Contractor Cited For Labor Violations At Midtown Mall

By Darren Dodge

Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The contractor who had been doing renovation work at the former Midtown Mall has been cited for labor violations.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined demolition Contractor M.J. Scoville $52,500 for 2 willful and 7 serious violations.

OSHA says Scoville exposed workers to fall and lead hazards.
The former Midtown Mall burned down just 4 weeks ago.
The OSHA report says at the 83 Court Street site, inspectors found employees were exposed to potential falls of up to 40 feet as they tore down walls when working on the 4th floor elevator shaft and 14 foot falls from an unguarded scaffold.
The OSHA investigation also found Scoville failed to perform personal air monitoring to track lead exposure levels for demolition workers.
M.J. Scoville has 15 business days to respond to the citations and proposed penalties.
It must comply with OSHA regulations by then, and can also contest the citations.
83 Court Street is the former Midtown Mall, which was being gutted to turn into student housing.
It was burned badly in a fire the week before Christmas.
No cause has been found.

NIPSCO reaches $600MM settlement with EPA for violation claims at its coal-fired facilities

Source: Northern Indiana Public Service Company

Following discussions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, NIPSCO has finalized a settlement outlining about $600 million in new environmental investments, conservation initiatives, and clean energy programs designed to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of northern Indiana.

Outlined in the settlement are environmental controls and clean air technology that further reduce nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions at the company's coal-fired electric generation facilities.

The settlement is the 17th reached by the EPA and DOJ as part of a national initiative to control emissions from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act's New Source Review requirements. It follows a 2004 Notice of Violation of the EPA's New Source Review process alleging that NIPSCO made upgrades or modifications to its generating facilities in the 1980s and 1990s without obtaining the proper permits.

NIPSCO is among more than 50 U.S. electric companies receiving a Notice of Violation since 1998 as part of the EPA initiative, and NIPSCO maintains that it acted in accordance with the regulations and conducted only routine maintenance and upgrades on the units. This settlement resolves all matters related to the New Source Review and future claims through 2018.

Importantly, the investments contemplated in the settlement support and complement the environmental improvements NIPSCO has already made to date.

Benefits of the Settlement

By the close of 2018, NIPSCO will invest approximately $600 million in improved environmental technology and related projects. Key benefits of these investments will include:

• Cleaner Air: NIPSCO's electric generating fleet is expected to be among the cleanest in Indiana, with NOx emissions lowered by an additional 35 percent from current rates, SO2 emissions lowered by an additional 80 percent from current rates, and other benefits, such as reduced fleet vehicle emissions and improved air quality monitoring, will be achieved. These improvements will have an added benefit of helping NIPSCO achieve compliance with anticipated tighter future emission standards.

• Jobs and Economic Development: Installation of new environmental controls at NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer, Bailly and Michigan City generating stations are projected to create hundreds of new jobs for locally contracted companies during the next eight years, as well as new positions within the company.

• Conservation and Clean Energy: NIPSCO also will invest $9.5 million over the next five years in new environmental conservation and clean energy projects, including:

- Working with local communities and organizations to develop new publicly available electric vehicle charging stations – powered exclusively with renewable energy

-Replacing and retrofitting diesel engines with hybrid and/or electric vehicles throughout our service territory

- Partnering with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and other regional conservation groups to acquire and conserve environmentally sensitive properties in the region

Under the terms of the settlement, NIPSCO will also pay a $3.5 million civil penalty. The additional environmental investments have been planned as part of anticipated ongoing capital spending.

Former ODOT exec sentenced

Dennis Kratoch nets seven years in prison.

(Cleveland) - Former ODOT District 12 Facilities Manager Dennis Kratochvil was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday.

Kratochvil has paid $110,000 in restitution to the Ohio Department of Transportation and was ordered to pay $11,000 in fines.

On October 18, the 68-year-old pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts. The Chagrin Falls resident was the main target in this ODOT corruption case.

The Ohio Inspector General’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol conducted the investigation. In April 2007, an allegation was made that Kratochvil had committed ethics violations by fishing with vendors over whom he had contract authority.

The investigation revealed Kratochvil at the center of a massive interlocking web of schemes involving ODOT contracts. For over a decade, he, former District 12 Equipment Supervisor Terry Kosmata and ODOT storekeeper Kevin Horrigan rigged and steered hundreds of competitively bid contracts to favored vendors in exchange for gratuities.

These gratuities included hunting and fishing trips to Texas and Alaska, gambling junkets to Las Vegas, expensive meals and bar tabs, boating trips and hot tub parties with strippers, and cash bribes delivered to Kratochvil at ODOT District Headquarters in Garfield Heights.

Under indictment, Kratochvil threatened another co-defendant who was also a State’s witness against Kratochvil. On the day this co-defendant was waiting on the judge outside the courtroom to enter a plea of guilty, Kratochvil called him on his cell phone and threatened his life.

Sixteen of the seventeen defendants in this ODOT case have been sentenced on corruption-related charges and have paid a total of $611,840 in restitution.

The center of this criminal activity was ODOT’s District 12 headquarters located in Garfield Heights. The case of ODOT vendor Dennis B. Kratochvil (Dennis L. Kratochvil’s son) is pending.

(Copyright 2011 Clear Channel and/or the Associated Press, all rights reserved.)

OSHA and WRR settle on fine, new safety measures

Eau Claire (WQOW) - WRR reaches a settlement with OSHA, regarding safety violations discovered after last June's explosion and fire.

In December, OSHA proposed fining WRR $787,000. The agency says WRR failed to prevent potentially catastrophic chemical fires and explosions.

Now the two sides have reached an agreement on settling the case. WRR has been fined $340,000. The firm also plans to hire a consultant to develop a program for the safe processing of chemicals. WRR is also ordered to submit quarterly reports to OSHA for the next 3 years, and the company cannot ask for warrants if OSHA makes a surprise inspection.

An OSHA spokesperson says WRR was very cooperative in the negotiations.

U.S. Steel, Power Piping fined by OSHA

United States Steel Corp. and its contractor Power Piping Co. are being fined $175,000 by federal regulators for citations of major safety violations related to an explosion last summer at the Clairton Works facility.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) had two “willful” violations and 11 serious violations and fined the integrated steel maker $143,500. Power Piping Co. was found to have six serious violations and was fined $31,500, according to a government statement.

The investigation was the result of a July 14 explosion that injured 20 people. Injuries included first, second and third-degree burns, according to OSHA.

In a statement, U.S. Steel said it had cooperated with the government investigation and had received the citations.

“We are currently reviewing the citations. Safety is a core value for our company, and we will continue our extensive, company-wide efforts to ensure the safety of every individual who performs work in our facilities,” the company said in a statement.

According to OSHA, a “willful” violation exists when an employer either intentionally disregards safety requirements or shows an indifference to employee health and safety. The regulator said U.S. Steel did not provide energy control procedure. Additionally, the company was cited for a “lack of fall protection, inadequate lockout/tagout to prevent the inadvertent release of energy, a deficient process safety management program, and failure to implement an emergency response plan, evaluate respiratory hazards, use flame retardant gloves and use approved electrical equipment.”

Power Piping’s violations included “inadequate energy control procedures, a lack of flame retardant hand protection” and “failure to evaluate the respiratory hazards posed by coke oven gas.”

Power Piping declined to comment.

The companies have 15 days to comply with the citations or request a review.

U.S. Steel is scheduled to report its fourth quarter financial results Jan. 25. In the third quarter, the company narrowed its losses.

Read more: U.S. Steel, Power Piping fined by OSHA | Pittsburgh Business Times

OSHA impersonator suspect arrested again

By MATT ELOFSON

A Rehobeth man out of jail on bond for allegedly passing himself off as a federal health inspectornow faces a new felony charge.

According to a Dothan police statement, officers arrested Michael Sean Allmon on Tuesday and charged him with felony unlawful breaking and entering of a motor vehicle.

Court records indicated police charged Allmon with breaking into a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado earlier this month. According to a police statement, police said the charge stemmed from a man watching someone break into his vehicle in the 3100 block of Ross Clark Circle and steal his shotgun.

Dothan police charged Allmon late last year with multiple felony theft charges.

Police said one of the earlier thefts included a charge of taking cash from the Golden Corral restaurant on Oct. 23 after he’d passed himself off as an inspector with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA). Court records indicate police charged Allmon with stealing $2,360 in cash from the restaurant.

Police also charged Allmon with stealing jewelry from two homes by passing himself off as a potential homebuyer.

After his most recent arrest Allmon, 41, of West Cook Road, Rehobeth, is being held without bond, which was set by Circuit Court Judge Brad Mendheim.

OSHA investigating Leetsdale Copper Plant explosion

It is reported that OSHA officials are investigating an explosion that injured three people at a copper plant in Leetsdale early recently.

As per report, the explosion happened at Hussey Copper along Washington Street at about 9:30 AM. Investigators described the explosion as minor and said it happened when water spilled beneath ingots during the copper-making process.

Mr James Santucci Leetsdale Police Chief said "We had two other victims who were down in the hole. Once the minor explosion occurred they were burned about twenty percent of their body."

All three victims are being treated in the burn unit at UPMC Mercy Hospital. None of the victims’ names or conditions have been released. The plant was not evacuated and continued to operate normally Tuesday.

Target 11 discovered that OSHA has fined Hussey Copper nearly USD 60,000 during the past decade. Some of those fines were from an explosion in 2000 that injured five workers.

That blast was triggered when a broken water line leaked into the copper casting process. The company was also fined USD 5,000 for lack of personal protective equipment. There is no word on whether Hussey will be fined in conjunction with the incident Tuesday.

OSHA Cites El Paso Plastering Company

By Bob Grotenhuis - Producer

EL PASO - Federal safety experts have issued five repeat citations to Best Plastering Contractors in El Paso for exposing workers to fall hazards.

Proposed penalties total $99,000.

“Falls are one of the most common and well-known hazards at a construction site. This is not the first time this company has jeopardized the safety of its workers,” said Jack Rector, OSHA’s area director in El Paso. “Falls can injure or kill a worker within seconds. It is fortunate in this case that there were no injuries or fatalities.”

OSHA’s El Paso Area Office initiated this inspection on Oct. 19, 2010, when employees were observed working on a scaffold without the use of fall protection equipment at a worksite on Carole Jeschke Court in El Paso.

Best Plastering employs about 18 workers at its El Paso facility and eight of them were at this worksite.

In 2009, the company was fined more than $106,000 and cited with four willful and three serious violations for exposing employees to the same safety hazards.

The company has three weeks to contest the citations and penalties.

OSHA fines Georgia Gulf $55,000

BATON ROUGE, LA. (Updated Jan. 13, 10:40 a.m. ET) -- PVC maker Georgia Gulf Corp. has been fined $55,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for alleged safety and health violations at its plant in Plaquemine, La.

OSHA cited the Plaquemine site for 14 serious violations for exposing workers to multiple safety and health hazards.

“An employer’s greatest resource is its workers, and exposing them to preventable injuries and illnesses will not be tolerated,” OSHA’s Dorinda Folse said in a Jan. 12 news release. Folse is director of OSHA’s office in Baton Rouge, La.

Violations listed by OSHA include failure to illuminate exit routes and failure to train workers performing preventive maintenance on safety critical instruments.

A spokesman with Atlanta-based Georgia Gulf said that his firm had seen the citation and will review it before deciding to take action.

“If after reviewing it, we decide that we want to contest it, we will,” he added. “We take everything OSHA says very seriously. We’re proud of our safety record and of the work environment we have for our employees.”

The Plaqumeine site employs about 600 and produces PVC and related products including chlorine, caustic soda and vinyl chloride monomer.

2 Missouri Employers Jailed for Noncompliance With OSHA Citations

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Pasadena Refining Services Inc. with 21 serious violations for exposing workers to multiple safety and health hazards at the company's facility in Pasadena, Texas Proposed penalties total $115,650.

OSHA's Houston South Area Office in Texas began its investigation on June 30 at the company's facility on Red Bluff Road as part of the agency's national emphasis program on process safety management of refineries.

The serious violations include failing to provide properly constructed scaffolds, provide supports to hold piping, provide controls to prevent valves from closing, conduct annual confined space audits, ensure guard rails are adequate, and ensure that operating procedures are up-to-date and accurate.

Pasadena Refining Services is an independent refinery which employs about 363 employees in Pasadena. The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's Houston South Area Office or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Source: OSHA