Reader comments
Refinery cited in past years

OSHA is being derrilict in their duties to enforce safety in the work place. With this kind of histroy and the single $2000 fine that is a drop in the bucket to an oil company. Years of safety violations and fires and claiming no injuries is purely a company that doesn't care about it's employees. They must be mostly illegal aliens working there that can't file any complaints and easily persuaded not to file any injury claims. Although we need the oil products is no excuse to allow a business to blatantly operate in violation of safety and fire hazards to its workers and the area around it. Having a safety officer makes it evident that he too is ineffective and not making a difference in company complies with OSHA and worker safety standards. Let the employees speak and tell their side of this company without any threats of dismisal for disclosing violations or working conditions. These yearly fires are just what is reported, what about the unreported fires and violations. OSHA should be more severe in its penalties, millions, and put the workers on a higher plane of safety on the job.

Millions in fines and a health and safety program that is designed to keep workers on the couch in the control room (nobody moves, nobody gets hurt...) will surely close the plant down and take its' capacity offline. How does this mesh with 'drill here, drill now'?

They only got fined a few grand for violations... chump change for them. Wonder if all refineries get the same slap on the wrist. I know no one meant to hurt anyone, but that many violations, that many problems... something is wrong with the safety inspector they hired, and obviously with their policies. They shouldn't be allowed to stay in business AND pay fines AND pay damages to workers and families.

The "highest possible" risk to workers warranted only a $3,000 penalty (reduced to $2,000)? What's the second-highest-possible risk, $5?

DN is trying to make this into a bigger deal than needs be. The fines are low, but the problems were obviously fixed in the past or they'd be cited again. You need to find what the current state of the refinery was.

I wonder how many employees of Silver Eagle would like to see the reminery shut down.

I think the person in critical condition, would have wished the company shut down to fix the issue. Being a safety professional, it is a sad fact that many companies will only do the bare minimum (comply with OSHA), when it is well know that just compliance will not stop incidents and injuries. I am involved with a number of organizations that are working to create a workplace culture were safety is a value and everyone is actively involved in the safety process--only then can we prevent these unfortunate incidents.

It is unfortunate that these smaller refineries dont have a culture of safety built into them. When you look at the incidents you can see a trend in what will happen and unfortunately this company is going down that road. Maintenance is expensive and down time is alot of money. The unfortunate part is the Managament will be the lead of this culture and their attitudes are what needs to change. The employees will have longer and sustainable jobs if the place they work in has a good safety record, these incidents tend to shut a site down. My sympathies to the vamily of the injured worker, my hope is a speedy recovery.

All companies have a safety culture. Some are inadequate and malnourished. Others are just adequate, but remain malnourished. The best safety cultures are embraced by all participants (from janitors to the CEO), well tended and well fed. These work on continual improvements and they impact the bottom line in a very positive way.
Before casting stones, please pause to recall how many times you have taken short cuts with safety. A short drive to the store sans the safety belt. Using the cell behind the wheel. Standing on a chair to change a light bulb. Chances are high that this accident was a result of some sort of short cut.
Focus your efforts on making improvements and encouraging your neighbors to do the same. In time, most of us will feel very uncomfortable with any short cut that presents itself. A number of years back, you probably felt uncomfortable wearing a seat belt. Now you feel undressed without one.

I agree with Dave's comments on 1/16/2009. Sometimes employees are only doing what they are trained to do. It is not uncommon for cheap quick fixes to be standard policy than for things to be fixed the right way. Often this results in injury or exposure that are considered cheaper than what would be spent to fix the problem.