Fire Marshal: Inspections Refused Since West Blast

[frigidmagi]

MBT

Five facilities in Texas with large quantities of the same fertilizer chemical that fueled the deadly plant explosion in West have turned away state fire marshal inspectors since the blast, investigators said Monday.

A railway operator that hauls hazardous materials across Texas was also said to have rebuffed a state request to share data since the April explosion at West Fertilizer Co. that killed 15 people and injured 200 others.

Regulators and state lawmakers at a hearing about the still-unsolved explosion were intrigued by the lack of cooperation. State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said "well, sure" when asked whether those facilities refusing to admit inspectors raised concern.

"In their defense, they may have a very good reason," Connealy said.

There is no state fire code in Texas. The state fire marshal's office lacks the power to make unannounced inspections of local businesses, nor does the office have the authority to compel local facilities to open its doors.

After the West explosion intensified scrutiny of Texas businesses that store ammonium nitrate, Connealy's office said it would try to inspect about 150 facilities that keep more than 10,000 pounds of the potentially volatile chemical.

Testifying to the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety, Connealy said his office has completed about 60 inspections and aim to finish the rest by October. He said he did not know why five facilities wouldn't let inspectors inside.

"They just didn't want the fire marshal to come on the property," he said.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Connealy declined to name the facilities. He said he didn't immediately know whether he could make that information public.

Democratic state Rep. Joe Pickett, chairman of the House committee, said the state has seen little pushback from the fertilizer and chemical industry since the blast.

"At this point, today, I would say that any resistance is more just fear of the unknown than anybody trying to hide or cover up some situation like West," Pickett said. "I would believe if somebody thought they had something that was really dangerous, the only reason they would say no was to get it fixed that day."

Unlike the state fire marshal's office, the state Department of Health Services is allowed to make unannounced visits at the facilities, though to collect different information.

Kathryn Perkins, an assistant commissioner in the agency's regulatory division, said fire marshal inspectors can accompany her agency on those trips. Even then, however, a business could choose not to allow the inspector inside.

"It'd be interesting to see if that happens," Perkins said.

Texas Department of Emergency Management chief Nim Kidd said his agency asked three railways that represent major hazardous material haulers to share data since the explosion. Kidd said Kansas City Southern Railway Co. was the only to tell state officials "no thank you, we're not interested."

William Galligan, a spokesman for Kansas City Southern Railway, did not immediately return a phone message or email seeking comment.

Authorities have yet to pinpoint a cause of the West blast and said forensic tests that could reveal a long-sought answer won't be done until 2014. Criminal responsibility hasn't been ruled out, authorities say. A former volunteer West paramedic, who said he was among the first responders to the April 17 blast and has since been charged with possessing pipe-bomb materials, has not been linked to the explosion.

Assistant State Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner told lawmakers chances are slim as to determining whether the electrical system at the plant played a role. Additional forensic testing won't be done until some time next year in a federal lab in Maryland.

"We still want to find an answer like everyone else does," Kistner said.

Well gee, that makes me feel better about the zero fire codes there.

[Josh]

One of the things I loved about safety work was fighting it out with assholes running dodgy shit. It was why I got into the job in the first place.

The thing that made me choose my current career over safety work was fighting it out with assholes running dodgy shit. It was fun, but it was also ulcer city because it never ends.

[Rogue 9]

Wait. Government safety inspectors show up to inspect the place and they can actually tell them to fuck off and annoy someone else and do it legally? The fuck is that?

[SirNitram]

Wait. Government safety inspectors show up to inspect the place and they can actually tell them to fuck off and annoy someone else and do it legally? The fuck is that?

Texas. Feature, not bug.

[Cynical Cat]

Wait. Government safety inspectors show up to inspect the place and they can actually tell them to fuck off and annoy someone else and do it legally? The fuck is that?

Texas. Feature, not bug.

Not just Texas. When Reagan gutted the FDA in the 80s, they lost the power to do mandatory recalls. Texas, of course, is the bleeding edge of the hard right curve.

[Josh]

Yup, not just Texas. However, with no state fire code, there's no further ability to enforce inspections though.

Even OSHA inspections can be refused briefly, but that's a national thing and it's built directly into the OSH Act of '74. If I own a site that falls under OSHA and an inspector shows up, I can straight-up tell them to get the fuck out and they have to leave. However, they can then go and get a warrant, which theoretically gives me 24+ hours to fix whatever stupidity I have going at my jobsite before they come back in. It also means that theoretically I can contest anything they inspect or find that isn't specifically covered in the warrant.

In practice that doesn't happen very often because OSHA fines are pretty pathetic, generally around seven thou per hit on first offenses. So it's just not worth it to go to all the song and dance.*

That was built into the OSH Act as part of the various compromises to make it acceptable to business. The funny thing is that another one that was built in on behalf of businesses turned out to be an utter disaster- states are allowed to have their own OSH departments so long as they meet or exceed OSHA standards. Corps thought this would be a good idea because of course state officials are cheaper to buy than federal ones. However, in practice the few states that did go forward with their own OSHAs were more of a pain in the ass due to having different standards and practices than the feds, which fucked things up for companies trying to set interstate policies. Fortunately for everyone involved, most states looked at the expense of duplicating a (for them) free federal service and said 'Naaaaaah.'

Another funny story that I've probably told here before. While you can punt out OSHA, refuse fire code inspections (depending on the county), what you cannot refuse is inspection by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ.)

One fine day at a local plant, shortly after the TCEQ was formed and knowledge of its existence wasn't widespread, one of their inspectors showed up at a local rubber plant. The guards call up from the gate, some guy from the 'T-C-E-Q' is here and says he wants to inspect the plant.

Manager comes down to see him and tells him nobody gets into the plant without his permission, and he isn't giving permission. Dude tells the manager that he's a state inspector, he can go in and inspect. Plant manager basically tells him to fuck off and get off the grounds.

Half an hour later, corp management in Houston calls the manager, tells him that the inspector is coming back and to let him in, take him wherever he wants, kiss his ass on the courthouse lawn if that's what it takes. That's when everybody realizes that this TCEQ outfit might be a serious thing.

Dude comes back and basically tells them right on the spot that he's going to find enough shit to close them down.

He didn't quite pull that off, but he did bang them for like 700K on that one inspection. And be damn sure every TCEQ inspector after that got the royal treatment.

* OSHA can fine more, and does for repeat violations primarily, but even then it typically runs into the low six figures for major facilities. Hitting BP with a multi-million dollar fine over Texas City was kind of big news because OSHA usually doesn't do that. Another fun fact: OSHA fines are contestable in civil court rather than criminal, meaning that payment can be bogged down by five to seven years if everyone's willing to stick to the case.