Equilon Enterprises LLC: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 22, 2001: Employee injured when exposed to chlorine gas cylinder leak

On August 22, 2001, Employee #1 was employed by Equilon Enterprises. Employee #1 was exposed to an acute hazardous substance, chlorine gas, while changing the r egulator on a one-ton gas cylinder. Employee #1 experienced acute chlorine expos ure symptoms, eye and throat irritation, intense coughing and vomiting, as a res ult of the inhalation of chlorine gas. Employee #1 was in the hospital for appro ximately three days.

Incident on Jul 31, 2000: Employee injured in fall from scaffold ladder

At approximately 10 p.m. on July 31, 2000, Employee #1, the night supervisor, wa s observing the progress of a steam cleaning operation involving the out-of-serv ice vapor recovery line to tank #1025. He was investigating the area around the 10 in. blind flange and the spreader bars, which was reportedly plugged, when a stream of water began to flow from the top of the flange. Employee #1 began to s mell hydrogen sulfide gas and saw a stream of water and light hydrocarbons start to gush out of the area around the spreader bars and cover the 6 ft square scaf fold platform. He later stated that he held his breath, climbed over the railing and began to descend the 21 ft scaffold ladder. Shortly thereafter, his hands a nd feet slipped from the rungs and he fell to the asphalt floor. Employee #1 suf fered a fractured right femur, right knee, and left shoulder, and was hospitaliz ed for 10 days at Long Beach Memorial Hospitalized. Among the causal factors tha t led to the accident were the lack of controls to safely dispose of the oil-wat er mixtures and the foreseeable toxic effects of hydrogen sulfide during mainten ance activities. There were no bleed valves on the system to relieve pressure in the piping and no covers/diverters over the flanges to direct oily-water down i nstead of onto the ladder rungs.