Calif. deaths ´a wake-up call´ for composters

By Shawn Wright | WRN reporter

April 9 -- A California agency handed down stiff penalties six months after two men lost their lives at a composting operation.

The California-Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) recently issued 16 citations totaling $166,890 to Community Recycling & Resource Recovery Inc.´s facility in Lamont, Calif.

"This case should be a wake-up call for all kinds of facilities like this," Cal-OSHA Chief Ellen Widess said, "and things that really have to be taken into account before workers are put at risk. It is, of course, possible to do that."

The agency said Community Recycling neglected to set up safety procedures that could have saved 16-year-old Armando Ramirez and his 22-year-old brother Eladio Ramirez, after the two were overcome on Oct. 12 by lethal gases including hydrogen sulfide inside a drainage pipe on the company´s property.

"The Oct. 12 incident which resulted in the deaths of two workers was truly tragic," Community Recycling said in a statement. "The deaths of Armando and Eladio Ramirez were the first-ever in the facility´s 17 years of operation."

At the scene, emergency response teams did a direct reading of the drainage pipe´s shaft. The instruments used to measure hydrogen sulfide topped out at 200 parts per million (ppm) of the lethal gas, according to documents released by Cal-OSHA. An acceptable ceiling limit for hydrogen sulfide in the workplace is 20 ppm, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"The numbers were off the chart for exposures," Widess said. "They exceeded the monitoring capability. We were able to confirm that right away."

Hydrogen sulfide is a common byproduct of the composting process, Cal-OSHA said, and the company should have initiated preventative measures for dealing with the gas. Widess said the deaths were completely preventable.

"[Community Recycling] should have marked each one of these confined-space situations, these storm drain shafts," Widess said. "They should have had training of supervisors and definitely the two workers on how to work near and in confined-space situations. There should have been testing of the atmosphere that they were exposed to. That would´ve detected the very, very high levels, over the permissible levels, of hydrogen sulfide."

This is just the civil portion of Cal-OSHA´s investigation, the agency said. The criminal investigation is still ongoing. Cal-OSHA plans to turn over evidence against Community Recycling to the county district attorney´s office for possible charges.

Four of the citations involve general workplace safety violations. The rest were for serious violations, five of them relating specifically to the incident. The maximum penalty for a serious violation is $25,000 per violation, while general safety violations can be up to $7,000.

Bakersfield, Calif.-based A&B Harvesting Inc., which employed Eladio Ramirez, also was cited for failing to train employees in confined-space hazards.

"These are significant citations; it´s important to note," said Cal-OSHA spokeswoman Erika Monterroza. "It was almost to the maximum."

Cal-OSHA said it expects Community Recycling to appeal the citations.

Mark Smith, attorney for the company, wrote in an email that Community Recycling has received the citations and is reviewing them. Smith said he anticipates issuing further comment in the coming weeks.

"Since the incident, Community Recycling has aggressively investigated the circumstances and reviewed its entire safety and training program to assure that this type of event will not occur again," the company said in a statement.

Community Recycling said it continues to investigate the incident, and it will evaluate the citations and findings made by Cal-OSHA.

Safety precautions may have been overlooked at Community Recycling, according to first responders and others. For instance, before their deaths, the Ramirez brothers reportedly complained to family members about strong odors at the facility and that they had been given only painters´ masks to protect them from fumes.

"There should´ve been protective equipment," Widess said. "Not a paper mask and rubber boots for anybody in such a situation."

In February, Kern County Superior Court Judge J. Eric Bradshaw ruled that Community Recycling can remain open until a full trial occurs; that´s expected to be held later this spring.

The hearing was the second court date after the company and its landlord and fellow plaintiff, the Lamont Public Utility District (LPUD), filed a lawsuit late last year against the county´s Board of Supervisors. On Nov. 15, the board decided to revoke Community Recycling´s operating permit and fine it $2.3 million for land use violations.

"I think this case really reinforced concerns that have been longstanding by all of the land-use environmental agencies of Kern County," Widess said. "They have had problems with Community Recycling for over 15 years à factors that led the Kern County Board of Supervisors to actually order the facility shut down. I think these deaths triggered and really kind of converged a lot of concerns different agencies had about this company´s recklessness."

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Shawn Wright at swright@crain.com or 313-446-0346.

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