L’Observateur / November 24, 2000

DONALDSONVILLE – CF Industries will pay a fine of $149,850, as part of an agreement with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in the aftermath of the May 24 explosion of the plant’s nitrogen complex.

The explosion killed three employees and seriously injured eight others.

“CF cooperated fully in the very thorough investigation conducted by OSHA,” said Lou Frey, plant manager. “We are pleased to bring to closure this phaseof our post-incident recovery.”CF Industries was cited by OSHA for 14 alleged safety and health violations, including 12 serious violations related to space entry, process safety management and personal protective equipment and two unclassified citations related to process safety management, according to Frey.

CF Industries has also agreed to correct all violations as well as hire third- party consultants to review the company’s process safety management, personal protective equipment and confined space entry programs.

Furthermore, CF Industries officials added that many corrections have already been made since the May 24 incident.

The incident began in the plant’s Ammonia No. 3 unit at about 11:30 p.m. OneCF employee and two contract employees died when a molecular sieve exploded. These were Boyd Mahler of Vacherie, Clement Hebert ofDonaldsonville and Richard Escobedo of Pasadena, Texas. Another eightcontract and CF employees received serious injuries.

All those hospitalized are “making progress” in their recovery, Frey added, and the unit damaged in the explosion has been repaired and placed back into operation.

However, the plant management came under scrutiny for not notifying Louisiana State Police’s Hazardous Materials Unit, as required by state law, until the following day at 1:30 p.m.Frey continued, “We took a good, hard look at ourselves in this process and believe, under the circumstances, that our employees did a good job of responding to the emergency and preventing further injuries.”He added, “We are committed to taking what we’ve learned from the OSHA investigation and our own continuing investigation to improve our safety performance.”OSHA, in the same report, fined Turner Industrial Services of Baton Rouge, Cooperheat MQS of Gonzales and Catalyst Process Specialists of Pasadena, Texas.

Prior to the May 24 explosion, CF Industries had achieved a world-record 5.8million safe work-hours at the facility, according to Frey.

“Safety and the protection of employees and communities in which CF does business is the number-one priority,” he concluded.

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