Federal regulators proposed fines totaling $123,000 against International Paper's Augusta mill Monday and issued 37 proposed citations relating to safety inspections performed after a February accident in which an employee was killed by a timber-loading crane.
According to Mike Wald, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Atlanta, the company is being cited with one serious violation for running the crane with an inoperable warning device such as a horn or whistle.
The company is also charged with a serious violation for allowing employees to work near machinery that lacked guards or barriers.
OSHA issues a "serious" citation when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
On Feb. 2, Bill Drake, 66, was struck by the metal cage of the timber-loading crane as he tried to clear wood debris along train tracks.
A comprehensive inspection by OSHA staff revealed 26 additional serious safety violations, including fall hazards, lack of machine guards, a missing safety latch, missing emergency lighting, poor and missing emergency signage and electrical hazards.
Six serious health violations were identified: dust accumulation, lack of safety information for hazardous chemicals and equipment, missing emergency eyewash stations, failure to perform annual respirator fit tests, and failure to use safer medical devices.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
The plant is also being given three citations with no monetary penalties for not evaluating powered industrial truck operators, not securely mounting electrical equipment and not including a change schedule for cartridges used to protect workers from multiple gases.
"The large number of serious violations found at this single facility signals management's failure to take seriously their responsibility for the safety and health of their work force," Gei-Thae Breezley, the director of OSHA's Atlanta-East Area Office, said in a news release Monday.
Company officials are reviewing OSHA's findings, spokeswoman Kimberly Gill said Monday. She said a meeting will be scheduled with OSHA.
Ms. Gill said the company cooperated fully with OSHA throughout the inquiry and has addressed most of the findings.
"The additional knowledge and insight provided by OSHA will be helpful to us as we continue our ongoing commitment to ensuring our mill is a safe place to work," she said.
According to a searchable online OSHA database, the plant on Mike Padgett Highway has a good safety record with no reported serious accidents during the past five years.
Since 2004, the plant was inspected twice in response to complaints, the records show. One inspection in 2005 yielded fines totaling $4,250 -- including a $500 fine for a minor violation and a $5,000 fine for a "serious" violation involving "guarding floor and wall openings" that was later settled for $3,750.
A 2008 inspection yielded no fines or violations.
Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
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Until a couple of years ago IP employed three professionals in their 'learning center" to keep up with employee training. They were paid--salary and benefits-- about $75k a year. That's $225K a year. IP decided that they didn't need them any more. Even with the fine from OSHA the company is $100K ahead this year and laughing all the way to the bank.
I seriously doubt that IP is laughing all the way to the bank on this. Cutting the positions in the learning center wouldn't have prevented the fines that were issued. It's the lack of maintenance personnel to handle all the jobs at such a large facility. It's also a lack of leadership in the area of safety that has resulted in some major things going lacking.