Settlement reached in depot violations

This story was published Sat, Nov 16, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- A settlement over safety violations between federal regulators and the company that built and operates the Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerator has been reached.

"We believe this has resulted in a safer work environment for workers at the incineration site," said Carl Halgren, area director for Oregon's Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Washington Demilitarization Co. previously had been fined $2,600 for two violations rated serious. Halgren declined to specify how much the company would pay in fines as a result of the settlement.

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.

Washington Demilitarization officials appealed the fines. A hearing on the matter was scheduled recently, but Halgren said the matter was resolved prior to the hearing.

Federal regulators were alerted to the problem by a worker's complaint.

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.

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

 

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