Senate Hearings Show Deadly Sugar Blast Was Waiting to Happen

by Mike Hall, Jul 29, 2008

Equipment at Imperial Sugar Co.’s Port Wentworth plant in 2006 covered in combustible sugar dust.

For years, Imperial Sugar Co.’s Port Wentworth, Ga., sugar refinery was an explosion waiting to happen—and on Feb. 7, a blast at the plant killed 13 people. The explosion apparently was triggered when a metal conveyer bucket hit the side of a metal elevator shaft and created a spark that ignited tons of combustible sugar dust inside the plant.

At a Senate hearing today, government officials, workplace safety experts and an Imperial Sugar Co. executive painted a picture of a dangerous and dirty plant where electrical equipment was nearly encrusted in sugar dust, with dust waist deep in places.

In November 2007, Graham H. Graham was hired by Imperial as vice president of operations. He told the Employment and Workplace Safety subcommittee that on his first visit to the Port Wentworth plant he found a

…dirty and dangerous facility. The refinery was littered with discarded materials, piles of sugar dust, puddles of liquid sugar and airborne sugar dust. Electrical motors and controls were encrusted with solidified sugar, while safety covers and doors were missing from live electrical switchgear and panels. A combustible environment existed.

He said that although he ordered immediate steps be taken to clean up the plant, top company brass resisted his efforts, saying he was being “overly eager” in addressing the safety problems.

Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued 120 citations for safety violations at the plant, including 61 “willful and egregious” violations, and fined Imperial $5 million. It also slapped Imperial with $3.1 million in fines for 91 similar violations at its Gramercy, La., plant.

John Bresland, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), told the subcommittee:

We obtained documents indicating that certain parts of Imperial’s milling process were releasing tens of thousands of pounds of sugar per month into the work area. Based on our evidence, Imperial did not have a written dust control program or a program for using safe dust removal methods. And the company lacked a formal training program to educate its workers about combustible dust hazards. Imperial operators interviewed by the CSB had minimal knowledge of those hazards.

In 2006, the CSB called on OSHA to issue a combustible dust standard as a tool to help prevent workplace dust explosions that have claimed the lives of 130 workers and injured hundreds more since 1980. But OSHA has yet to act.

OSHA administrator Edwin Foulke downplayed the impact a dust standard may have had a role in the Port Wentworth explosion. He testified the deadly explosion was the result of Imperial Sugar’s

willful violation of existing standards and blatant disregard for safety and would not be prevented by the existence of another standard.

Bresland strongly disagreed and told the committee:

After witnessing the terrible human and physical toll from the Imperial explosion, I believe the urgency of a new combustible dust standard is greater than ever. A new standard, combined with enforcement and education, will save workers’ lives.

Foulke told the committee that OSHA has “not ruled out” providing a combustible dust standard but said it could take years before a standard in place.

However, Amy Beasley Spencer, senior chemical engineer for the National America Fire Protection Association (NFPA), said that the group has developed combustible dust standards and codes that many state and local jurisdictions have voluntarily adopted.

The NFPA standards that could have prevented those explosions were never made mandatory nationwide. OSHA doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—the tools exist in NFPA documents to prevent these tragedies.

Imperial Sugar CEO John Sheptor—whom Graham says he first told of the dangerous conditions at both plants in December—says he also backs a new OSHA combustible dust standard. He told the Associated Press yesterday there is

a poor understanding of the hazards of combustible dust throughout the industry.

Sheptor blames OSHA for failing to provide enough information about dust hazards. However, some safety experts question his motives in calling for the standard now. Imperial is contesting most of OSHA’s citations and he also declined an invitation to appear before the subcommittee today.

In a statement today, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said the House passed legislation in April compelling OSHA to set a combustible dust standard.

It’s long past time that OSHA issue a standard to prevent these kinds of accidents, and if the agency will not do so, then Congress must legislate one as soon as possible.

Click here for full testimony from all the witnesses and an archived video of the hearing.

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