Texas Sharpens Focus on Health, Safety
Responsible care was still in its infancy when, nearly a decade ago, a total of 40 chemical plant workers were killed in Texas within less than a year at Phillips Chemical's site at Pasadena and at Arco Chemical's plant at Channelview. The accidents stunned the community and the industry.
Although workplace fatalities at chemical companies accounted for only 8% of the 4,687 work-related deaths in Texas between 1980 and 1985, the magnitude of the accidents on October 23, 1989 and July 5, 1990 brought the chemical industry back into a sharp, glaring focus not experienced since the Texas City blast in 1947, which claimed more than 570 lives.
Within the past eight to 10 years, Phillips and Arco Chemical have made significant strides under Responsible Care and their own internal programs to foster health and safety, both practically and philosophically.
Still, some see plant accidents as inevitable. "It's not if it's going to happen, but when," says Mike Nall, chairman of the Pasadena local emergency planning committee (LEPC). "Sooner or later, something's going to happen. There's just too much industry out there." Nall, a cement contractor, was to have been in the Phillips plant the day of the blast, but a scheduling change allowed him to complete his work two days before the accident. He gives area plants high marks, though, for the steps taken to improve safety. "I believe that the likelihood of an accident has gone way down," he says.
About a year before the Phillips accident, parent Phillips Petroleum had been recognized for its outstanding safety record, says Barbara Price, v.p./health, environment, and safety. The company's Houston Chemical Complex (HCC), in particular, seemed among the least vulnerable. "Because the Pasadena plant was on the Ship Channel, there was much more structure, community contact, and emergency response support there than at other more remote plants within our company," she says.
Channel Industries Mutual Aid (CIMA), among the nation's largest disaster aid organizations, comprises more than 100 member companies located along the Ship Channel, providing specialized equipment and specially trained personnel during plant emergencies. CIMA regularly conducts drills at member plants and with the Houston and Pasadena fire departments.
The accident exposed shortcomings in Phillips's approach to health, safety, and the environment, says Price. Until the accident, she says, "we thought we were doing pretty well. We learned that no matter how well you're doing, things can always go wrong." Responsible Care focused Phillips on taking steps to keep accidents from happening, Price says. "Responsible Care provides a more formalized structure than we had before. It brings much more definition, a systematic approach. Before, it was much more informal." Now there are plans in place, drills and ongoing dialogue that take plant personnel into the community and give community members a forum in which to talk with each other, she adds.
HCC employees also participate in the annual Household Hazardous Materials Day each April, going door to door to collect old paint, cleaners, and other substances homeowners cannot safely and easily dispose of. The Earth Day event is sponsored by Ship Channel-area industry and community organizations. "You have to have process safety so everything's in place," says Jack Howe, Phillips's senior v.p./chemicals and plastics. "But equally important is the commitment of all the people, from the top on down."
The Pasadena community advisory panel (CAP), formed after the explosion, recently toured the Ship Channel. They invited city and community leaders along, as well as plant employees and contractors. Longtime CAP member Peggy Finn, who has lived in Pasadena for 42 years, says the concept of Responsible Care is "still seeping into" the consciousness of area residents but that "the companies have really done yeoman's work in getting word out to the public." Even before the accident, however, Phillips operated an active community awareness and emergency response (CAER) group and forged a relationship with the Pasadena LEPC that has proved a crucial link between Phillips and the community. The relationship "has facilitated industry's compliance with the tenets of Responsible Care," says LEPC coordinator Elizabeth Gonzalez, who is also Pasadena's deputy coordinator of emergency preparedness.
When federal law created LEPCs, "its mandates so closely mirrored CAER that we basically incorporated" CAER into the LEPC, Gonzalez says. "The LEPC truly functions as a bridge between industry and local government, and in most instances industry goes a lot further," she adds.
Following the Phillips explosion, all area plants completed a review of their emergency procedures; among the results was implementation of an emergency network system for vital telecommunications in emergencies. An LEPC had been studying an emergency warning system, but the accidents at Phillips and Arco "lent impetus" to the effort, Gonzalez says. Industry ultimately contributed 90% of $360,000 required for 15 linked sirens throughout the area.
During the emergency, responders found that hose couplings were often incompatible from plant to plant, which hampered fire fighting. That problem has also been addressed. "Industry has always expressed a desire to help," Gonzalez says. "But being realistic, I don't think they would have been willing to sink so much money into it had there not been increased sensitivity because of the incidents."
The LEPC has helped Phillips with planning, conducting drills, and defining individual responsibility. "You have a distinct advantage when your LEPC is already up," he says. "You've got a framework, a structure in place. That type of interaction and knowing people on a first-name basis is invaluable. When a major incident happens and an emergency response is initiated, you need to know that all areas of Responsible Care are being taken care of."
When Alan Hirsig took the helm of Arco Chemical in 1991, he implemented a program, Manufacturing Excellence, that was "complementary to Responsible Care," he says. Coming soon after the Channelview accident, which killed 17 workers, the program covered safety, environmental performance, plant reliability, cost efficiency, and customer satisfaction. "Manufacturing Excellence is the mechanics we've used to incorporate Responsible Care," says Denis Boyle, Arco Chemical's coordinator/Responsible Care and corporate director/environmental health and safety. "For us, the Channelview accident was a wake-up call. It made us stand back and reevaluate everything we did in our manufacturing operation," he adds. The company's Manufacturing Excellence and Responsible Care programs give it a common set of principles under which to operate. It "facilitates communication with and between plants, which helps develop best practices so [we] don't have to recreate the wheel," Boyle says.
Hirsig, who recently stepped down as CEO to become Arco Chemical's vice-chairman, reflects proudly on the programs. However, he is perhaps most sensitive about safety, especially because there were allegations that an electric compressor at the center of the blast may have been started up despite safety concerns expressed by some workers.
"The tragedy is still part of our collective memory, but I feel that we've dealt with the issues," Hirsig says. "If there's ever a hint of a problem, we tell our people not to hesitate to shut a unit down. I believe people at the plant are convinced that safety is the top priority for senior management and that people on the line are totally empowered to act on that belief," he says.
Jim Bayer, Arco Chemical's Gulf Coast manufacturing director, notes that an oxygen analyzer on the tank that exploded in 1990 failed to give a proper reading. Now such tanks have three analyzers attached, and two of the three readings must agree before it is considered accurate. "That was the hardware fix," he says. "The cultural fix is more training and understanding exactly what was going on inside that tank."
Other programs implemented through Responsible Care with the participation of the CAP in this unincorporated area east of Houston include a siren system in which a string of alarms sound at strategic locations throughout the area, and a low-power radio station installed by Arco and Equistar for emergency broadcasts.
The CAP is also taking a more participatory role in plant operations through a subcommittee working with Equistar and Arco Chemical on ways to reduce wastes and emissions, which goes far beyond what any other CAP is doing," an Equistar source says. Both the Pasadena and the Channelview CAPs are also working closely with member companies on risk management plans.
Arco and Phillips have become different corporate citizens since their respective accidents. Both intend to keep evolving and building on lessons learned the hard way. "It's never time to rest, to put the bucket down," says Price. "There's only being better tomorrow than you are today."
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