Safety board ends probe into Georgia-Pacific fatal accident

Posted 5:18PM on Wednesday 20th November 2002 ( 22 years ago )

BUTLER, ALABAMA - The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has found that toxic fumes from a chemical sewer system caused two deaths and eight injuries at a Georgia-Pacific Corporation plant in southwest Alabama in January. The board, which met to in Washington, also recommended safety changes to avoid a similar tragedy. Board members recommended that Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific review sewer safety procedures at all its plants because of the deadly hydrogen sulfide leak January 16 at the Naheola mill near Pennington. The two men who died worked for a construction company contracting with Georgia-Pacific. On the day of the accident, sodium hydrosulfide -- a process chemical that had spilled in the unloading area -- reacted to release deadly hydrogen sulfide gas when it contacted acidic material in the sewer. Georgia-Pacific spokesman Robert Burns of Atlanta said the company since the accident has notified all its plants about the sewer system safety check. Burns said the sewer line at Naheola existed prior to the company's purchase of the plant in November 2000. The CSB report says plant management at the time of the accident had not followed good engineering and process safety practices when they earlier connected a drain from a tank truck unloading area into an acidic process sewer system. The toxic gas vented from the sewer through a nearby fiberglass manhole cover and engulfed the workers. The two deaths and all but one of the injuries occurred among employees of Burkes Construction who were working at the plant. The Naheola mill is one of the largest in Alabama with about two-thousand employees.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/11/201798