BILL ANALYSIS �
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 438|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 438
Author: Hancock (D), et al.
Amended: 4/4/13
Vote: 21
SENATE LABOR & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE : 3-1, 4/24/13
AYES: Lieu, Leno, Yee
NOES: Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 5/23/13
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Gaines
SUBJECT : Refineries: turnarounds
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires refinery employers to annually
report their schedule for turnarounds to the Division of
Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) by September 15, and
requires refinery employers to provide Cal/OSHA with
documentation on refinery safety and infrastructure.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, under the California Refinery and
Chemical Plant Worker Safety Act of 1990, defines "process
safety management" as the application of management programs,
which are not limited to engineering guidelines, when dealing
with the risks associated with handling or working near
hazardous chemicals and requires:
CONTINUED
SB 438
Page
2
1. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt
process safety management standards for refineries, chemical
plants, and other manufacturing facilities.
2. An employer to develop and maintain a compilation of written
safety information to enable the employee and employees
operating the process to identify and understand the hazards
posed by processes involving acutely hazardous and flammable
material.
3. An employer to perform a hazard analysis for identifying,
evaluation, and controlling hazards involved in the process.
4. An employer to develop and implement written operating
procedures that provide clear instructions for safely
conducting activities involved in each process consistent
with the process safety information.
5. Each employee whose primary duties includes the operating or
maintenance of a process shall be trained in an overview of
the process with an emphasis on the specific safety and
health hazards, procedures, and safe practices applicable to
the employee's job tasks as well as refresher and
supplemental training documented by the employer's
certification record.
This bill requires refinery employers to annually report their
schedule for "turnarounds" to Cal/OSHA by September 15, as well
as requires refinery employers to provide Cal/OSHA with
documentation on refinery safety and infrastructure.
Specifically this bill:
1. Defines "turnaround" as any instance of an industrial plant
or unit being partially or totally taken offstream or offline
for the purposes of maintenance, overhaul, repair,
inspection, testing, or replacement of materials or
equipment.
2. Requires a refinery employer to annually submit to Cal/OSHA a
full schedule of planned turnarounds on September 15 of each
year.
3. Requires a refinery employer to submit various documentation
CONTINUED
SB 438
Page
3
at the request of Cal/OSHA at least 60 days prior to the
planned turnaround, such as corrosion reports, risk-based
inspection reports, and unfulfilled work orders since the
last turnaround.
4. Requires the refinery employer to submit notification of any
changes and supporting documents at least 30 days prior to a
planned turnaround.
Comments
Overview of refinery turnarounds . According to the American
Petroleum Institute (API), a refinery turnaround is a planned,
periodic shut down (total or partial) of a refinery process unit
or plant to perform maintenance, overhaul and repair operations
and to inspect, test and replace process materials and
equipment. Turnarounds are scheduled at least one to two years
in advance and allow for necessary maintenance and upkeep of
operating units to ensure safe and efficient operations.
Depending on the process unit and the amount of maintenance
needed, the length of the turnaround can vary from one week to
four weeks or more. API also stated that the less often units
are started up and taken down, the safer it is since refinery
incidents are more likely to occur during turnarounds.
Details of the Chevron Richmond Refinery Fire . According to an
Interim Investigation Report (Interim Report) from the United
States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on the
Chevron Richmond Refinery Fire, "On August 6, 2012, the Chevron
U.S.A. Inc. Refinery in Richmond, California experienced a
catastrophic pipe failure in the #4 Crude Unit. The pipe
ruptured, releasing flammable, hydrocarbon process fluid that
partially vaporized into a large vapor cloud that engulfed
nineteen Chevron employees. All of the employees escaped,
narrowly avoiding serious injury. The ignition and subsequent
continued burning of the hydrocarbon process fluid resulted in a
large plume of unknown and unquantified particulates and vapor
traveling across the Richmond, California, area. In the weeks
following the incident, approximately 15,000 people from the
surrounding area sought medical treatment due to the release."
In its findings, the Interim Report also stated that in the 10
years prior to the incident, a small number of Chevron personnel
made at least six recommendations to increase inspection or
CONTINUED
SB 438
Page
4
upgrade the four-sidecut piping - where the Richmond incident
occurred from. The Interim Report details that findings
obtained from a 2002 crude unit turnaround at Chevron revealed
that the 52-inch four-sidecut component involved in the August 6
incident had lost 1/3 of its wall thickness due to corrosion.
Despite recommendations to upgrade the piping, it was determined
that the pipe has sufficient thickness to last to the next
turnaround schedule for Fall 2011. The Interim Report states
that the piping was not replaced during the Fall 2011 turnaround
either.
The Cal/OSHA issued a citation and notification of penalty to
Chevron for this reason stating, "The Employer failed to replace
the 4 Sidecut line located within the 4 Crude Unit, in
accordance with recommendations received from its Reliability
Department as early as 2002."
According to the author's office, the fact that oil refineries
have no obligation under state law to report their "turnaround"
schedule or disclose important information such as corrosion
reports prevents the Cal/OSHA from preparing for a possible
incident during a scheduled refinery "turnaround." The author's
office contends that given the importance of "turnarounds," both
to the refinery itself as well as the public safety risk they
pose, allowing the Cal/OSHA to know this information may allow
it to conduct targeted inspections of refinery facilities.
Additionally, the Interim Report also stated that "had Chevron
followed its own internal recommendations, or been required by
local, state, or federal regulation to implement inherently
safer systems during repairs, it would have years ago upgraded"
the piping on the unit and "could have prevented the accident."
Prior legislation . AB 3672 (Elder, Chapter 1632, Statutes of
1990) established the California Refinery and Chemical Plant
Worker Safety Act of 1990 including process safety management
standards to prevent or minimize the consequences of
catastrophic releases of toxic, flammable or explosive
chemicals.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Department of
CONTINUED
SB 438
Page
5
Industrial Relations (DIR) estimates that it would incur costs
of $875,000 (special funds) to implement the provisions of this
bill, to fund new positions required to evaluate the information
provided by refineries. The document evaluation requires
sufficient process safety and construction knowledge to
understand the work and work hazards involved, and to identify
what information is incomplete or missing. Specifically, DIR
estimates the need for the following increased staff: four
Associate Safety Engineers, and partial positions for a district
manager, office technician, Senior Safety Engineer, and data
specialist.
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/24/13)
Asian-Pacific Environmental Network
State Building Trades Council
PQ:k 5/24/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED