to examine the series of accidents that left one worker dead and also included a toxic leak that went undetected for up to five days.

Last night, I e-mailed board Chairman John Bresland and asked for an interview to find out why the board hasn’t stepped in, and I got back this automated message:

I will be out of the office on vacation until Wednesday, February 3, 2010

It referred me to one of Bresland’s staffers. I’ve contacted her, but we still haven’t heard of any decision from the board, and it’s not clear who will make that decision in Bresland’s absence about whether to investigate DuPont’s Belle plant.

But just last month, the CSB declined to look into two explosions at Houston-area industrial plants that killed one person and injured four others. According to the Houston Chronicle:

The reason: chronic shortages of staff and money, said John Bresland, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The board will investigate a manufacturing plant accident in Illinois that killed a truck driver.

Bresland said his 40-person, $10.6 million-a-year investigative agency does not have enough people to handle more than the 16 investigations that are already under way — a fraction of the dozens of accidents at refineries and chemical plants each year.

“We would like to investigate more accidents but that would require additional resources from Congress,” Bres­land said in a telephone interview.

But as we’ve pointed out before here,  the U.S. Government Accountability Office has strongly criticized the CSB for not investigating enough of the nation’s chemical accidents:

By not investigating all accidental releases that have a fatality, serious injury, substantial property damage, or the potential for a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damage, CSB continues to fall short of its statutory mandate.

And, if you recall, it took a lot of political pressure for the CSB to stand up to Bayer CropScience and investigate the August 2008 explosion and fire here in the Kanawha Valley.

Maya Nye, a spokeswoman for the group People Concerned About MIC, said today:

My heart goes out to Mr. Fish’s family and fellow workers.  His death is tragic and was 100% preventable.  As it is for families of Bill Oxley and Barry Withrow, the men who died during the Bayer explosion, my hand is also extended in any way our group can assist the family bring justice to a very unjust situation.

The death of workers is the sign of inherent operating and management flaws.  Let’s hope that no more lessons have to he learned on the back of dead workers.

How this could happen, especially so soon in the wake of the Bayer explosion, is bone chilling.  The Chemical Safety Board needs to investigate this incident and the safety of all the facilities in this valley before something else happens.  But, like most agencies, they’re under funded and understaffed and there is only so much they can do.  That doesn’t help our situation much.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 10:37 am and is filed under Chemical industry, Environment, Worker safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.