CSB Updates Investigation Backlog Recovery

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board provided updated information on their investigation backlog clearance, noting that it had eliminated two-thirds of the agency’s backlog during the last twelve months. They also updated their closure plan graphic, showing the five investigations remaining in their backlog identified in November 2021.

Commentary

While the CSB is to be commended on their diligent work to overcome the legacy mismanagement issues that created this backlog, it must be remembered that it has come at the cost of failing to initiate new investigations. Only one new investigation has been started in the more than a year and a half since the agency’s letter to Congress vowing to correct the backlog. I understand why this has been necessary, but it is a cost of the previous mismanagement of the agency, mismanagement that Congress was slow to recognize because of it’s ineffective oversight.

As the CSB nears clearance of their backlog, it is perhaps more important for the EPA IG, the Government Accounting Office, and Congress to work together (perhaps with an outside investigation) to identify how the agency fell so far behind in their investigation work, and what oversight steps should have been able to identify the problem earlier.

We need the insights that the Chemical Safety Board brings to these investigations to help make chemical manufacturing and handling safer in this country. We need to ensure the efficacy of the Board management going forward.