A new report by U.S. regulators has attacked the safety practices of Chevron (NYSE:CVX), which owns the Burnaby Refinery through its Canadian subsidiary, Chevron Canada Ltd.
The report, by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), evaluated the condition of pipe at Chevron’s refinery in Richmond, California, where a decades-old pipe leaked and fuelled a major fire on August 6, 2012.
“This report confirms what Chevron already knew – that the pipe was severely corroded and should have been replaced – but failed to act on [the information] before the August fire,” said Cal/OSHA chief Ellen Widess.
“Chevron’s own metallurgists and pipe inspectors reached the same conclusion and recommended as far back as 2002 that Chevron take action to protect its workers, the community and the environment by replacing the pipe that finally ruptured in 2012.”
Widess said that Chevron’s failure to act was included among multiple “serious” and “willful serious” citations that regulators have issued to Chevron.
In the report, the CSB determined that 19 Chevron employees were engulfed in a vapour cloud formed by the hydrocarbon release. The regulator found that 18 employees escaped before the fire started and one employee escaped without injury after the blaze began. The CBS found that the incident resulted in six minor injuries and that, as a result of the release and fire, more than 15,000 residents in the surrounding area sought treatment at local medical facilities.
