Midland Resource Recovery chemical operations in WV

Chemical Safety Board launches probe of fatal Barbour County explosion

From an Article by Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette-Mail, May 25, 2017

Even as President Donald Trump tries to defund the small agency, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board announced Thursday it was sending a team of investigators to Barbour County to look into the explosion a day earlier that killed two workers and critically injured a third at an industrial tank cleaning operation outside of Philippi.

CSB officials announced the deployment, as local, state and other federal authorities continued the investigation of the fatal blast at Midland Resource Recovery’s facility.

Killed in the explosion were Jan Strmen, an owner of the Canadian-based Midland Resource Recovery, and Justin Marsh, a 19-year-old Barbour County resident, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. the injured worker was also identified as a Barbour County resident, but his name was not released by local officials.

Details on the condition of the injured worker, who was flown to West Virginia University’s Ruby Memorial Hospital, were not available, but Barbour County Chief Deputy Brett Carpenter said the man was previously listed in critical condition and had “pretty substantial injuries.”

Carpenter said that all three men were involved in cleaning a mercaptan tank when the explosion occurred and also revealed that authorities suspect that some sort of electrical tool may have been involved in the blast.

Mercaptan is most commonly thought of as the rotten egg-smelling chemical that is added to odorless natural gas for safety purposes, so that leaks can easily be noticed. Products like mercaptan are known as odorants. Midland Resource Recovery bills itself as “the leading natural gas odorization company in North America.” The company has not responded to numerous requests for comment on the explosion.

Carpenter said that authorities are hoping to be able to talk to the injured worker at some point, but that Barbour County officials are turning the investigation over to the state Fire Marshal’s office.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating and has agency officials at the site.

Leni Uddyback-Fortson, an OSHA spokeswoman, said that the Midland Resource Recovery facility brings in old odorant tanks from gas companies and cleans and decommissions them. She confirmed that the owner of the facility was one of the two fatalities.

Over the years, the CSB has been praised by citizen groups and others for investigations into other fatal chemical leaks, fires and explosions in West Virginia, but has recently been criticized for the lack of regulatory recommendations and other weaknesses in its report on the January 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill on the Elk River.

The CSB’s deployment to Barbour County also comes as President Donald Trump submitted a budget proposal to Congress that suggests doing away with the board. The Trump administration says closing down the board — with its $11 million annual budget and just 43 employees — is part of its effort “to move the nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the federal government.”

Trump’s effort to gut the eliminate the CSB follows a rocky period in which then-President Obama in March 2015 pushed out then-CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso amid industry criticism of board proposals for tougher regulation of chemical plants and Republican-led hearings that focused on complaints Moure-Eraso had created a “toxic work environment” at the CSB.

As an independent agency, the CSB’s new leadership this week submitted its own budget proposal, which asks lawmakers for a nearly 6 percent increase in funding.

“The continued funding of the CSB is an investment in the safety and security of the American people,” the CSB’s budget proposal says. “No other organizations, public or private, are able to conduct truly independent, non-regulatory investigations that can also hold federal and state regulators or other parties accountable.”