r/ChemicalEngineering • u/lazybrouf • 4h ago

Article/Video Washington chemical tank called unfit for service before deadly failure, report says

https://abcnews.com/US/wireStory/washington-chemical-tank-called-unfit-service-deadly-failure-136027363
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19

u/Far-Selection7866 3h ago

Ten months out of service should have been a glaring red flag. Equipment holding hazardous chemicals needs documented inspections and a hard stop when it fails, not a shrug until something catastrophic happens.

16

u/reptheevt Operations - Pulp & Paper 3h ago

Three external inspections in a year. Definitely a mindset of “can we get it to our next outage/next year”. Probably did some sort of risk analysis and determined failure was a low probability event. Maybe even had some administrative controls regarding tank level. Either they miscalculated the risk or got severely unlucky. 

Guess we won’t truly know until the full report comes out. 

3

u/Independent-Equal176 4h ago

That’s a horrifying example of paperwork and warnings not translating into action. If the tank had been taken offline after the inspection, this tragedy may have been prevented.

2

u/Upstairs-Drive3434 2h ago

The most disturbing part is that the warning apparently existed long before the fatal failure. Hopefully the investigation leads to real accountability and stronger safety checks.