CSB Publishes Remote Isolation Safety Study

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board announced the publication of a new safety study on Remote Isolation of Process Equipment”. The RIPE study looks at the historical record of industrial chemical accidents, including a number of CSB accident investigation reports, to determine how useful remote isolation valves would have been in preventing or reducing damages, deaths and injuries. The Study resulted in the publication of three recommendations that were released on Wednesday:

• American Petroleum Institute (API) - 2024-01-H-1,

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - 2024-01-H-2, and

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) - 2024-01-H-3

NOTE: No direct links are currently available to those recommendations, but they can be found listed on the CSB’s Recent Recommendation Status Updates page.

The three recommendations are:

API - “Develop a new publication or revise an existing publication or publications that should be applicable to various facility types such as refineries, chemical and petrochemical facilities, terminals, etc. with major process equipment and atmospheric storage tanks, that details conditions that necessitate the installation of remote isolation devices [use “shall” instead of “should” language] that may be automatically activated or remotely activated from a safe location, particularly during an emergency. When establishing these conditions refer to the guidance published by CCPS entitled Guidelines for Fire Protection in Chemical, Petrochemical, and Hydrocarbon Processing Facilities, Sections 8.1.10 and 8.1.11. At a minimum, the conditions should address major process equipment and atmospheric storage tanks, material volumes/weight as well as flammability, corrosivity, and toxicity”

 

EPA - “Update the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule by expanding the requirements of 40 CFR Part 68 to include an evaluation of the need for remote isolation devices for major process equipment that can be remotely activated from a safe location or automatically activated during a release. The evaluation should be included in hazard assessments, hazard reviews, and process hazard analyses.”

 

OSHA - “Update the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard by expanding the Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) requirements under 29 CFR 1910.119(e)(3) to include an evaluation of the need for remote isolation devices for major process equipment that can be remotely activated from a safe location or automatically activated during a release.”