Industrial Accident Reporting Bill Passed by WV Legislature

Last year there was an explosion at the Bayer plant in Institute which resulted in the deaths of 2 workers. Due to the initial confusion surrounding the accident, emergency workers from outside the plant were not admitted to the plant as quickly as the Governor wanted. The result was his proposal to extend the mine accident reporting legislation to industrial accidents. There was some negotiation between industry and the Governor's Office over the terms of the bill, with negotiations continuing during the Legislative session that was just concluded. As one might imagine, this was somewhat contentious, as industry tried to avoid overbroad coverage of the reporting program, and sought reasonable response times and lower penalties. For example, at one time, penalties were a flat $100,000, regardless of how small the violation, and the reporting obligations were imposed on almost all industrial facilities. Fortunately, this is an example of the Legislature striking a balance between competing interests, as some of the more onerous provisions were removed or changed.

You can find the final version of the legislation, as passed, here. This is the Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 279, with the final changes noted in red by Tom Boggs, who was gracious enough to provide this to me. The emergency reporting requirements pertain to any facility that's required to submit a risk management plan under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, or an industrial facility that has been given written notice that it is covered by the Act. An "emergency event" is an explosion, a fire that can't be contained in 15 minutes, the release of an extremely hazardous substance, loss of life or serious personal injury. Emergency events have to be reported within 15 minutes of the event being discovered to the Mine Industrial Accident Emergency Operations Center or other alternative contact specified in the Act. The facility then has to initiate prescribed event communications procedures and provide access to the plant to authorized government officials. Failure to comply can result in penalties up to $100,000. Money collected from facilities will be paid into the Hazardous waste Emergency Response Fund.

The new reporting requirements will be added to the mine accident reporting provisions in Chapter 15, Article 5B that were instituted after mine accidents at the Sago and Aracoma mines in 2006.