Vicinity Energy steam plant safety conditions spur OSHA complaint

Electrical workers at the Vicinity Resource steam plant in South Philadelphia say they ve been exposed to unsafe conditions at the facility for years and the plant s owners have been slow to make critical upgrades Hazards at the plant included widespread asbestos and inadequate safety measures such as a lack of arc flash suits to protect a worker in circumstance of an accidental electrical discharge according to a complaint filed with the federal Occupational Safety and Fitness Administration OSHA Other problems included standing water around large electrical breakers which led the workers union to instruct its members to stop operating the equipment until conditions improved Persistent unrepaired leaks have left standing water in a room at the Vicinity Capacity steam plant where workers operate electrical breakers creating a safety hazard Courtesy of IBEW Local The facilities are so old and so antiquated that there s water everywhere announced Lawrence Anastasi president of Local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers I declared No one operates the breaker ever again until they get the water out of there So now the supervisors are doing it and they re not trained or qualified to do it A spokesperson for Boston-based Vicinity Strength disputed specific of IBEW s asserts and revealed particular of the issues it raised have been addressed including the shortage of arc flash suits Vicinity prioritizes the safety of employees customers and the communities we serve above all else and follows all OSHA guidelines spokesperson Melissa Crowe explained Additionally we empower every crew member with training information and stop-work authority to ensure risks are addressed without delay However Anastasi stated this week that Vicinity has still done little to address standing water and other safety issues or to address a pervasive rat complication and inadequate bathroom facilities for workers They got really lucky The plant at Christian Street and Schuylkill Avenue on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River in Grays Ferry dates to and has been upgraded multiple times since then by different owners It s a cogeneration plant meaning it produces both electricity and steam and it feeds a -mile infrastructure of pipes carrying steam to hundreds of buildings including the Wanamaker Building the University of Pennsylvania the Philadelphia Art Museum and Comcast s office towers Along with conventional natural gas the plant can run on waste cooking oil renewable natural gas from organic waste and wind- and solar-generated power and the company has pitched its steam as a less carbon-intensive and more climate-friendly way to heat buildings than standard gas boilers Vicinity runs similar district potency systems in Trenton Boston and other cities There s huge boilers in there there s switch gear there s big circuit breakers Anastasi reported And all that is governed by OSHA An explosion rocked the Vicinity Potential steam plant in Grays Ferry in June blowing out windows in nearby homes Jennifer Romano ABC The plant has had safety issues on a scant occasions in newest years both for workers and the nearby residential neighborhood For example an apparent steam leak in created a loud high-pitched noise that neighbors had to endure for about five days and drew a violation notice from the city In one of its main boilers exploded blowing out the windows slightly injuring one person outside and sending a pillar of red smoke over the building Sean Finnegan a -year employee who serves as the union s business manager at the plant reported the accident happened after the company repeatedly failed to fix a gas leak They got lucky because everybody was gone for the day They really got lucky he commented They could have killed a bunch of people I mean we re in a neighborhood It s not like we re in the middle of nowhere Assertions of ignored concerns In July OSHA issued Vicinity a serious citation and an penalty for an matter that had apparently occurred in January Pressurized air had not been cleared from a line leading from a tanker truck to a sodium hydroxide tank exposing employees to chemical burn hazards according to the citation The difficulty was corrected during an inspection Anastasi reported a non-union worker was electrocuted and seriously injured earlier this year when he was working on equipment he mistakenly thought had been de-energized or turned off In an email Crowe mentioned an OSHA citation related to unauthorized contractor actions which she declared the company is appealing The Vicinity plant has apparently not seen numerous serious injuries like those that occurred at the Boston plant in when a steam pipe rupture burned two workers But this summer when union functionaries started preparing for contract negotiations and urged the IBEW members there what they longed they brought up safety rather than pay and benefits Anastasi stated At left a hole in boiler insulation at Vicinity Strength s steam plant potentially allows flames to burst out and asbestos to enter the air Center a water pipe in the reverse-osmosis plant leaks through a cloth wrapping At right white foam covers the floor of a bathroom and locker room at the facility s Edison Plant at th and Walnut Courtesy of IBEW Local For years Vicinity Strength and previous owners have completely ignored workers concerns Finnegan mentioned There would be standing water right next to an electrical bus and I m like Yeah we got to do something about this And supervisors would giggle and walk away he declared All right well youse just don t care I want to go home to my family I have to operate this stuff you know You re just leaving the building Another concern for the IBEW band is decades-old asbestos insulation that is used in a great number of parts of the plant and in particular places is exposed and present in the air The union persons of interest that two of its members who have cancer one with kidney cancer the other with lung cancer got sick from asbestos exposure over several years OSHA complaint prompts various action A precipitating happening for the union s complaint was a small arc flash that occurred just now when a worker was operating one of the facility s large breakers which function like on off switches for pumps or other equipment No one was hurt but employees became concerned Finnegan declared The IBEW representatives explained they sought for chosen improvements but the company reacted slowly or failed to act on the requests One demand is related to the a great number of pieces of electrical equipment at the plant lacking required power rating labels Those labels let operators know how potentially dangerous the equipment is and what type of arc flash suit or other safety measures are required Anastasi noted According to the union president Vicinity managers commented we got a contractor out here to look at it to give us a price It s just too expensive It s going to cost a couple hundred thousand dollars and we could just do a little at a time I reported It s not the employee s job to create a safe work atmosphere it is the employer s job to provide a safe work surroundings This should have been done years ago Aging electrical equipment at the Vicinity Ability steam plant in Grays Ferry Courtesy of IBEW Local In September the union filed an OSHA complaint saying Vicinity Vitality was not supplying workers with safety equipment including arc flash suits and dielectric gloves didn t have the required labels and was not protecting employees from asbestos exposure during an abatement project in an area called the Edison Plant OSHA did not conduct an inspection to verify the statements but it notified Vicinity of the complaints according to a letter from the agency that IBEW provided to Billy Penn That led the company to start making specific fixes although the slow pace of work led Anastasi to consider filing a second complaint He stated the plant also has other problems beyond the safety issues There are rats everywhere he revealed and there are no bathrooms in areas like the Demon plant or demineralization plant where specific IBEW members work At the same time the upstairs offices are being renovated as Vicinity prepares for a practicable sale of the facility he announced A dispute over states of progress Vicinity Resource denied chosen of the union s complaints No rodent issues have been observed or informed and running water and restroom facilities are adequately maintained near the demineralization plant Crowe commented Anastasi maintained this week that the site s rat and mouse problems are well-known to the company and he commented Vicinity has hired a contractor to attempt to reduce their numbers Crowe commented the company made vital upgrades to employee work rooms break rooms and bathrooms although it was unclear which ones she was referring to Anastasi mentioned those may be bathrooms for management personnel since the bathrooms his members use remain in poor condition Vicinity also contended that several of the main safety complaints have been addressed Standing water was mitigated this instant and the root cause corrected Crowe revealed The facility has and continues to supply sufficient arc flash suits and protective equipment and the labeling deficiencies are being promptly addressed Standing water creates a hazard in a room of electrical equipment at the Vicinity Capacity steam plant in Grays Ferry Courtesy of IBEW Local Anastasi disputed those statements There is still standing water and IBEW members are still not operating the equipment in those areas he explained No new equipment rating labels have been added Each of the plant s units now has one modern arc flash suit but there should be individual suits fitted to each employee who requirements one he reported On the asbestos issue Crowe announced exposure monitoring revealed no employees were exposed to the material as part of the abatement project and Vicinity has not heard anything further from OSHA The IBEW personnel noted that the agency has gone quiet in recent times due to the federal leadership shutdown Crowe did not address the broader issue of asbestos throughout the plant Finnegan disclosed he in recent months spent an hour opening a valve in an area of the plant that was very hot about degrees he estimated and there was clearly asbestos in the air We have an area that s called asbestos heaven That s what we call it he reported We don t go up there very often but there s times that we have to go up there The post Vicinity Resource steam plant safety conditions spur OSHA complaint appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY