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20 years of reckless operations at BP's Texas City refinery

To say BP’s Texas City refinery has been “troubled” is an understatement. Like the unrelenting evil spirits that drove out the Lutz family from the Amityville Horror mansion on Long Island, the refinery has been afflicted by deaths, lawsuits and fines from reckless safety practices and deadly conditions for two decades.

The refinery is the third largest in the U.S. and was built in 1934. According to a 2007 report from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the first troubling sign of reckless operations was found to have taken place in 1991. That was when the plant, then owned by Amoco, cut the funding for the proposed removal of exhaust blow down areas that released explosive vapors into the atmosphere.

The next year, OSHA cited Amoco for the dangerous design of pressure relief systems throughout the refinery. But the company was able to convince the agency to dismiss the citation by agreeing to adhere to more lenient requirements of the American Petroleum Institute (API).

In 1993 the elimination of blow down systems was recommended again but once more the funding was not authorized. Two years later, the CSB report said that the company ignored warnings from a Pennzoil refinery explosion that killed five workers after engulfing a trailer. The warnings came from an investigation that concluded that a trailer should not be located near hazardous materials. However, Amoco ignored the risk because its trailer was empty most of the year and posed no great risk. This decision would lead to tragedy eight years later.

In 1997, rather than upgrading its raffinate splitter blow down vent with a safer modern system, Amoco decided to replace the 1950s era system with an identical one. In 2002, a proposal to eliminate the blow down vent systems was eliminated from the budget for the third time in 11 years. The same year, it was decided not to connect the pressure relief system into the flare system—a recommended move—because of cost concerns. Shortly after that, budget constraints torpedoed a proposed study of the ventilation system.

That’s at least four separate instances where Amoco/BP ignored recommendations to improve ventilation because they were deemed to be too expensive. During this period there were at least eight releases of explosive vapors.

This track record of ignoring warning signs led to the 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injuring over 170 others after a contractor’s pickup truck ignited vapors released through the blow down system. Several of the victims were inside the trailer that was deemed to be low risk.

Five years after the explosion, BP will pay a record $50.6 million fine for safety violations. Not only that, the company has agreed to spend $500 million to repair existing problems at the facility and submit to an OSHA implementation of review and inspections. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says the amount of the fine indicates BP’S wanton “lack of regard for worker safety.”

BP apparently still has not learned from its mistakes. OSHA is seeking $30 million for new safety violations discovered by government inspectors. Last October, OSHA fined BP $87.4 million in proposed fines at the facility. Also in 2009, the company pled guilty to criminal charges and paid another $50 million. Last week the State of Texas sued BP for excess pollution released in April and May at the refinery. Additionally, there’s a $10 billion federal class action lawsuit for that pollution release.

The spirits of Amityville were clearly evil. Is a corporation evil when it recklessly risks lives for a policy of profit over safety? Think about it.

(Some of the information used in this article provided by Wikipedia.)

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