Imperial Sugar Veep Testifies CEO Reprimanded Him for Safety Concerns

The explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah last February is being investigated by the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee on workplace safety and what's coming out of the hearing is, if not surprising, maddening.

Yesterday John Breland, chairman and CEO of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, testified that conditions were highly unsafe inside the plant, leaving the impression that they were so bad an explosion was all but inevitable.

“Inside the four-story packaging building, the secondary dust explosion was fueled by widespread accumulations of combustible sugar dust. It was this secondary dust explosion that caused the major loss of life at Imperial. Secondary dust explosions like this do not occur if dust has been prevented from accumulating on surfaces.

“National Fire Protection Association guidance documents ... indicate that accumulations of combustible dust of 1/32 of an inch – covering just 5 percent of the available surface area – should be considered hazardous due to the possibility of a secondary dust explosion.

“Multiple witnesses told CSB investigators of large accumulations of sugar at many locations throughout the packaging plant. Accumulations of dust were long-standing and were present until the day of the explosion, according to these witnesses.

“Near the powder mills, powdered sugar accumulated on the floor to a ‘mid-leg’ height, according to a worker there.

“Airborne sugar in this room made it difficult for workers to see each other, we were told. On elevated surfaces, witnesses described seeing thick build-ups of sugar of around an inch.”

(emphasis added)

How did it get that bad? Imperial VP of Operations Graham H Graham testified this morning that when he brought the situation to CEO John Sheptor's attention, he was told to back off.

"I was surprised that we hadn't killed anybody already because the plant was so dangerous," said Graham, Imperial's vice president of operations.

Imperial CEO John Sheptor told Graham he was being "excessively eager in addressing the refinery's problems ... and I had to temper it," Graham said.

Graham took over the job in November and immediately went on a tour of the plants. He says he was appalled by what he found in Savannah.

An executive at Imperial Sugar Co. said Tuesday that he found conditions so bad at a Georgia sugar refinery prior to an explosion that killed 13 people that he recommended immediately firing the plant manager.

Safety plates were missing on electrical gear and piles of discarded sugar and other materials littered the Port Wentworth, Ga., plant, Imperial's vice president of operations, Graham H. Graham, said in written testimony for a Senate hearing Tuesday.

***

Graham said he toured company plants in Georgia and Louisiana shortly after he assumed his position in November.

The 300-acre Georgia plant near Savannah was "dirty and dangerous," he said, adding that he saw "piles of sugar dust, puddles of liquid sugar and airborne sugar dust."

Graham spent five days at the refinery and noted that safety covers and doors were missing from live electrical switchgear and panels.

"A combustible environment existed," Graham said in his testimony.

The "dangerous conditions, customs and practices," Graham said, prompted him to recommend to his bosses that they fire the plant manager.

(emphasis added)

Instead of firing the manager, Sheptor told Graham to lay off. The company had no intention of fixing any of its problems. That's clearly shown in the way they consistently ignored OSHA inspectors' warnings and their lists of violations that went uncorrected.

The beauty of all this is that Sheptor had the gall to appeal OSHA's record fine of nearly $9M even though he knew these hearings were coming up. What's testified to here will become part of the record, and I can't wait to hear the defense.

Some of us wouldn't be surprised if, after all the testimony, the conclusion is reached that the fine isn't enough. Others of us wouldn't be surprised if the overwhelming weight of the evidence against Sheptor and Imperial was simply ignored and the fine reduced to a pat on the ass.

It all depends on who's doing the judging and what kind of noise there is in the media. Which at this point doesn't exist. Despite the fact that 13 people were killed, the follow-up explaining how and why it happened appears to be of no interest to the majors. I could only find a single report on this week's hearing from the AP and two very short ones in the local Savannah paper. Nothing on CNN, nothing from the NYT or the WaPo. The NYT, though, is featuring a grim story in its Business section about how soaring food costs are hurting the restaurant industry.

Everybody's got their priorities, I guess.