Bayer v CSB Hearing: Additional Information

On Tuesday the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (Energy and Commerce Committee) completed their hearing on the Bayer CropScience fatal accident of August 2008. Yesterday I went back to the Committee web site to see if they had yet posted the statements from Senator Rockefeller and Congresswoman Capito (they were not posted when I checked just before noon). I found that four new supporting documents had been posted to their site. These documents were obtained in the process of the staff investigation into the incident. They new documents are:

Emergency Response Documents – a copy of transcripts taken from Metro Fire radio calls, telephone conversations between Bayer CropScience and Metro 911, letter from Kanawha County Commission to Bayer CropScience detailing concerns about lack of information provided during incident, letter from West Virginia State University to Bayer CropScience on the same subject, A Bayer PowerPoint® presentation on the incident, a Bayer press release on emergency response issue, a 12-29-08 draft of Bayer memo on public relations strategy, and a Bayer community outreach opportunities memo.

MIC Documents – a copy of the Bayer CropScience emergency operations center (EOC) log, copy of 12-18-08 document request from CSB, transcript of plant manager comments at 10-08-08 public meeting, CSB email requesting additional information about MIC involvement in incident, a copy of letter to CSB from Bayer lawyers commenting on CSB draft presentation, CSB emails about potential IST process for MIC, a copy of a 05-13-03 Bayer memo on safety of MIC process at their newly acquired WV facility, a copy of an 08-12-03 PowerPoint® presentation on the ‘MIC Inventory Model’ at the facility, and a copy of a 03-27-09 letter from Bayer to CSB detailing SSI status of documents previously provided to CSB.

Information Concealment Documents – copies of a variety of communications (internal and between CSB, Coast Guard, Bayer and their Lawyers) discussing the SSI status of specific documents. Photos of Bayer Plant After Fire – 21 post-incident photos from the Larvin unit.

Too much information to digest quickly. Interesting to note that many of the documents are marked ‘Sensitive Security Information’ and ‘Business Confidential’. There is some redaction of contact information (telephone numbers and email addresses), but no apparent removal of ‘sensitive’ information. Ignoring for the moment the question of if these documents are properly classified, do ‘disclosure’ rules apply to Congress? Probably not. Comments on Photos Having ‘played’ with explosives in the military and having worked in a facility that had ‘over pressure’ incident, I am not too surprised at the pictures provided in this file. Photos of damaged process equipment are not as impressive as actually seeing them in person. The first photo in the file, for instance, can only truly be appreciated if one had seen the tank in its original condition. I assume that this was the vessel that ‘over pressured’. I have taken photographs of the results of a much smaller incident and there is no way that two dimensional photographs or even videos of the damage can adequately convey the destruction. Chemical process equipment is inherently three dimensional and has a specific order and logic. The disruption of those systems just cannot be adequately conveyed in two dimensional images.