What does it take for Big Business to clean up its act? Explosions in
a BP oil refinery
and an Imperial Sugar refinery
over the last several years have killed 28 people and injured hundreds
more.
Sure OSHA fined the companies ($21 million and $8.7 million respectively) for safety violations, but both companies knew at the time of the dangerous working conditions, and neither has done much to improve safety at their refineries.
According to the
Houston Chronicle on Monday
A refinery safety expert says BP has failed to comply with measures for its Texas City plant imposed by federal regulators, perpetuating safety lapses that led to a deadly 2005 explosion.
"The continuing violations of federal law are critical to plant safety. They are life-threatening," Apex Safety Consultants engineer Mike Sawyer said in a report filed in federal court on Monday.
"They could result in another major explosion comparable to that of March 2005," the report said. That disaster killed 15 workers and hurt many more.
Sawyer testified on behalf of plaintiffs who settled their claims last week in the most recent blast-related civil trial in Galveston.
And in yesterday's Associated Press
An executive at a sugar company faulted for a deadly refinery accident in February said he found such "shocking" and "disgraceful" conditions at the Georgia plant last year that he warned his superiors that a fatal disaster was likely.
But Imperial Sugar Co. executives responded that he was being overzealous and told him to back off, he said. A month later, an explosion ripped through the plant in Port Wentworth, Ga., killing 13 workers and injuring dozens more.
"It was without a doubt the dirtiest and most dangerous manufacturing plant I had ever come to," said Graham H. Graham, who toured the facility shortly after being hired in November as Imperial's vice president of operations. "I stated that I believed a fatal disaster would befall the refinery if a fundamental change in the way the plant was operated did not take place."
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