Incident Report

Subject:     Artesia refinery fined $707,000 for safety lapses associated with deadly blast                

Date of Email report:   Mon 20/09/2010

Report Detail:

The Navajo Refining Company has been fined $707,000 for after state investigators found the company knowingly failed to correct safety problems before a deadly March 2 storage tank explosion and fire at the company’s plant in Artesia, N.M.
Two workers, Natividad Andajo and Victor Villa, were killed in the blast, their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Two other workers, both critically-injured, were airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas.

The plant processes crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel.

The state Occupational Safety and Health Bureau has issued citations for one “serious” violation and 10 “willful” violations — the most serious category of infraction. Violations included the company’s failure to train employees to recognize explosive hazards, failing to maintain fire prevention and fire protection programs, and allowing workers to conduct welding operations in the presence of flammable vapors.

“Serious” workplace safety violations are those representing hazards or conditions with a “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result,” Bureau records show. “Willful” violations are even more serious, representing situations in which the employer knows a hazardous situation exists but makes a knowing, intentional decision not to correct it.

Bureau investigators had issued a total of 10 previous serious safety violation citations against the Navajo Refinery over the three years leading up to the March 2010 storage tank explosion, The Independent reported July 14. Those previous violations included a failure to maintain adequate fireproofing on support beams, missing guard rails, missing danger signs, missing electrical safety equipment and improperly maintained worker respirator equipment.

The Navajo Refinery explosion in March was just one of a string of refinery blasts and fires that have killed dozens of workers over recent years. New Mexico also has the nation’s deadliest natural gas pipeline safety record. U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have announced they will soon introduce national pipeline safety legislation, in the aftermath of the massive San Bruno, Calif., pipeline blast last week.

The Navajo refinery reported a hydrogen sulfide leak Sept. 8. In 2009, the Bureau cited the refinery after finding employees had been exposed to hydrogen sulfide fumes at concentrations exceeding the federal occupational safety regulation limit of 50 parts per million. One worker was exposed to 662 parts per million — more than 13 times higher than federal safety regulations permit — without adequate personal protection equipment, inspectors found. Even brief exposures involving inhalation of hydrogen sulfide at concentrations above 500 parts per million can kill and cause permanent brain damage, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The Holly Corporation-owned Navajo Refinery is composed of two separate plants: one in Artesia and another 65 miles to the east, in Lovington. The two plants are considered a single refinery because they transfer petroleum products by pipeline and both plants contribute to the same refinery process, Occupational Safety and Health Bureau chief Butch Tongate said.