CSB Updates on GA LN Release – 2-7-21

This week the Chemical Safety Board published two separate updates (here and here) on the liquid nitrogen release at a Georgia chicken processing plant that killed six people. The updates were released Monday and today and they provide additional facts about the incident.

New Information

The new information from the two releases includes:

• Monday - CSB has now confirmed that both the external and the interior elements of this system were manufactured by Messer. This includes the supply tanks outside, and the interior cryogenic freezing equipment on Line 4.

• Monday - Prior to the recent installation of this system, a different type of freezing equipment was used, which was ammonia-based. This equipment is still collocated on Line 4 adjacent to the cryogenic system and has not yet been removed.

• Monday - The approach of using LN was introduced to Plant 4 in 2020, as it is also being used on Line 2 in Plant 4.

• Monday - As mentioned on Saturday, some tools were located in the vicinity of the Line 4 immersion freezer.  We have since learned that unplanned maintenance was being conducted on Line 4.

• Sunday - The LN units were manufactured and installed by Messer and are leased to the Foundation Food Group.

• Sunday - The Foundation Food Group performs routine maintenance on the Messer-owned equipment.

• Sunday - The plant had been experiencing unresolved operational issues on the chicken conveyor that appear to have resulted in the accidental release of liquid nitrogen in the flash freezing bath.

• Sunday - The CSB has information that Line No. 4 was shut down the morning of the incident. The shutdown was due to operational issues on the conveyor line.

• Sunday - Foundation Food Group maintenance personnel reported the computerized measuring system indicated a low liquid level in the immersion bath used to flash freeze the chicken products.

Commentary

The CSB is providing a lot more information on the process of the investigation than I have seen since the Arkema incident in 2017. And then, the updates were driven by the company, not CSB. CSB only published one update on their investigation. I am not sure why this incident has caught the attention of the media people or management of CSB, but the frequent updates do provide some interesting insights to the problems associated with the handling cryogenic liquids in a non-chemical manufacturing environment.

There is one regulatory issue of note here. In the development of their Chemical Incident Reporting Rule, the CSB was very careful to ensure that their definition of ‘extremely hazardous substance’ in 40 CFR 1604.2 (NOTE: The link is to the Beta version of the eCFR, §1604 has not yet been published in the standard version of the CFR; GPO has a large backlog of all sorts of stuff because of COVID-19) was written as broadly as possible. Liquid nitrogen is not a regulated substance under 42 USC 7412(r) so if many commentators had had their way and had the definition tied solely to the EPA’s list of regulated chemicals, this incident never would have had to be reported to the CSB under §1604.3(a) since the ‘accidental release’ definition is tied directly to the ‘extremely hazardous substance’ definition.

Thinking about it, that could be why CSB is being so public about their investigation process here; they are driving home the point that any accidental chemical release that kills, maims, or destroys property is, in fact, reportable under §1604 regardless of whether or not that chemical is regulated elsewhere.