AP Features, March 6th, 2007
A series of explosions that killed five employees at a central Illinois chemical plant in 2004 was caused by a worker who mistakenly opened a valve on a high-temperature reactor that was in operation, a federal agency said Tuesday.
Yet plant owner Formosa Plastics Corporation U.S.A. failed to address the possibility of human error at the plant near Illiopolis, about 25 miles east of Springfield, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
Investigators said that because of similar incidents at one of its Louisiana plants and also at the same Illinois plant just two months before the fatal blasts, New Jersey-based Formosa should have recognized potential dangers.
The agency released its report on the accident, which also injured seven workers and led to the closure of the plant, early Tuesday morning.
Formosa spokesman Rob Thibault said the company already has already steps to address some of the concerns raised by the investigative board and continues to work on others.
Both Formosa and investigators said the employee who opened the valve on the wrong reactor apparently became confused about which of the plant's 24 reactors he was cleaning on the night of April 23, 2004.
The reactors are three-story metal vessels that use 120-degree heat and high pressure to begin turning vinyl chloride monomer, or VCM, and other chemicals, into resin used to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Polyvinyl chloride is used to make PVC pipe and other materials for construction, medical supplies and automotive parts.
"He's on the top level, does the cleaning, goes down flights of stairs and he was supposed to go left to reactor 306 and open the drain valve," Thibault said in an interview. "Apparently what happened was that he went right."
When the worker opened the valve on the operating reactor, he bypassed a series of safety measures without telling a shift supervisor, a violation of internal procedures, the investigative board found. Other workers apparently believed the reactor had failed or malfunctioned and tried to relieve pressure within the reactor, releasing the VCM inside.
The cloud of VCM that escaped the reactor exploded, according to investigators.
Four employees _ including the worker who made the error _ were killed by the ensuing explosions: Joseph Machalek, 50, Larry Graves, 47, and Linda Hancock, 56, all of Decatur, and Glenn Lyman, 49, of Cornland. Hancock's husband, Randy Hancock, 50, died three weeks later in a local hospital burn unit.
Investigators did not identify who made the error.
Investigators faulted Formosa for not recognizing the potential danger after workers incorrectly bypassed safety measures to open reactor valves at the Illiopolis plant in February 2004 and at a plant in Baton, Rouge, La., in 2003. Neither of those resulted in explosions, but both led to fines by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Formosa is tightening safety procedures, Thibault said, but the company must be careful to not make rules so stringent that a worker could not act to stop a "runaway reaction," which also could lead to a devastating explosion.
The company has changed how it reviews incidents at its plants, he said.
Formosa bought the plant from Borden Chemical _ now Columbus, Ohio-based Hexion Specialty Chemicals _ in 2002. The investigative board said Borden similarly failed to recognize the possibility for human error when it owned the plant.
"There are just so many different things that occurred here that a prudent company could have identified to prevent such a catastrophic event," investigative board Chairman Carolyn Merritt said in an interview Tuesday. "How much do walkie-talkies cost?"
The board lacks authority to issue fines or other penalties, but it can recommend that another federal agency _ such as the Environmental Protection Agency _ take action.
Formosa agreed in 2005 to pay $300,000 in federal fines and hire safety experts to evaluate what it said at the time were plans to rebuild the plant.
