Depot operator fined for violations

This story was published Thu, May 16, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON -- Federal regulators have cited Washington Demilitarization Co. -- the company that built and operates the Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerator -- for allegedly jeopardizing worker safety.

The company has responded by requesting a hearing with the inspector who issued the citations. Company officials will meet with federal regulators Friday in Portland.

Meanwhile, the company has been fined $2,600 for two violations that were rated "serious."

The citations were issued April 29 after an inspection in late March by an inspector with the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Carl Halgren, area director for OSHA, said he issued three citations. He said the inspection followed a complaint from a worker.

"Somebody could have been electrocuted or received electrical burns as a result of these violations," Halgren said.

Specifically, the citations charge that "group lockout and tagout devices were not used."

Lockout-tagout is a common industrial safety practice by which locks and sign-in and sign-out sheets are used to let workers know when a piece of equipment is being serviced and when it's ready for operation again.

Halgren said employees were servicing equipment in a fashion that endangered them because they did not document what they were doing and when they were doing it.

Providing an example, Halgren said, "An electrical motor was plugged in while somebody was working on it. Somebody else could have come in and started that motor."

Moreover, Halgren said, more than one person had access to machine lockouts.

He said in one case a shift superintendent authorized removing a lockout device without making a reasonable effort to contact the employee who installed the lock. "In addition, that employee was not notified for about 212 hours after returning to work two days later that the lockout device had been removed," he said.

Washington Demilitarization Co. is taking the violations seriously, said spokesman Rick Kelley.

But he said, "It's our position that none of these items compromised the safety of our employees."

If OSHA decides otherwise, however, Kelley said the company will "make any changes necessary to make sure our workers are safe."

 

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