Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) published their investigation report on the 2020 Fatal Propylene Release and Explosion at Watson Grinding in Houston, TX. The report identifies two safety issues that led to the accidental release of propylene and the subsequent explosion that killed three and damaged nearby residences. The report includes two safety recommendations for the Compressed Gas Association and Matheson Tri-Gas Inc.
The CSB has three additional incident reports that it had intended to release by today as part of their effort to reduce their backlog of incident reports.
Commentary
The pictures of the destruction caused by this incident (pg 31) and the diagram showing the extent of the collateral damage (pg 30) should help to remind people why facilities with flammable chemical storage on site are considered to be potential terrorist targets. Propylene is a DHS chemical of interest (COI) and an inventory of 10,000 pounds or more triggers the Top Screen reporting requirements Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.
The 2,000-gallon tank at Watson Grinding looks like it was
designed to keep the local propylene inventory of the facility just under the
10,000-lb screening quantity threshold for the CFATS program. This is a frequently
used tactic to avoid regulatory costs.
For more details about the Report, see my article at CFSN
Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/csb-issues-report-on-watson-grinding
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