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OSHA recently announced that it will expand a regional refinery safety program to nationwide statues. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA will implement a National Emphasis Program to eliminate highly hazardous chemicals in the petrochemical industry.

This effort is just the latest move in OSHA’s efforts to beef up safety and security in the wake of a number of oil refinery disasters during the past few years. The most notable was the tragic Texas City, Texas explosion. The March 23, 2005 explosion near Houston, Texas killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. That event alerted OSHA to a number of problems in the refinery process.

Currently, OSHA administers two Regional Emphasis Programs that operate in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. This nationwide program is the next step in refinery safety. The National Emphasis Program will take the successful regional program nationwide under the auspices of OSHA. The new program will provide guidance to OSHA national, regional and area offices.  In addition, the 22 states with a state workers safety program will have access to OSHA directives, regulations and enforcement policies.

The National Emphasis Program focuses on preventing the release of hazardous chemicals by the oil industry.  Process Safety Management, or PSM, has been an OSHA priority for many years, and a number of emphasis programs have evolved as a result of this standard. In fact, OSHA has a 104-page manual of standards for this particular hazard, including prevention techniques and inspection procedures.

“OSHA remains committed to enhancing the safety and health of America’s men and women working in the refining industry,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr. “By initiating this program, we are taking positive steps to maximize the protection of employees and eliminate workplace hazards at petroleum refineries.”

Under the new program, OSHA will conduct 81 inspections over the next two years at oil refineries throughout the nation. Assistant Secretary Foulke stresses that this new program is just one of multiple significant enforcement projects in the oil, gas and refining industries that OSHA is working on.

The current National Emphasis Program focuses on preventing unexpected releases of toxic, reactive or flammable liquids and gasses. It pinpoints industries that rely on such chemicals, including the petrochemical industry. According to OSHA, there is the potential for such chemicals to be released anytime they are not properly controlled. Such a release can have disastrous effects, as in the Texas City oil refinery explosion.

One important feature of this process was recently defined by OSHA. In a previous publication, OSHA prescribed certain safety measures when a given quantity of a hazardous material was “on site in one location.” This phrasing raised a number of questions for employers. If an employer divided the quantity between two equal stashes at separate ends of the property, were they exempt from the safety measures? If they had two plants within a few miles, did that count as “one location”?

On June 11, 2007 OSHA issued an official ruling to clarify that issue.

“This official interpretation should help provide additional clarity to an earlier Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the threshold quantities of highly hazardous chemicals,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “This interpretation has been accepted by our stakeholders and should further aid those who are affected by the PSM standard.”

OSHA interprets “on site in one location” to mean that the standard applies when a specific amount of a highly hazardous chemical exists within an area under the control of an employer, or group of affiliated employers. It also applies to any group of vessels that are interconnected, or in separate vessels that are close enough in proximity that the HHC could be involved in a potential catastrophic release.

Under this ruling, if an oil company has two stores of a hazardous chemical close enough that they could be involved in the same explosion, they are considered one store under the safety regulations.

The terminology used in this case was so confusing that even OSHA itself had questions. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, OSHA’s enforcement branch, requested the clarification. The Review Commission asked whether the phrase “on site in one location” was meant to limit the application of the safety standards. The Review Commission wondered if two nearby storage tanks that were connected, or in close proximity on the property, should be counted together.

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