Safety culture needs to change at Torrance refinery

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board released its final report on the 2015 Torrance ExxonMobil refinery explosion Wednesday, May 03, 2017, Torrance. A digital-video recreation of the refinery explosion is played for the audience.

A final investigative report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board into the nearly catastrophic 2015 explosion that ripped through the Torrance refinery blames ExxonMobil for not “conforming to industry standards” in its operation of the plant.

“This incident was preventable,” the CSB said flatly in its 73-page report, which was released at a Wednesday news conference in Torrance. “Effective safeguards were not established to prevent the incident.”

Specifically, the CSB blamed former refinery owner ExxonMobil for a constellation of errors: “weaknesses” and “gaps” managing the refining processes that use highly hazardous chemicals, a reliance on unverified safeguards and outdated procedures, a lack of safety instrumentation and knowingly operating a piece of eroded equipment beyond its safe operating life.

“At the Torrance refinery, workers did not have proper protocols to ensure safety when deviating from normal operating procedures,” CSB Chairwoman Vanessa Allen Sutherland said Wednesday. “The proper tools to manage risk were not operating effectively. Workers were running the unit blind.”

The investigation follows up on and expands a preliminary CSB report issued in January 2016 that concluded the 1.7-magnitude blast resulted largely from botched safety protocols and the use of a critical safety device that had eroded over six years and was leaking.

ExxonMobil largely rejected the conclusions of the preliminary CSB report last year but said Wednesday in an emailed statement it has “worked cooperatively” with the agency to understand its findings and recommendations.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE